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Author: Kelsey L. Petersen (Page 3 of 9)

Job Post- Deadline Extended for Curatorial Fellowship at the Baltimore Museum of Art

Deadline Extended to Friday, February 15th, 2019

The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) announces the inaugural cycle of the Meyerhoff-Becker Curatorial Fellowship, a year-long residency program, based in Baltimore, Maryland. The selected fellow will receive a full-time residency, round-trip travel expenses, and a $40,000 USD salary with benefits. Applicants who come from groups historically underrepresented in the museum field are strongly encouraged to apply.

The Fellowship will act as a career catalyst, providing a singular experience in exhibition making for emerging professionals. The Fellow will work closely with Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director Christopher Bedford to realize the inaugural Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker Biennial Commission, which invites internationally-renowned contemporary artists to make transformative works of art for the BMA’s most accessible public spaces.

The Meyerhoff-Becker Biennial Commission presents major works by internationally established artists in the BMA’s most public and welcoming space. It seeks to make the leading edge of contemporary art accessible and engaging to diverse audiences, providing an entry way to art for all.

Mickalene Thomas will be the inaugural artist for the Meyerhoff-Becker Biennial Commission. The internationally recognized, Brooklyn-based artist makes paintings, collages, photography, video, and installations that draw on art history and popular culture to create a contemporary vision of female sexuality, beauty, and power. Blurring the distinction between object and subject, concrete and abstract, real and imaginary, Thomas constructs complex portraits, landscapes, and interiors in order to examine how identity, gender, and sense-of-self are informed by the ways women (and “feminine” spaces) are represented in art and popular culture.

Established in concert with and in complement to the Biennial Commission, the Fellowship is intended to act as a pipeline for talented post-graduate professionals, with three to five years of museum experience. The Fellow will be involved with all aspects of exhibition realization and programming. The Fellow will have the opportunity to receive direct mentorship from senior Museum staff, create modest exhibition proposals, and engage with Baltimore’s vibrant arts community, while working to interpret newly commissioned work by prominent contemporary artists in the BMA’s public spaces.

The Baltimore Museum of Art connects art to Baltimore and Baltimore to the world, embodying a commitment to artistic excellence and social equity in every decision form art presentation, interpretation, and collecting, to the composition of our Board of Trustees, staff and volunteers – creating a museum welcoming to all.

The Fellowship is open to applicants residing anywhere in the world. Applicants must have completed a graduate or professionally accredited degree. Candidates are asked to submit a CV, a letter of interest, and a recent writing sample by mail or email. The Baltimore Museum of Art is an equal opportunity employer.

Fellowship term: May 2019–May 2020
For more information, please contact: fellowship@artbma.org.

To apply, visit: https://artbma.org/about/meyerhoff-fellowship.html

Open Access and Museum Collections

According to the American Alliance of Museums’ Characteristics of Excellence, a museum should, “guided by its mission, provide public access to its collections while ensuring their preservation.” Although museums protect over a billion objects, did you know that on average, less than five percent of a museum’s collection is on view for the public to enjoy? To make up for this, many museums have turned to the “visible storage” display strategy, in which collections not on exhibit are stored in open cases for the public to still see and enjoy.  While certainly effective, albeit overwhelming (and sometimes confusing, with little-to-no interpretive wall texts), more museums are instead embracing the digital age and implementing a completely accessible collection online.

For instance, last week, the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) announced its “Open Access” system, providing the public with free access to thousands of images from the Museum’s collection to learn from and even download to use for commercial purposes. With a simple click to the Museum’s collection page, users can now select an artwork, zoom in, and observe close details that are difficult to notice when the same object is placed behind a glass vitrine or on the wall in a gallery space. Moreover, it is now permissible to even download a high quality JPEG of the image, to use in any capacity one can imagine.

According to the Cleveland Museum’s website:

“Open Access means the public now has the ability to  share, collaborate, remix, and reuse images of many as 30,000 public- domain artworks from the CMA’s world-renowned collection of art for commercial and non-commercial purposes. In addition, portions of collections information (metadata) for more than 61,000 artworks, both in the public domain and those works with copyright or other restrictions, works are now available.”

The Cleveland Museum joins a growing list of institutions that have prioritized an accessible online database – open to students, scholars, and the general public to use without any restrictions. Other museums include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Art, LACMA, the Getty, and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

In a recent study by Ian Gill, a graduate of San Francisco State University’s M.A. Museum Studies Program, it was found that museums with Open Access “benefit the public, promote scholarship, and align with the museum’s mission;” however, it is an expensive system to initiate without help from outstanding grants or other sources of funding. As an art historian who can easily spend hours searching through Google Images’ archives in search of a high quality photo of a specific artwork, I am excited to learn that the Cleveland Museum of Art has shared its diverse collection online, providing me with a new go-to source for finding JPEG images that are free under Creative Commons Zero.

What are your thoughts on Open Access?

Weekly Jobs Roundup!

Hello job seekers! Please find below the national jobs roundup for the week of January 27th!

Northeast

Museum Educator [Buttonwoods Museum/Haverhill Historical Society/Haverhill, MA]

Visitor Services and Membership Coordinator [Litchfield Historical Society/Litchfield, CT]

School Programs Museum Educator [Concord Museum/Concord, MA]

Terrana Curatorial Fellow [Fitchburg Art Museum/Fitchburg, MA]

Visitors Center Manager [Town of Lexington/Lexington, MA]

Marketing and Development Coordinator [Arlington Center for the Arts/Arlington, MA]

Director of Museum Affairs and Chief Curator [Preservation Society of Newport County/Newport, RI]

Mid-Atlantic

Executive Director [Historic Smithfield/Blacksburg, VA]

Assistant Chief Conservator [Virginia Museum of Fine Arts/Richmond, VA]

Program Associate [Historic Hudson Valley/Tarrytown, NY]

Curator of Exhibits and Engagement [Salisbury University Libraries/Salisbury, MD]

Manager of School Programs [Walter Art Museum/Baltimore, MD]

Head of Public Programming [The Phillips Collection/Washington, D.C.]

Southeast

Assistant Director of Public Engagement [National World War II Museum/New Orleans, LA]

Registrar [Augusta Museum of History/Augusta, GA]

Gift Officer [Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens/Jacksonville, FL]

Midwest

Vice President, Engagement, Education and Exhibitions [Indiana Historical Society/Indianapolis, IN]

Guest Experience Manager, Gardens [The Wisconsin Historical Society/Eagle, WI]

Romare Bearden Graduate Museum Fellowship [Saint Louis Art Museum/Saint Louis, MO]

Manager, Community and Access Programs [The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art/Kansas City, MO]

Associate Registrar for Exhibitions [Museum of Contemporary Art/Chicago, IL]

West

Curator of Education and Programs [Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Center/Wenatchee, WA]

Curator of Archives [Placer County Museums/Auburn, CA]

Preparator [The Broad/Los Angeles, CA]

 

Job Post- Student Gallery Attendant, Carpenter Center for Visual Arts

The Carpenter Center for Visual Arts (CCVA), which houses public exhibitions and the Harvard Department of Visual and Environmental Studies, is looking for dedicated work-study students to serve as Student Gallery Attendants. The Student Gallery Attendant will greet visitors to the building, monitor the safety of artwork and visitors, and assist with operations.

As the first point-of-contact for the university community and general public, the Student Gallery Attendant is responsible for welcoming and providing guidance for visitors to the Carpenter Center and Department of Visual and Environmental Studies. He/she/they provides general information about the exhibitions and artists on view to create a warm, positive, informative experience for CCVA visitors.

The Gallery Attendant is an essential part of the CCVA team, integrated into the workings of a dynamic, experimental, and supportive art and educational institution.

Student Gallery Attendants are responsible for:

• Greeting visitors and providing assistance and information on an array of topics, including exhibits, general wayfinding, and building amenities

• Providing a welcoming presence and ensuring accessibility for all visitors

• Monitoring visitors in the galleries

• Maintaining accurate counts of building attendance

• Providing logistical support for events and lectures, including Open Studios

• Other operational tasks as assigned by the staff of CCVA and the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies

You’re Good At:

• Talking with people and solving problems

• Being on time, reliable, and professional

• Committing to a regular schedule

Additional Information:

• Position available for federal work-study students only

• Shifts held at the Carpenter Center at 24 Quincy St. in Cambridge

• Shifts typically held as 2.5-5 hour slots between noon and 5 pm, Tuesday – Friday Minimum: 5 hours per week, Maximum: 10 hours per week

• Pay rate: $12.50 per hour with opportunity for future pay increases

• Interest in art, film, museums, or education a plus

To apply, please email your resume and brief cover letter to Erin Holder at erin_holder@harvard.edu. Applications will be reviewed until February 4, 2019.

How is the Government Shutdown Affecting Museums?

Twenty three days and counting.

On December 22, the U.S. government shutdown over President Donald Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion in funding to build a border wall between the United States and Mexico. Democrats (and some GOP members) refuse to approve the funding, calling the wall immoral, unnecessary, and “a giant symbol” of racism and xenophobia. Although the House of Representatives passed several spending bills aimed at reopening certain sections of the government as soon as possible, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked the legislation.

Now, for twenty-three days, the government has been in a political standstill (and as of yesterday, this has become the longest shutdown ever). According to Trump, the shutdown will continue until his funding is passed, and has even considered calling a national emergency to build the wall without congress approval.

As a result of this impasse, all federal institutions, departments, and agencies are closed. Over 800,000 federal workers remain furloughed, or continue to work without pay.

How does this seemingly endless shutdown affect museums and other cultural institutions?

While the Smithsonian Institution had funding through the first day of January, on January 2nd, all nineteen of its museums and galleries, including the Cooper Hewitt, National Air and Space Museum, National Zoo, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, closed. With no federal budget, upcoming public programs, lectures, and related arts and culture events were also canceled.

For special traveling exhibitions with an upcoming closing date, visitors will unfortunately miss the opportunity to enjoy the art on view. Charline von Heyl: Snake Eyes, for example, the new special exhibition at the (currently inaccessible) Hirshhorn Museum, will not be extended past its closing date of January 27th.

In response to the government shutdown, some artists and art critics are using social media to present their work through a different light. For instance, for each day the government has been closed, the New York City- based writer Phyllis Tuchman has used Instagram to post a painting from the National Gallery of Art’s collection.

Until an agreement is reached for federal funding, Smithsonian Museums and other National Mall institutions will remain closed, and tourist visits will most likely continue to decrease.

Have you been personally affected by the government shutdown? Leave a comment with your story below.

 

 

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