Curator of Art

POSITION OVERVIEW:

CURATOR OF ART

Maryhill Museum of Art seeks a Curator of Art to shape the vision of the collection, create compelling annual exhibitions, and oversee the care of the collection in alignment with the museum’s priorities, vision, and values.

A successful candidate has experience working within a small team to foster trust, promote respect, and facilitate productive communication. Reporting to the Executive Director, the Curator of Art works with them closely to implement the museum’s mission and strategic goals. The Curator of Art supervises the Collections Manager, and they work together to realize successful exhibitions, research acquisitions and deaccession candidates, and facilitate collections use.

The Curator of Art works collaboratively with the Curator of Education on educational and public programing pertaining to exhibitions and provides guidance to other staff relating to public spaces and visitor experience. They engage with peers across institutions, donors, lenders, gallerists, artists, scholars, museum trustees, and the public.

Key competencies include expertise pertaining to one or more areas of the collection, administrative and managerial leadership with mentorship aptitude, the ability to research and synthesize information, clear written and verbal communication, and experience with interdepartmental collaboration, guest/advisory curators, and donor relationship development.

Other desired competencies include executive leadership succession potential, experience with grant writing for exhibitions, existing collector or donor relationships the candidate can bring to the museum, and skills in art handling, art transportation, and exhibition installation.

COMPENSATION: $70, annually (depending on experience and qualifications) with benefits package including employer-subsidized medical insurance plan and 403(b) retirement plan.

HOURS &

LOCATION:

This full-time (40 hours/week) role is on-site in Goldendale, WA and will require travel, evening, and weekend work.

Maryhill Museum of Art’s mission is to ignite a journey of educational enrichment in the Columbia River Gorge by preserving and interpreting art and historic collections. We achieve this by producing high-quality exhibitions and educational programs, sharing our collections with the public, maintaining an engaged member and donor support constituency, and operating our museum in accordance with the standards of the American Alliance of Museums (AAM).

The collection at Maryhill Museum of Art includes a broad range of materials that include paintings, prints, sculpture, Indigenous artwork, fashion, textiles, ecclesiastical art, and chess sets. The collection is comprised of approximately 10,000 objects, including 4,000 Indigenous artworks, 90~ works by Auguste Rodin, and Théâtre de la Mode (1946). Most of the collection dates to the late nineteenth into the mid-twentieth century.

In addition, Maryhill Museum of Art houses 5,500+ historical images and an archive related to the museum’s institutional history and founders:
Sam Hill, Loïe Fuller, Queen Marie of Romania, and Alma de Bretteville Spreckels.

Maryhill Museum of Art occupies a historic Beaux-Arts mansion that is situated on 5,300 acres with panoramic views of the Columbia River. Within the historic building and 2012 addition, the museum has 35,000 square feet of space with galleries on all four floors. The museum was chartered in 1923, dedicated by Queen Marie of Romania in 1926, and opened to the public in 1940.

• Develop and implement temporary and permanent exhibitions that support the museum’s mission and values.
• Oversee short and long-term strategy for the museum’s exhibition program and collections.
• Write and prepare exhibition labels and didactic panels.
• Work with the Curator of Education to develop programming around exhibitions and collections.
• Serve as institutional curator for exhibitions organized by/with external sources, administering all aspects of exhibition oversight to ensure alignment with the museum’s collections and values.
• Develop and manage the curatorial department’s annual budget.
• Serve as a…