Curator of Contemporary Culture [Anchorage Museum, AK]

Description

The Anchorage Museum is currently recruiting for a full-time Curator of Contemporary Culture to support and help advance the Museum’s temporary exhibitions program and an expanded role for the Museum’s collection. The Curator will help advance special projects and initiatives of the Museum Director and Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs and Programs. The Curator of Contemporary Culture will serve as a catalyst that engages today’s leading creators and thinkers who challenge us to look at our world anew, show us historical linkages, and point us to future possibilities.  Contemporary Culture is a broad area that offers many points of entry.  As an encyclopedic museum of art, history, culture and science of the North, the Anchorage Museum is about making connections and encouraging conversations, and this position provides opportunities to intersect ideas across disciplines and time.

This position provides visitor-centered curatorial content and planning to ensure that the Museum’s interdisciplinary collections, exhibitions, and public programs balance the highest quality of scholarship and innovation, while providing an outstanding visitor experience and meeting the interests of a diverse audience.

Essential Functions:

• Develop exhibitions and program concepts that incorporate design, installation and planning for Museum spaces as well as for traveling venue opportunities.
• Provide planning and project administration support for multiple exhibition and program projects.
• Work closely with the Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs and Programs, the Director, the von der Heydt Curator, Director of Collections, Exhibitions Manager, exhibits designers, and others.
• Provide curatorial evaluation of artwork and objects considered for Museum acquisition to contribute quality and content expertise to the collection’s development.
• Conceptualize and plan for exhibitions, traveling exhibitions, and acquisitions across media.
• Extensive research and writing, presentations and reports.
• Serve as a project coordinator for the Education Labs and Polar Lab to develop rich programming that will enhance the Museum’s visitor experience on site, off site and online.
• Foster a culture of ongoing learning, collaboration, innovation, design, creativity and community engagement.
• Work across multiple disciplines, including science, art, history, and culture, with knowledge of the Northern and Arctic regions as they inform the exhibition, education and public programs.
• Advance the activities of Polar Lab and other Museum Initiatives.
• Ensure that the range of Museum programming is relevant to and meets the needs of the Museum’s mission.
• Work with staff to ensure that the Anchorage Museum programs are timely, topical, and address important issues of Alaska and the North’s past, present and future.
• Facilitate collaboration between curatorial interests and exhibits, design, collections, education, and visitor experience to engage the public in creative and critical exploration.
• Support grant proposals, projects and grant budgets.

Requirements

Knowledge/Skills/Qualifications:

Knowledge of:

• Contemporary art, contemporary culture, and historical context.
• Multidisciplinary connections.
• Creative programming techniques.
• Alaska Native cultures and diversity of cultures preferred.
• Principles and practices of project administration, including budgetary procedures and financial oversight.
• Planning, development, and implementation practices for museum content-delivery platforms, including exhibitions, collection presentations, public programs, media initiatives, and publications.
• Exhibition and program planning; interpretive approaches; and visitor evaluation practices.
• Principles and practices of museum collection development, care, access and management.

Ability to:

• Communicate effectively orally and in writing appropriate for a range of uses, audiences, and diverse content platforms
• Organize and manage diverse, complex projects
• Effectively Analyze, synthesize, and interpret multidisciplinary materials and new research integrating multiple perspectives, visitor viewpoints, and timely and relevant content related to Alaska and the North
• Facilitate and motivate others in experimenting with new practices and ways of working to support a culture of innovation and collaboration
• Consider and balance a range of competing needs and objectives to develop strategies and solutions that ensure overall institutional success
• Bridge curatorial content and interpretive approaches with other museum functions including marketing, fundraising, and collection management
• Ability to read, write, and speak English fluently
• Operate a motor vehicle in the performance of assigned duties

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor’s degree in art, art history, contemporary culture, cultural history or equivalent required, Master’s degree preferred.
• Three years’ experience in curation
• Two years’ experience in project management preferred.
• Knowledge, education, and/or experience with non-profit administration or related field preferred.