Director and Chief Curator [Mead Art Museum – Amherst College]

Amherst College is a premier private undergraduate liberal arts college with a diverse student body of 1,800 students and an outstanding faculty of two hundred scholar-teachers.  Its rigorous academics, active co-curricular life, dedicated faculty, and robust resources attract students who bring an extraordinary range of talents, interests, and accomplishments to the campus community.  Mead Art Museum holds the college art collection.  It occupies its original building, opened in 1949 and renovated in 1999-2001 and 2008-11, and is an accredited member of the American Association of Museums.

At Amherst, the Mead serves as a laboratory for interdisciplinary research and innovative teaching involving original works of art.  The past seven years have marked a period of dramatic growth for the Museum during which new academic initiatives have inspired many faculty members to teach with the collections.  The Mead traditionally collaborates closely with the College’s Department of Art and the History of Art. Today, faculty from nearly every academic discipline teach with the Museum’s collections, bringing the majority of Amherst College’s student body into direct, meaningful contact with original works of art in the Mead each year.

The 18,000 objects in the Mead’s fine collection represent a wide range of historical periods, national schools, and artistic media. Virtually all of the Museum’s collection has been documented photographically; these images and basic catalogue information are now available online in a searchable database (http://museums.fivecolleges.edu).

The Mead’s attention to its academic community has not come at the expense of the broader public. Overall museum attendance has grown by 300 percent, fueled both by the Mead’s commitment to excellence in its exhibitions and by the Museum’s public events —from family festivals to book clubs, cabaret performances to mindfulness meditation sessions. In addition to selections from its permanent collection, in recent years, the Mead has annually presented as many as seven special exhibitions on subjects ranging from American art of the Civil War, to Renaissance altarpieces, to the city of Tokyo. Recent projects involving contemporary art have brought Nick Cave, Jonathan Meese, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Samia Halaby, Frank Stella, Sonya Clark, Sol Lewitt, Chuck Close and their works, to the Mead.  Additional information about Mead Art Museum, including a complete schedule of exhibitions and events, is available on the museum’s web site: www.amherst.edu/mead.

The next Director will also serve as the Chief Curator of Mead Art Museum and must be committed to organizing a vibrant and creative exhibition schedule including both traveling and in-house exhibitions drawn from the Museum’s holdings as well as overseeing incoming loan exhibitions. The Director should foster conversations that engage the Museum’s historic holdings with contemporary scholarly trends, contemporary art, and our technological age. Under the new Director, the Mead should realize the unique potential of an academic museum to explore contested ground and to challenge fixed perceptions.  The Director will work to further diversify the Museum’s collection so that it will better reflect the global art world and better stimulate the interests of a socioeconomically and ethnically diverse and increasingly international student body, working with College faculty to optimize the educational impact of acquisitions.   The Mead should be positioned as a leader among academic museums, expanding and re-envisioning the role of the visual arts in the academic and co-curricular life of the College.

Amherst College is seeking an energetic and entrepreneurial Director and Chief Curator with a solid art history background and a passion for art and for working with college students with diverse interests and backgrounds. S/he must be able to articulate a strategic vision for the Museum and must possess strong skills in fundraising, management and exhibition and program development.

Specific requirements include:

• M.F.A. or M.A. in art history or a closely related field required, Ph.D. preferred, with progressively responsible experience as a curator and/or administrator of an art museum or comparable not-for-profit art organization.
• An established record of exhibitions and publications.
• Demonstrated experience managing both the budget and operations of a significant art organization; familiarity with basic accounting principles and ability to navigate financial statements.
• A record of success in securing competitive grants and in fundraising. A compelling, energetic and enthusiastic spokesperson, capable of articulating the Mead’s mission to diverse audiences.
• Effective mentoring and employee management skills, with the ability to inspire strong performances from a diverse, exceptionally talented staff.
• Familiarity with best practice standards governing collections care, acquisitions/de-accessions, exhibitions, publications, and facilities management.
• Conversant with new technologies, the ability to lead the Mead successfully in an increasingly digital age.
• Curatorial strengths that complement but do not duplicate existing Mead expertise in American and Russian art, antiquities, and European prints.

Full job profile is available at www.mcaonline.us

PROCEDURE FOR APPLICATION

Amherst College is an equal opportunity employer and encourages women, persons of color, and persons with disabilities to apply.

Interested candidates should submit the following:

• A cover letter expressing interest in the position and outlining relevant experience.
• A complete curriculum vitae of education, employment, honors, awards, exhibitions, and publications.
• The names and contact information of three professional references.

Please submit these materials to:

Linda Sweet, Partner

Management Consultants for the Arts

Via email to mcawall2@gmail.com