Director [Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University]

Marquette University seeks an experienced museum administrator with a solid curatorial background to direct the Haggerty Museum of Art, the hub of the visual arts at Marquette.  This is an opportunity to direct an innovative, interdisciplinary university art museum located downtown in a major city.  Marquette has 8,400 undergraduates, plus graduate and professional schools.  Milwaukee is located on scenic Lake Michigan 90 miles north of Chicago and is known for its “hip” art scene and lively artists’ community.  Known as a livable, friendly city, Milwaukee is the 31^st largest city in the US and features renowned museums and performing arts organizations as well as professional sports teams.

The Museum Director will set the artistic vision and oversee operations for continued success at this unique academic museum.  The Haggerty is embedded in a university with no art-history or art-studio department and has, consequently, become a model among university art museums for cross-disciplinary faculty/student engagement.  The position reports to the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Programs and Teaching, Dr. Gary Meyer; his enthusiastic support has permitted museum staff freedom to fulfill the mission imaginatively across disciplines.  Staff reaches out to and collaborates with, for example, professors of engineering, English and Spanish, theology, health sciences, and history, turning the museum into a classroom and fostering experiential and interdisciplinary learning.  Students from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (UWM) and the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD) also regularly utilize the Haggerty.

Responsibilities include:

• Oversight of collections, exhibitions, and programs.  Creation of interdisciplinary exhibitions in a Director/Curator role.
• Financial and personnel management
• Maintaining a close working relationship with the university administration and faculty, and with the museum’s Friends group, donors, collectors, and alumni
• Fundraising and community relations with both university and public constituencies

Summary of Required Qualifications

• Minimum of 5 years’ prior management experience (8-10 years preferred) at art museum(s), along with curatorial experience
• Master’s degree (doctorate preferred) in an appropriate discipline, or equivalent combination of education and experience
• Passion for and broad knowledge of art, and the ability to advocate for and elucidate art
• Track record of imaginative, cross-disciplinary exhibitions and programs
• Experience with fundraising and collection-development
• Experience at an academic museum is preferred

Further required job skills include:

• Imagination to develop new ways to integrate the arts into the Core Curriculum and into undergraduate and graduate learning in many fields, using both the permanent collection and special exhibitions.
• Track record of curating, planning, and executing a range of intellectually rigorous, imaginative, interdisciplinary shows from avant-garde, thought-provoking contemporary themes to Renaissance masters or American and European modernists.
• Ability to collaborate with faculty, who use the Haggerty as a classroom and who selectively play the role of exhibition curator; and to work with university staff in other departments, such as Advancement or Public Safety.
• Administrative skills to autonomously oversee a staff of eight; manage the budget; and plan strategies and initiatives to fulfill the mission and ensure financial stability and growth.
• Broad knowledge of art in area(s) of the collection’s strengths, for example, in Renaissance painting, contemporary art, works on paper, or photography.
• Experience making collection acquisitions through both gifts and purchases.
• Demonstrated success in fundraising and readiness to help with fundraising and grants.
• Eagerness to engage with the Friends group and with donors and collectors.  Can build relationships with individuals within the University and externally in greater Milwaukee and nationally.
• An effective spokesperson and ambassador for the museum and university.
• Knowledge of how a large, complex organization works and the ability to navigate successfully within one.

For complete Job Responsibilities & Qualifications, visit: http://museum-search.com/open-searches/

Nominations welcome. 

Inquiries and nominations are welcome at SearchandRef@museum-search.com.

HOW TO APPLY

Apply in confidence: Email cover letter, résumé or CV (Word document preferred), salary requirement, and names of 3 references with contact information by February 16, 2015 to retained search firm: Marilyn Hoffman, Museum Search & Reference,SearchandRef@museum-search.com.  Screening of applications will continue until the completion of the search process; position open until filled.  Employment to begin on or about July 1, 2015.

About the Haggerty Museum of Art

In 2014-15, the Haggerty Museum is celebrating its 30^th anniversary with a $2.5-million capital campaign for enhancements to its 20,000 square-foot Modernist building.  The Museum is healthy with potential to grow programmatically in many directions.  The operating budget of over $1M (plus significant in-kind support from the University) is regularly balanced, with about half contributed by the University and the other half coming from gifts, endowments, and revenues.  Visit: http://www.marquette.edu/haggerty/about.shtml

The permanent collection ranges from Renaissance painting to international modern and contemporary art, with particularly outstanding collections of works-on-paper and contemporary photographs.  Well-known collection works include Salvador Dali’s 1949 painting, The Madonna of Port Ligat, and the over-100-foot-long mural painted in 1982-83 by Keith Haring for the museum’s construction fence.  For more artists and images, visit: http://www.marquette.edu/haggerty/permanent_collection.shtml .

About Marquette University

Opened in 1881, Marquette University is a Jesuit university with 12 colleges and schools and 11,700 students, 70% from out of state.  It has 110,000 alumni.  Its 100-acre, 71-building campus is situated downtown, about a mile west of Lake Michigan.  Marquette is ranked #76 among “national colleges and universities” in the 2015 US News & World Report, and it is known nationally for its Golden Eagles men’s basketball team.  Visit www.marquette.edu/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquette_University

Marquette is a Catholic, Jesuit university and, to fit well, the Museum Director should be comfortable with the University’s mission of service and should have respect for Jesuit education and traditions.  Marquette’s credo is “excellence, faith, leadership and service,” and its spirit of service to humanity creates a sense of community that is a positive factor in retention of talent.  Marquette’s vision statement says that it “aspires to be, and to be recognized, among the most innovative and accomplished Catholic and Jesuit universities in the world.”  For details, visit: http://www.marquette.edu/leadership/values.php.

In hiring, Marquette encourages diversity and does not discriminate on any basis, including religion.  The museum directorship is a secular position with complete academic freedom.

About Milwaukee and Wisconsin

Milwaukee (population 500K) is the 31st largest city in the US; and its Metropolitan Area (population 2M) ranks 29^th.  Milwaukee is a friendly city, known for its ethnic neighborhoods and foods, its diverse population, its affordable cost of living, and walkability.  Famous for its brewery traditions, today the city features broad cultural and recreational amenities, including the architecturally uniqueMilwaukee Art Museum and museums ranging from history and science to Harley Davidson motorcycles.  A great sports town — with the Brewers and Bucks; and the Green Bay Packers 2 hours away – the city is also known for festivals, particularly the “world’s largest music festival,” Summerfest.  Recreation opportunities include Lake Michigan beaches, parks and bike trails, boating and fishing, and winter sports.  Milwaukee has 8 other colleges and universities, including UWM, and the suburbs offer exceptional school systems.  Chicago is 90 miles away and Madison, 98 miles.  Wisconsin offers many scenic vacation spots, resorts, and camps; and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin.  For more about Milwaukee, visit http://www.visitmilwaukee.org/ or http://city.milwaukee.gov/home