Director, Public Programs

The Museum of the City of New York fosters understanding of the distinctive nature of urban life in the world’s most influential metropolis.

The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) engages visitors by celebrating, documenting, and interpreting the city’s past, present, and future. Founded in 1923, the Museum is the country’s first and largest city museum, showcasing the city’s unique stories and cultural treasures. MCNY presents immersive exhibitions and programs at the intersection of history, popular culture, and art to 200,000 people annually, including 30,000 students and educators, fostering shared identity, civic pride and engagement, and social cohesion for New Yorkers.

• Develop and steward a multiyear public programs vision aligned with MCNY's curatorial priorities and institutional mission.
• Position MCNY as both a leading civic forum for substantive conversation about New York City and a destination for ambitious public experiences that draw New Yorkers and visitors at scale.
• Identify and cultivate relationships with thought leaders, scholars, artists, activists, community figures, and public intellectuals whose work intersects with the Museum's programs.

• Collaborate with curatorial staff to develop programming connected to exhibitions, collections, and research initiatives.
• Evaluate program performance and audience engagement; use data to refine programming strategy.
• Lead the planning and execution of MCNY's public festivals and signature events, including multi‑day and multi‑partner productions, with the explicit ambition to grow attendance and broaden the Museum's public audience.
• Oversee logistics, vendor relationships, permitting, and production timelines in coordination with the Associate Director and Coordinator.
• Develop and manage event budgets, ensuring responsible stewardship of resources.
• Identify opportunities for civic and community partnerships that expand the Museum's reach and deepen audience relationships.
• Supervise, mentor, and develop the Associate Director of Public Programs and Program Coordinator.
• Represent the public programs perspective in institutional planning conversations with the Chief Curator.
• Contribute to grant proposals, funder reports, and donor cultivation efforts in partnership with the Chief Curator and Development team.
• Represent MCNY externally at professional conferences, civic forums, and partner convenings.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

• 7+ years of experience as a cultural programmer who has shaped the identity and direction of a public‑facing program, series, or institution; comfortable curating substantive conversations and producing large‑scale public experiences.
• A body of work that reflects sustained engagement with ideas: a coherent programmatic vision, a record of curating conversations that matter, or a track record of bringing substantive cultural or civic content to broad public audiences.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex event production, including festivals, large public convenings, and multi‑partner programming.
• Track record of building and maintaining operational systems including, but not limited to budgets, timelines, vendor management, staff logistics, in a cultural or civic setting.
• Experience managing staff and leading cross‑departmental collaborations.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; comfort presenting publicly and representing an institution externally.
• Familiarity with New York City history, culture, and civic life, or a clear and demonstrable commitment to developing that fluency.
• Experience developing original public programming with a distinct intellectual or curatorial point of view.
• Demonstrated success growing attendance for festivals, signature events, or other large‑scale public programming.
• Established network within New York City's cultural, academic, and civic communities.
• Experience working with development and fundraising teams to support grant writing and donor engagement.
• Fluency in Spanish is valued, but not required.
• A commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and a passion for advancing equity…