Description

The Oakland Museum of California values are fundamental to our institutional culture and guide our work together.

Excellence: We are committed to excellence and working at the highest standards of integrity and professionalism.

Community: We believe everyone should feel welcome and part of our community, both within the Museum and with our visitors and neighbors.

Innovation: We embrace innovation and calculated risk-taking to achieve our mission.

Commitment: Our work at the Museum demonstrates a sense of purpose and a shared accountability for the institution’s success

POSITION SUMMARY
The Associate Director, Experience Development leads the team responsible for ensuring all OMCA gallery and exhibition experiences are imaginatively accessible and meaningful to diverse target audiences, and reflect both OMCA-specific and field-wide research and standards for visitor satisfaction and engagement. This position oversees the strategies and tactics for authentic community input and voice across all exhibition experiences.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The following reflects OMCA’s definition of essential functions for this position, but does not restrict the tasks that may be assigned. OMCA may assign or reassign duties and responsibilities to this position at any time due to reasonable accommodation or other reasons.

INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
• Support the Museum’s mission, values, vision, and core commitment to the visitor experience, community engagement, and institutional relevancy for the future
• Contribute to and support the OMCA strategic plan, annual priorities, and institutional initiatives such as diversity advancement
• Contribute to a positive organizational culture based on mutual respect, a spirit of collegiality, cooperation, and openness to many perspectives
• Participate in a culture of ongoing learning, collaboration, innovation, creativity, and community engagement

POSITION DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Exhibition and Gallery Development
• Develop, in partnership with the experience developer team, curators and outside collaborators, new models of participatory, visitor-centered gallery experiences and exhibitions based on research, evaluation, and visitors’ diverse learning styles and motivations; partner with leadership colleagues in Lab to develop and implement exhibition ideas that will meet institutional priorities, and to prepare and assess project proposals and business cases for consideration
• Supervise and support the Experience Developers in their work on exhibition and gallery development projects from proposal through implementation phases in keeping with OMCA’s Interpretive and Exhibition Development Frameworks; establish a rigorous standard and practice for comprehensive interpretive plans across all gallery and exhibition projects that serves multiple internal stakeholder needs; participate as an Experience Developer on exhibition and gallery development core teams
• Ensure all OMCA gallery and exhibition projects incorporate substantial and meaningful community input and voice; support exhibition teams in establishing community engagement strategies and tactics, and employing community engagement best practices; provide training, guidance and resources as needed
• Oversee the articulation and implementation of OMCA’s label guidelines in collaboration with experience developer team
• Collaborate with leadership in collections, design and curatorial to develop innovative display, interpretation and access strategies that maximize public impact while mitigating risk to the collection/objects
• Collaborate on establishing annual priorities and plans for core gallery visitor experience and collection maintenance, rotation and programming
• Ensure all gallery and exhibition projects reflect the most current visitor research (both OMCA-specific and field-wide); participate in establishing annual priorities for visitor research and evaluation

Project Management and Administration
• Lead and serve on cross-functional teams and committees
• Participate in Center and cross-institutional priority setting, and strategic and annual business planning
• Direct the performance and priorities of direct reports; participate in OMCA’s annual performance management and staff development program
• Develop, negotiate, and monitor professional services contracts
• Recruit, lead, coach and train project collaborators, staff, volunteers and interns as required
• Contribute to the development, writing, implementation and reporting of major grants; participate in the development of corporate and other partnership proposals
• Keep abreast of trends developments in the fields of museums and collections management; stay current with general museum news nationally and internationally
• Oversee and/or manage departmental and project budgets, insuring fiscal responsibility while maximizing return on investment
• Ensure essential information is communicated consistently and in timely manner within department, between Centers, and to key partners

Requirements

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE
A combination of experience and education that demonstrates possession of the necessary knowledge and abilities for this position is required as noted:
• M.A. degree in a relevant field such as museum studies, cultural studies, natural sciences, art, history, education, exhibition design or equivalent work experience required
• 5+ years of related experience in experience (exhibition) development or interpretive planning
• 2+ years experience in people management and/or leading teams required

ADDITIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
• Demonstrated knowledge of the principles and practices of exhibition/experience development or interpretive planning, specifically with a team-based exhibition development model
• Demonstrated knowledge of museum visitor studies field and the implications for experience design
• Demonstrated ability to direct, coach and motivate teams of both direct reports and other colleagues
• Exceptional communication skills and experience with general public, donor groups, press, external and internal stakeholders
• MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint); Google Apps

WORK ENVIRONMENT AND PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS
While performing the duties of this position, the employee is frequently exposed to the following:
• Noise, such as groups of people working in enclosed areas
• Typical office environment
• Ability to lift up to 35 pounds

EEO STATEMENT
The Oakland Museum of California is a multicultural organization committed to diversity and practicing equal opportunity employment in recruitment and hiring. Qualified candidates of diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply for open positions.

Job Information
  • Oakland, California, 94607, United States
  • 28709511
  • May 25, 2016
  • Associate Director of Experience Development
  • Oakland Museum of California
  • Development/Membership
  • No
  • Full-Time