Senior Curator

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Home | Senior Curator – University of California, Berkeley

Senior Curator (0421U), Centers and Museums – 81098

At the University of California, Berkeley, we are dedicated to fostering a community where everyone feels welcome and can thrive. Our culture of openness, freedom and belonging makes it a special place for students, faculty and staff.

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At UC Berkeley, we believe that learning is a fundamental part of working, and provide space for staff organizations. Our goal is for everyone on the Berkeley campus to feel supported and equipped to realize their full potential. We actively support this by providing all of our full-time staff employees with at least 80 hours (10 days) of paid time per year to engage in professional development activities.

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The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life (the Magnes) is a rare jewel. As a museum and research center at UC Berkeley, the Magnes generates new knowledge and understanding of Jewish cultures through its permanent collection—one of the largest and internationally most important collections of Jewish art and artifacts—for its academic and public communities. The Magnes envisions a society that seeks common ground while honoring cultural differences and embraces the diversity of Jewish life around the world.

Founded in 1962 by Seymour and Rebecca Camhi Fromer and integrated into UC Berkeley in 2010, the Magnes has continued to expand, receiving two of the four largest gifts of art in UC Berkeley history: the Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection in 2017 and the Roman Vishniac Archive in 2018. The museum’s holdings include representational and abstract works of art, as well as thousands of objects representing personal and family rituals, synagogue and communal life, and social interactions among Jewish and host communities in the global Jewish Diaspora throughout history.

Archival and library collections focus on activities of individuals, families, and organizations in Europe and the United States, including the American West. The Magnes is a hub for research, teaching and learning, creative expression, and personal enjoyment for a vibrant community of scholars, students, and patrons. It supports teaching and learning on campus and engages students in its curatorial work and other operations, providing academic and professional training in the study of material culture, Jewish studies, museum studies, and more.

It creates dynamic programming in collaboration with other university departments, especially the Berkeley Center for Jewish Studies and Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, as well as with local and regional community partners. The Magnes is a part of the Division of Arts and Humanities in the College of Letters and Science and is one of four public-serving museums at UC Berkeley.

The Magnes seeks a creative curator to work in partnership with the Executive Director to implement the museum’s mission and vision. The position of Senior Curator requires a strong curatorial vision rooted in collaboration and audience engagement, leadership skills, and expertise in Jewish studies, including Jewish material culture, to develop, manage, and interpret the Magnes’s collections with and for the museum’s public and academic communities.

The First Review Date for this job is: 09/25/2025.

• Curatorial:
  Lead collections-based activities, including collections development and care, research, access, exhibition program, and strategy and policy development with a people-centered and highly collaborative approach that includes both museum staff and external constituencies.
• Plan and project manage multifaceted exhibitions and installations on topics of relevance and importance to Magnes audiences and based on original research,…