Creative Director

Overview

The Whitney Museum of American Art seeks a Creative Director to serve as the museum's senior creative leader, with final creative authority over the institution's brand and visual expression. Reporting to the Chief Communications & Content Officer, the Creative Director sets and stewards a unified creative vision across brand identity, graphic design, video, photography, and exhibition design, and is responsible for the visual coherence of the Whitney across every public‑facing surface.

• Own and evolve the Whitney's brand and creative direction across graphic design, video, photography, and exhibition design, in alignment with institutional priorities and long‑term brand architecture.
• Translate strategic initiatives, including exhibitions, the Biennial, free admission, and civic and cultural moments, into compelling creative expressions and identity systems that feel distinctively Whitney.
• Oversee exhibition identity systems and interpretive design, including title walls, wall labels, way finding, and exhibition‑specific visual identities, ensuring coherence across print, environmental, and digital formats.
• Collaborate directly with artists, curators, and estates on commissioned creative and interpretive materials.
• Act as a steward of taste, quality, and coherence across all owned channels and major public‑facing moments.
• Lead, mentor and manage the Creative team across graphic design, video, and photography, setting clear roles, expectations, and development pathways.
• Build a healthy, high‑performing creative culture that balances ambition with sustainability.
• Oversee freelance creatives, agencies, and production partners, ensuring consistency and accountability.
• Steward the creative budget, including production spend, vendor relationships, and resource allocation.
• Partner with the CCCO and leadership across Communications, Digital Content, and Marketing to align creative output with narrative strategy and audience goals.
• Develop creative frameworks and toolkits that enable teams to adapt complex ideas across formats while sustaining high standards.
• Ensure the Whitney's on‑site experience and digital expression read as one coherent brand across physical, environmental, and digital surfaces.
• Set creative direction for video and photography across platforms, including longform, shortform, social, on‑site, editorial, campaign, and experiential.
• Oversee commissioned and editorial photography, in partnership with Digital Content, Press, Curatorial, and Rights Management.
• Apply audience and performance insight to sharpen creative decisions, while protecting room for experimentation and creative risk.
• Serve as creative partner to Marketing, Curatorial, Education, and Advancement, supporting revenue‑adjacent initiatives across membership, ticketing, retail, and partnerships.
• Provide creative oversight on co‑branded activations and licensing collaborations, ensuring partner integrations protect and extend the Whitney's brand.
• Represent Creative in cross‑functional planning and executive‑level discussions, navigating complex stakeholder environments with confidence and diplomacy.

• 10+ years experience in creative leadership roles within cultural institutions, media organizations, creative agencies, or adjacent fields, with demonstrated fluency in contemporary art, artists, and the cultural landscape.
• Deep expertise in graphic design across digital, print, environmental, and motion contexts.
• Strong command of typography, identity systems, and design systems thinking.
• Portfolio must demonstrate sustained mastery of design craft, not solely creative direction.
• Demonstrated experience leading multidisciplinary creative teams across design, video, and photography.
• Proven ability to translate strategy into creative systems and identity frameworks.
• Experience leading or contributing to brand evolution at an institutional scale.
• Experience working in complex, matrixed organizations with multiple stakeholders.

• Creative direction
• Brand identity
• Graphic design
• Exhibition design
• Typography
• Design systems thinking
• Team leadership
• Strategic planning
• Video production
• Photography direction
• St…