Assistant /Associate Curator – Photographs [Metropolitan Museum of Art]

ASSISTANT/ASSOCIATE CURATOR

Photographs

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the world’s finest museums, seeks an Assistant/Associate Curator who will be a full-time member of the curatorial team of the Department of Photographs, whose principal focus will be nineteenth-century French and English photography and the active building of the department’s Joyce F. Menschel Photography Library.  He/she will be responsible for performing all curatorial duties, including: researching, studying, and publishing works in the collection under his/her curatorial responsibility; recommending acquisitions to complement the existing collection and the department’s library; proposing future exhibitions, installations, and publications; and maintaining positive and fruitful relations with colleagues in the museum and academic worlds, with Museum trustees and other supporters, and with dealers, booksellers, and auctioneers.  The ideal candidate will be a well-published scholar familiar with the entire literature of photography, passionately interested in connoisseurship and in improving the collection through gift and purchase, and deeply committed to the Museum’s mission and public outreach.  To perform these duties the Assistant/Associate Curator brings to bear his/her working knowledge while striving to develop increasingly comprehensive understanding of the objects in the collection and in its library.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES and DUTIES:

• Assist with the cataloging, care, and interpretation of the Museum’s permanent collection of photographs.
• Plan and oversee regular rotations of the permanent collection in the Museum’s Johnson Gallery, Gilman Gallery, Menschel Hall for Modern Photographs, and in the Breuer Building, including the selection of art works and the writing of labels and text panels.
• Propose and organize special exhibitions and accompanying scholarly publications in collaboration with curatorial colleagues.
• Collaborate with and direct members of the Museum’s Watson Library on the acquisition of rare and important books and incunabula for the department’s Joyce F. Menschel Photography Library.
• Consult with and assist the Department’s conservators on the care of the collection.
• Recommend important acquisitions.
• Foster and maintain good working relationships with donors, trustees, and colleagues from other institutions in the U.S. and abroad, with the scholarly community, dealers, collectors, and other individuals involved with the interests of the Museum.
• Actively cultivate potential sponsors, including departmental support groups.
• Plan and execute programs for the department’s friends group (the Alfred Stieglitz Society), and for the Visiting Committee.
• Collaborate with colleagues throughout the Museum.
• Respond to correspondence related to the collection and assist the public and visiting scholars.
• Contribute to the teaching mission of the Museum through public lectures, docent training, and mentorship of interns and fellows.
• Other related duties as assigned.

Application Deadline: February 13, 2015, 6:00pm

The Assistant/Associate Curator Photographs is a full-time position and includes full benefits. Salary will be commensurate with experience.

Please send cover letter, resume and salary history to:

Careers@MetMuseum.org

with “Asst/Assoc Curator Photographs” in the subject line.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art provides equal opportunity to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age, mental or physical disability, pregnancy, alienage or citizenship status, marital status or domestic partner status, genetic information, genetic predisposition or carrier status, gender identity, HIV status, military status and any other category protected by law in all employment decisions, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, compensation, training and apprenticeship, promotion, upgrading, demotion, downgrading, transfer, lay-off and termination, and all other terms and conditions of employment.

REQUIREMENTS and QUALIFICATIONS

Experience and Skills:

• Thorough knowledge of the history of photography.
• Minimum of three to seven years curatorial experience required.
• Demonstrated scholarly achievement and experience in accomplishing original research on nineteenth-century photography.
• Foster and maintain good working relationships with donors, trustees, and colleagues from other institutions in the U.S. and abroad, with the scholarly community, and other individuals involved with the interests of the Museum.
• Ability to maintain precise and careful records.
• Commitment to scholarship of the highest order.
• Ability to work closely with all staff within the Department and with colleagues throughout the Museum.

Knowledge and Education:

• Ph.D. in the History of Art with a specialization in Photography preferred.
• Fluency in a second language.