Director, Art Museum

Title: Director, Radford University Art Museum

Application Review Date:11/2/2026

Campus

Location:

Radford City - Main Campus

Radford University seeks a visionary, collaborative, and experienced museum professional to serve as Director of the Radford University Museum of Art. The Director will provide strategic leadership for the museum’s development, operations, collections, exhibitions, educational outreach, and campus and community engagement. This position will play a central role in shaping the museum’s identity and future, including the development of a formal mission statement, collections plan, exhibition strategy, educational programming, and partnerships with other arts organizations that support the university’s academic mission.

The Director will also contribute to the growth and development of Radford University’s Museum Studies program by supporting curriculum connections, student learning opportunities, internships, research projects, exhibitions, and professional preparation for students interested in museum, gallery, curatorial, arts administration, and cultural heritage careers.

Collaborate with staff, students, faculty and academic leadership to support and strengthen Radford University’s Museum Studies program. Currently, Radford has a major in Art History and Museum Studies (AHMS) as well as a minor in art history and a minor in museum studies. Students in the museum studies minor represent a variety of majors (history, anthropology, English, etc.) and take two core classes as well as an internship.

Over the span of these two core classes, provide students with hands‑on learning experiences in curatorial practice, collections management, exhibition design, museum education, arts administration, public programming, and visitor engagement.

Coordinate student internships, practicums, research projects, and museum-based experiential learning for AHMS majors and museum studies minors.
* Advise students on course planning and goal setting. In addition, help prepare students for graduate study, professional museum work, gallery careers, nonprofit arts administration, and related fields.

Contribute to curriculum development, guest lectures, workshops, or courses as appropriate.

• Museum Leadership and Strategic Planning
• Provide overall leadership, vision, and administrative direction for the Radford University Museum of Art.
• Lead the development and implementation of the museum’s mission, goals, strategic plan, policies, and procedures.
• Establish priorities for exhibitions, collections, educational programming, outreach, donor and public engagement.
• Work collaboratively with university leadership, faculty, staff, students, alumni, donors, and community partners to advance the museum’s role within the university and region.
• Ensure that museum activities align with best practices in the museum field and support the educational mission of Radford University.

• Develop and implement a collections management plan, including policies for acquisition, deaccessioning, documentation, preservation, access, and ethical stewardship.
• Assess and strengthen the museum’s existing or emerging collection in alignment with the museum’s mission and academic priorities.
• Oversee staff and students and ensure responsible cataloging, care, storage, research, exhibition, and interpretation of the collection.
• Ensure compliance with professional museum standards, legal requirements, donor agreements, and university policies with the Contracts and Procurement Office, the Office of Advancement, the RU Foundation, and the general counsel.
• Identify opportunities to build and focus the collection through gifts, acquisitions,…