Salary $125,000 - $142,000
The Colby College Museum of Art seeks an imaginative, strategic, collaborative, and experienced leader to serve as head curator.
Reporting to the Colby Museum’s director, the head curator oversees all aspects of the curatorial team’s contribution to the Colby Museum’s artistic, research, and interpretive vision to ensure the museum’s role as a destination for American and contemporary art and a place for meaningful education and engagement with campus, local, national, and global communities. They supervise and mentor the curatorial team and student interns, inspiring innovative and relevant work that is also pragmatic in its approach. They lead the development of a multi-year exhibition schedule, including Colby-organized projects that travel to other venues, in partnership with the museum’s director and the director of exhibitions and publications. The head curator directs the ongoing research and presentation of its renowned collection, partners with collections staff and the deputy director for planning and operations to ensure the comprehensive stewardship of the collection, shapes and enacts the collections development strategy, and oversees acquisitions with guidance from the Collections and Impact Committee of the museum board of governors. They collaboratively develop interpretation strategies with engagement team members. The head curator is responsible for curating a selection of projects within the multi-year cycle of exhibitions and museum publications, and contributes new scholarship; they may also serve as a venue curator. Active in the field of art, the head curator partners with the Lunder Institute for American Art to help identify mission-aligned opportunities related to fellowships and areas of inquiry that can benefit from research, field-wide dialogue, and documentation.
Day to day, the head curator balances creativity and ambition with pragmatism as they lead the team and manage budgets, time, and commitments. They maximize resources and actively contribute to fundraising in order to allow the museum to remain a generative and innovative institution. They maintain active relationships with supporters and partners and frequently represent the museum in a variety of contexts.
As part of the museum’s senior team, the head curator provides ongoing institutional-level advice to the museum’s director. They foster an equitable and inclusive culture that prioritizes collective accomplishment and values a diversity of perspectives and expertise in project development. They seek to increase access to the museum for Colby students, faculty, families, and alumni; artists, peers, and scholars; and local and regional communities, strengthening the Colby Museum’s reputation as one of the nation’s leading academic museums. With the museum’s director, other senior leaders, and the museum’s board, the head Curator plays an essential role envisioning, planning, and enacting institutional initiatives that significantly advance the museum’s mission and goals.
The museum’s trajectory of evolution and increased visibility is entering a new phase guided by
its 2023 - 2028 strategic direction. In the coming years the Colby Museum aspires to
strategically adapt and expand its facilities to support an innovative model for the care of and
access to its collection, with the possibility of an art conservation program that would be
uniquely designed for Colby’s liberal arts context, in order to promote and encourage
interdisciplinary research, learning, and pathways at the undergraduate level. These initiatives
related to infrastructure and programs would increase the museum’s capacity to manage its
collection and engage wider audiences with art, including launching a new art-on-campus
program. The head curator will be an essential partner and leader in researching and advancing
these initiatives.
Essential Functions
Leadership, Curatorial Management, and Integrated Program Development
● Inform strategic and long-range museum initiatives. Convey the organization’s vision,
plans, and annual institutional priorities. Initiate and facilitate external partnerships that
advance the museum’s mission and curatorial priorities.
● Supervise and mentor the curatorial staff (current direct reports: four curators and one
curatorial fellow), and interns; establish and manage workflows and delegate projects and
tasks. Provide guidance related to project content and approach. Communicate regularly with the curatorial team to align priorities and clarify roles. Ensure the effective
completion of projects as well as accountability to the curatorial work and to each other.
Anticipate and, as needed, address challenges as these arise.
● Facilitate cross-departmental collaboration and, with other museum senior team leaders,
share responsibility for interconnected program development related to exhibitions,
research, collections development, interpretation, learning and engagement, and
publications.
● Co-develop exhibition and curatorial budgets on an annual and multi-year basis in
collaboration with the director of exhibitions and publications, as well as senior team
leaders. Ensure effective management of project and area budgets and contract drafting.
● Foster a supportive and collaborative culture. In keeping with Colby’s values, model and
encourage self-awareness in matters of equity and access, applying these principles to
management practices and the development of the museum’s curatorial and engagement
program. Participate in and help shape learning processes as needed and ensure the
professional development of curatorial staff.
● Develop and nurture relationships with artists, collectors, dealers, and donors.
Represent the Colby Museum, serving as a visible and vocal advocate for its artistic
program and mission on campus, locally, regionally, nationally and, as appropriate,
internationally. Advocate for the arts at Colby and the College’s vision for academic and
community impact. Travel and interact with a range of peers to ensure the visibility of the
museum’s activities and contributions.
Collection Development and Stewardship
● Strategy, policies, and practices: Establish and enact the strategy for long-term
collections development and related initiatives. Set practices for assessing the
museum’s collection and refining collecting directions as well as policies with the deputy
director of planning and operations and manager of collections and registration. Lead
acquisition and deaccessioning decisions in partnership with the collections team
members, the museum director, and the museum board of governors. Oversee and
advance collection-related processes and practices. Serve as liaison to the Collections
and Impact Committee of the Museum Board of Governors.
● Acquisitions: Lead and manage the regular cycle of identifying and proposing works of art
for acquisition. Cultivate collectors and artists and pursue gifts of art and artworks for
purchase.
● Loans: Assess loan requests in partnership with collections and engagement staff.
● Research and display: Set the agenda for research and display in relation to the
museum’s collection.
● Collections Care and Documentation: Oversee curatorial team's development of content
and content sharing, contributing to the timely documentation of the collection. Inform needs for storage and conservation. Ensure orderly maintenance of curatorial archives.
Inform plans for spaces, digital access, and workflows that support the collection and
access to it.
● Art on campus: Work with the museum director, deputy director for planning and
operations, manager of collections and registration, and the College to develop over time
an art on campus program, contributing curatorial vision to this initiative. Eventually
supervise an art on campus curator.
Exhibitions, Publications and Programs
● Exhibition schedule: Plan a multi-year exhibition schedule (approximately twelve
exhibitions annually on site and one–two traveling exhibitions) in partnership with the
director of exhibitions and publications. Identify and secure institutional partnerships for
exhibitions and co-producing arrangements for projects that travel.
● Curatorial leadership: Guide curatorial staff in generating exhibitions and programs that
make the most of the collection and museum resources, enact the museum’s mission,
garner attention, and both interrogate and broaden established narratives of art,
especially American art.
● Exhibition and Collection Presentations: Curate loan and collection exhibitions as well as
select traveling exhibitions, and guide the curation of the permanent collection galleries.
● Learning and Engagement: Inform and support the pedagogical and strategic vision for
engagement and interpretation of the museum’s artistic content, producing content and
at times leading or co-leading programs, including class visits, public programs, and other
forms of academic and public engagement.
● Scholarship and Interpretation: Generate and, as needed, edit scholarly publications and
other forms of writings (essays, exhibition texts, labels, and digitally shared content)
related to the exhibition program and the collection.
● Community: Participate in cross-departmental and community-based committees and
initiatives as needed.
External Communications and Fundraising
● Provide content to inform fundraising and communications strategies that promote the
Colby Museum, its programs and its scholarship broadly. Draft content for grants; ensure
the timely contribution of content by curatorial staff. Cultivate donors and actively solicit
gifts of art. Partner with the director to steward relationships with key benefactors as well
as artists who are represented in the museum’s collection. Regularly report on donor
interactions and communications.
● Prepare reports and other communications, ensuring the effective management of
grant-funded curatorial projects.
● Actively represent the museum in media stories, digital contexts and in-person settings.
● Participate in and attend local, regional, and art world events making the museum visible
among the communities we serve while listening and learning from our audiences and
partners.
● Cultivate and solicit collectors and donors to support artistic projects, collections
development, and museum priorities in consultation with the director, deputy director for
planning and operations, director of museum development and Advancement colleagues.
● Inspire a positive and supportive working relationship with the Museum Board of
Governors and attend meetings.
Position Qualifications
Education and Experience:
● Masters degree required, knowledge of art history and proven track record of direct working
relationships with artists.
● Seven to ten years of experience working in the arts, culture and/or education; minimum
five years of progressive leadership experience in curatorial practice in exhibition,
publications, collections, and artistic program management. Demonstrated experience
managing staff and budgets.
● Distinguished track record of developing and realizing exhibitions and publications,
conducting strategic collections research and development, and collaborating on
interpretation and public programs.
Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities
● Effective management and mentorship of staff, students, and emerging professionals.
● Strong organizational skills and ability to establish and communicate priorities; project
and budget management skills, cross-departmental leadership and collaboration skills,
meeting management; negotiation skills.
● Strong written and oral communication skills, including interpersonal skills and public
speaking; ability to compellingly communicate the museum’s mission, vision, and artistic
program to a diversity of audiences.
● Demonstrated passion for the value of a liberal arts education and commitment to
fostering an equitable work environment supportive of people from different cultures,
backgrounds, and life paths.
● Ability to use a team approach to plan and produce complex, interdisciplinary
programming, and to integrate community engagement within curatorial processes of
exhibition-making and interpretation. Ability to assess and act on opportunities to
increase the narrative complexity and diversity of the museum’s collections and
programs, advance equity in our daily practices and work culture, and to promote and
implement inclusive practices across all aspects of curatorial work.
To Apply:
Interested candidates should apply electronically by clicking the “Apply Now” button on the Colby College website. Please upload a cover letter and resume to your application. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Apply here
