Director [Dallas Museum of Art, TX]

Description

THE ORGANIZATION

“The Dallas Museum of Art is both a responsible steward of cultural heritage and a trusted advocate for the essential place of art in the lives of people locally and around the globe.  The DMA is transparent, ethical, and takes informed risks.  It promotes research, dialogue, and public participation, helping to reveal the insights of artists from every continent over the last 5,000 years.”

The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is located in the downtown Dallas Arts District – the largest urban arts district in the United States in one of the country’s fastest-growing metro areas.  The Census Bureau noted that Dallas-Fort Worth added more new residents than almost anywhere else in the United States in 2015.  A comparatively young city within a comparatively young country, Dallas undergoes transformative urban growth at a digital rather than analog rate.  Notably at this pace, this growth is deliberate, benefitting from strong philanthropic traditions and cross-disciplinary civic associations that regularly convene to discuss and plan the region’s development.  It is a metropolitan culture that appreciates energy, ambitious thinking, sophistication grounded in common sense, individual humility, engaged civic collaboration, diversity, a developed work ethic and an even more developed sense of self-deprecating humor.

With an operating budget of approximately $25 million, a $190 million endowment and more than 250 staff, the DMA has a proud history of serving its community since 1903.  The internationally recognized institution welcomes approximately 600,000 visitors each year, the majority of whom are regional versus tourist, and features an outstanding comprehensive collection of more than 24,000 works spanning the world and 5,000 years of human creativity.  In 1984, the Museum moved into its current location, the 370,000-square-foot Edward Larrabee Barnes-designed building, as the first arts organization in the newly designated Arts District.  Today, the DMA ranks among the leading art institutions in the country and is known for its acquisitions, appetite for innovation, well-conceived exhibitions and early support for and innovation in educational programming.  In 2008, the Museum opened the Center for Creative Connections (C3) – a groundbreaking interactive space to further engage visitors directly in the creative process and allow them to meaningfully experience works of art.  In 2013, the DMA’s new Paintings Conservation Studio officially opened to the public, signaling the launch of a larger-scale, in-house conservation program.

Though the only comprehensive collection in North Texas, the DMA is fortunate to share territory with collections internationally renowned for their excellence at the Nasher Sculpture Center, the Meadows Museum, the Crow Collection of Asian Art, the Kimbell Art Museum, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.  The DMA demonstrates its own collection strength in:  arts of the ancient Americas, Africa, Indonesia and South Asia; European and American painting, sculpture and decorative arts; and American and international contemporary art.

The Museum also differentiates itself with its broad array of exhibitions, activities and events designed to involve visitors of all ages and experience levels more fully with its collections.  One out of every two visitors to the Museum engages in a program that deepens their connection to the art.  The DMA offers eight to 10 special exhibitions each year as well as more than 2,000 activities and events.

For detailed breadth and depth of information, please visit https://www.dma.org/.

THE POSITION

Reporting to the President of the Board of Trustees and working in close collaboration with a deeply committed Board, the Director is the principal executive of the Museum, responsible for leading the institution and creating and implementing a compelling and sustainable vision for its future.  This includes expanding the encyclopedic collections and building on the Museum’s resources and strengths to distinguish the DMA both within the community and among its peers nationally and internationally.  As the main ambassador of the Museum to the Dallas/ Fort Worth Metroplex in all its diversity and variety, as well as to the wider art world, the Director must be comfortable moving easily among these spheres.

In addition, the following are immediate priorities that the Board has identified for the Director to address:

Priorities

The Director will:

• Engage with the Board of Trustees to develop and articulate a specific vision for the DMA by crafting and implementing a strategic plan and campus master plan, including within these plans the seeds for a capital campaign for endowment and campus enhancements;
• Develop intermediate and long-range plans for exhibitions, acquisitions and educational programs to diversify and expand the DMA’s audiences in the community, as well as distinguish the Museum nationally and internationally;
• Craft and adhere to a balanced budget;
• Lead development activities to ensure long-term stability and growth for the organization;  directly engage staff and Board to enhance a culture of philanthropy across the DMA;  embrace the Director’s role to lead or partner in making the ask;
• Act as the “face and voice” of the Museum to the community locally and the art world nationally and internationally; meet with stakeholders in order to listen and learn about DMA culture, its strengths and its areas for growth; initiate or strengthen partnerships with peer organizations within the Dallas Arts District including the Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas Theater Center, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, The Dallas Opera, the Booker T. Washington School for Performing and Visual Arts, and the Perot Museum of Nature and Science;
• Embrace and promote the DMA’s excellent legacy as an innovator in museum education, working closely with the Director of Education and Learning Initiatives;
• Realize an imaginative acquisitions policy using a long-range plan consistent with the overall artistic and strategic direction of the Museum, with the provision that acquisitions must be self-funded through endowments or specifically-raised sums;
• Develop and manage staff; honor the legacy of familial support staff feel for one another and inculcate a culture of proactive collaboration and communication along with professional excellence and best practices;
• Responsibly steward the Museum assets (artworks, annual revenue, endowment, facilities, staff, and relationships with volunteers, donors, Trustees and the City of Dallas), assuring that the institution thrives.

Requirements

Qualifications and Experience

The Director will have or be:

• A demonstrated leader with a contagious enthusiasm for and preferably significant background in the art of multiple genres and eras;
• A cultural fit for the region exhibited in a sincere desire to connect with the community; an abiding commitment to audience outreach and diversity;

• A respected professional with national and international reach who aligns personal ambition with institutional achievement;
• Fundraising sophistication; able to relate well across constituencies; interested in working in partnership with Trustees and sensitive to the community’s collaborative approach to philanthropic objectives;
• A skilled communicator with a reputation for integrity, able to model, motivate and support staff and partners to do work of the highest quality; tireless, dynamic and genuine in connecting with people and inspiring their interest and support; comfortable in her or his own skin;
• Proven managerial skills with experience in hiring, retaining and empowering a team to take an organization to the next level; a decisive and effective delegator;
• Financially astute and committed to institutional sustainability, with a track record of developing and maintaining balanced budgets;
• An effective advocate for innovative ideas, encouraging experimentation, the entrepreneurial impulse and assessing risk;
• Committed to using technology to advance the mission of the Museum and the field,  including expanding access and points of entry to the DMA’s collection and programs;
• Committed to transparency, arranging multiple channels for Board members, staff and other stakeholders to share information and influence decisions;
• Approachable, modeling a manner of personal contact and non-hierarchical communication with people at all levels of the extended organization;
• Adept at calmly prioritizing competing demands that serve the Museum’s best interests.