Job Description

BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW

 

The Associate Director of Exhibitions occupies one of the most singular and important roles in leadership within a museum popularly identified by the depth, breadth and excellence of its exhibitions program, a program that in 2014, produced more than 50 exhibitions – more than double its institutional peers – and in any given year, can require an operating budget of almost $20 million and engage numerous national and international partners.

A record 6.3 million people visited The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) with 20 of the exhibitions that opened in FY2015 receiving more than 100,000 visitors.  The Met remains the most visited cultural attraction in New York City (41 percent from the New York City/Tri-State area, 21 percent national and 38 percent international, from 189 countries).  Complementary digital visitorship is also on the rise and increasingly global, with the website welcoming 32 million visits in FY2015, the app launched in September accessed more than one million times in the first nine months, and the Facebook account alone followed by more than 1.3 million people.

The Associate Director serves as a liaison and intermediary between the Director, academic departments, and external parties regarding the development and facilitation of the museum’s special exhibitions and related publications and programs, including oversight of the Design Department and the Registrar’s Office.  This position is also responsible for building and maintaining strong relationships with the national/international partners in governments, peer institutions, collectors, gallerists and the artists’ communities that are involved in any given exhibition program.

The Met’s recent evolution includes a dynamic five-year strategy and the opening of the museum’s third multi-exhibition site at The Met Breuer.  In the context of these developments, the Associate Director will be charged with evaluating the exhibition program and department to establish a strong vision for exhibitions that aligns with the museum’s goals and standards of excellence.  This vision will support a comprehensive, transparent and systematic exhibition planning process.  The process will introduce early and clear entry points for those departments involved in exhibitions, encourage interdisciplinary scholarship and approaches, and enhance opportunities for audience engagement with The Met’s collections and scholarship.

The vision will also include plans for an enhanced and considered international presence that takes into account the increasingly sensitive and pressing discourse around cultural heritage that abuts larger issues of statehood, diplomacy and policy, as well as industry issues of contributing to, and supporting the development of, institutional peers and art leaders worldwide.

 

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