Posted August 27, 2014

Located on the campus of Fairfield University’s idyllic 200-acre campus along Connecticut’s coastline, The Bellarmine Museum of Art opened in fall 2010 in the University’s signature building, Bellarmine Hall. The Museum holds a rich and varied collection of paintings, sculpture and decorative art objects, including ten paintings by masters from the Italian Renaissance and Baroque periods. The Museum also maintains a large collection of historic plaster casts donated and on long-term loan from institutions including Yale University, the Slater Museum of Art, and the Acropolis Museum of Art. The Bellarmine Museum enjoys collaborative relationships with the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cloisters and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, among others. To facilitate its audiences’ communion with original art objects, the Museum showcases important temporary exhibitions and consistently leverages one of the University’s greatest assets – its intellectual capital of talented faculty, academic colleagues, students, and supporters to spark rich and meaningful interdisciplinary dialogue throughout the University.

Founded in 1990, The Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery is housed in the University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. The spacious contemporary gallery mounts up to four temporary exhibitions each year, all of which are complemented by a rich array of programming. The Gallery is a dynamic forum, providing a place for people of all ages and backgrounds to experience art and innovation while simultaneously creating new opportunities for inspired learning, creativity, collaboration, and accessibility.

Fairfield University, a Catholic, Jesuit institution founded in 1942, serves a student body of approximately 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students, offering 41 majors, 16 interdisciplinary minors and 40 graduate programs. The Museum and Gallery share the Jesuit mission of developing the creative and intellectual potential of its constituents, including members of the University community and residents of greater Fairfield County. The Bellarmine Museum of Art is dedicated to preserving, studying, and exhibiting collections entrusted to its care, while never losing sight of its obligation to educate and inspire its many audiences for the greater enrichment of all. The Walsh Gallery is committed to fostering engagement and education through the arts by providing visitors from across Fairfield County and beyond with opportunities to engage directly with original works of art.

The Museum and Gallery operate on a total annual budget of approximately $172,000. As admission is free to both, the primary source of earned revenue is derived from endowment funds and current use gifts established to support the Director’s position and Museum (currently representing approximately 80% of the Museum’s annual budget). The remaining income consists of University subsidy and philanthropic support. Nearly 27,000 people visit the Museum and Gallery annually. Source: www.fairfield.edu

THE COMMUNITY

As part of the metro New York economy, Southwestern Connecticut/Fairfield County is remarkably diverse. From its businesses to its people, its wooded trails to its coastline, the region offers a variety of choices for living, working, and recreation. Southwestern Connecticut is the most densely populated region of the state, and Fairfield County contains four of the state’s largest cities – Bridgeport, Stamford, Norwalk and Danbury – and the county’s population is fast approaching one million. While the Gold Coast, including communities along Long Island Sound from Greenwich to Fairfield, contributes to making it sixth in the U.S. in per capita personal income, Fairfield county is also home to many middle and working class cities and towns, offering an array of housing for all budgets.

The town of Fairfield itself is a charming and thriving community of approximately 60,000 residents featuring five miles of shoreline on the Long Island Sound. It has five town beaches, two universities, many parks and ball fields, two public golf courses, and a vibrant array of restaurants and stores. Family-oriented Fairfield also has top-notch, high performing public, private and religiously-affiliated schools with rich academic programs. Fairfield is consistently ranked in the top 100 by CNN/Money Magazine for best towns in which to live.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Director provides curatorial and administrative leadership for the Bellarmine Museum of Art and the Walsh Art Gallery, as well as the Fairfield University Campus Art Collection. This includes leading and empowering a talented team comprising a Museum registrar, a faculty Curator of the Cast Collection, a Family Day coordinator paid on a per event basis, interns, and volunteers to address day-to-day operating needs. Additionally the Director will plan and mount exhibitions, enhance the quality of the University’s art collections, cultivate donors, and grow financial resources. Reporting to the Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, the Director is responsible for the intellectual and programmatic direction of the Museum and Gallery and will invest significant time collaborating with faculty, staff, students, community leaders, donors, artists, collectors, industry contacts and others to implement a vision that is closely aligned with the University’s mission and priorities. Responsibilities include maintaining a close working relationship with the University administration and faculty and with all groups supporting the Museum and Gallery.

The Director will oversee the assets and budgets of the Museum and Gallery, striving to achieve an appropriate balance among all sources of revenue, earned and philanthropic. Partnering with the University’s Advancement Office, the Director will think creatively and strategically to cultivate and develop new sources of revenue while maintaining and increasing the support of existing donors. He/she will maintain a high professional profile in Fairfield and surrounding communities in order to enhance the position, image, and appreciation of the Museum and Gallery as community gems; significant cultural resources and destinations. He/she will collaborate with the Director of the Regina A. Quick Center to create synergies between the visual arts and the performing arts at Fairfield University.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

Management and Operations

Maintain responsibility for all aspects of operations and ensure effective use of financial and human resources.

Oversee administrative and fiscal operations of the Museum and Gallery, including policies, procedures, budgets, and physical plants.
Develop plans in consultation with the Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Senior Vice President for Advancement, to build and support the efforts of an effective Advisory Council
Establish strategic goals for the Museum and Gallery in collaboration with staff and stakeholders
Continue to institute and maintain best practices, leading toward future AAM accreditation.
Liaison effectively and synergistically with the Director of the Quick Center and other members of the administration.
Revenue Enhancement

Develop and implement strategies to identify stakeholders and define how key messages will be delivered to diverse audiences in order to maximize visibility, earned and contributed revenue opportunities, endowments, and to secure support from new and existing donors.

Devise effective marketing strategies to promote Museum and Gallery exhibitions and educational activities, working with the University’s Marketing Division.
Identify individuals, foundations, and corporations with an interest in supporting the missions and goals of the Museum and Gallery and strategize to employ the most effective donor stewardship and cultivation methods, in consultation with the University Advancement office.
Actively cultivate relationships with existing donors, volunteers, and friends to support the programs and activities of the Museum and Gallery.
Strategically seek out and initiate contacts with prospective donors, including individuals, foundations, and corporate partners.
Collections Stewardship, Exhibition and Program Planning

Ensure the careful, sound and responsible management of the Museum and Gallery collections, including legal, social, and ethical obligations to provide proper care as well as intellectual control. Ensure that materials the Museum and Gallery own, borrow, hold in custody and use are available and accessible to the public. Develop a coordinated exhibition and program schedule that maximizes use of the Museum’s collections and the Gallery’s resources. Create opportunities to collaborate with the Director of the Regina A. Quick Center to enhance aesthetic opportunities for the Fairfield University community and surround communities.

Develop, manage and care for the permanent collection, long-term loans, and the Fairfield University Campus Art Collection.
Enhance the quality and care of the University’s art collections, exhibitions, and related programs.
Create opportunities to use the collections to advance the missions of the Museum, Gallery. and University.
Develop and implement a rotation of stellar, diverse, and relevant temporary exhibitions at both the Museum and the Gallery that complement and support the academic program, the student body, and the Fairfield community including internally and externally curated exhibitions.
Oversee educational programs that support K-12 education (including Family Days and Upward Bound programs) and lifelong learning opportunities.
Look for opportunities to strengthen connections to academic programs and to students on campus.
Expand nascent museum cultural tours programs.
Community and Public Relations

Guide the image of the Museum and Gallery, their missions, visions, and values, and play an active role in external relations throughout the region.

Serve as the public face and voice of the Museum and Gallery, providing leadership locally, regionally, and nationally in the broader museum and cultural community.
Develop creative outreach methods to encourage broader and deeper student, faculty and community participation in Museum and Gallery programs.
Establish and maintain relationships, alliances and partnerships with Museum and Gallery stakeholders including students, faculty, administrators, volunteers, collectors, alumni, donors, and parents.
Work effectively as a peer with faculty prioritizing opportunities to collaborate, advance scholarship and learn.
Engage with the Art History Program, contribute to the Visual Arts Administration concentration and have the opportunity, if desired, to teach one course per year in Art History.
Job Requirements
Traits and Characteristics

The selected individual will be a dynamic and innovative leader eager to advance the Museum and Gallery as outstanding academic and cultural resources and to promote the overall value of the Museum and Gallery to the community. A visionary, he/she will be poised and positioned to develop an exciting strategic plan for the Museum and Gallery with emphasis on strengthening their role and relevancy on campus and in the community. The Director will possess excellent interpersonal and communication skills to build and nurture relationships with a wide range of individuals both internally and externally in the greater Fairfield County community and nationally. The Director will work in a cooperative and synergistic way with the Director of the Quick Center for the Arts.

An entrepreneurial thinker and self-starter, the Director will bring demonstrated success in fundraising and proven methods for increasing earned income and philanthropic support. The Director will have experience effectively engaging volunteers and supporters; and with writing, managing, and evaluating successful grants. To create enthusiasm for Museum and Gallery programs and enhance the scope of philanthropic and community support, the Director will have strong leadership skills to build an active constituency among collectors, leaders and donors in Fairfield County.

The Director will be able to develop and execute an intellectually rigorous approach to planning, curating, and executing high quality exhibitions and educational programs. Along with competence and hands-on experience managing budgets, establishing priorities, managing operations and directing and supporting staff, the Director will possess knowledge of how a complex organization, like a university works, and have some experience navigating through one. In working with others, the Director should be able to work effectively as a peer with faculty and administrators demonstrating creativity, flexibility, and stability in an atmosphere where open communication and stakeholder participation are encouraged. The Director will also posses outstanding written and oral communication skills; and excellent collegial and supervisory skills.

QUALIFICATIONS

A doctoral degree in an appropriate discipline or equivalent combination of education and at least 5 years of increasing responsibility in a museum and/or gallery setting. Prior management in an art museum known for high quality and excellence is needed. Experience at an academic museum or in a higher education setting is beneficial.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

Fairfield University offers competitive salaries and a comprehensive benefits package including medical and dental benefits, tuition remission, vacation, paid holidays and much more.

APPLICATIONS AND INQUIRIES

Cover letter and resume, electronic submissions preferred, with demonstrable accomplishments to:

Daniel Zanella, Senior Consultant
Arts Consulting Group
1040 First Avenue, Suite 352
New York, NY 10022-2991
Tel: (888) 234.4236 ext. 11
Cell: (201) 306.3201
Fax: (888) 284.6651
Email: bellarmine@artsconsulting.com