Curator of Exhibitions

About the role

The Director, Conservation plays a pivotal role in the examination, documentation, preservation, restoration, analysis, and technical research of artworks in the Detroit Institute of Arts' encyclopedic collection and under its custody. Reporting to the Vice President, Exhibition and Collection Strategies, this position oversees departmental operations, manages a team, and collaborates across the museum to ensure the collection's care and the achievement of strategic goals.

Responsibilities

• Manage the department, setting priorities and goals, scheduling, and annual budget for all sections, ensuring alignment with the museum's strategic vision and annual goals.
• Mentor and develop a team to achieve departmental and divisional functions, including special exhibitions, permanent collection galleries, and loan logistics.
• Create a collaborative work environment through goal-setting, feedback, and development processes.
• Ensure all collection preservation activities adhere to the American Institute for Conservation Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice.
• Develop conservation plans and procedures, and collaborate with other teams on risk assessment, emergency planning, and preventive conservation measures.
• Act as the department's primary liaison, collaborating with other departments on special exhibitions, acquisition evaluations, and loan logistics.
• Oversee departmental public outreach and advocacy activities, including digital media, public lectures, and teaching.
• Lead fundraising efforts, including donor cultivation, endowment building, and grant-seeking activities.
• Promote technical research on artworks, documenting structures through reports, conducting scientific analyses, and imaging for acquisitions, treatments, and scholarly inquiries.
• Manage contracts, including budgets and schedules for conservation and other services.
• Foster IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) through the DIA's values and practices.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Education and Experience: Master's degree in art conservation from a recognized program. Ten years of progressive conservation experience, including preventative conservation, research, publications, or academic work, preferably in a large fine arts museum. Five years of management experience as a section head or equivalent, including supervisory responsibilities.
• Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: Strategic thinking, leadership, budget management, ethics, analytical techniques, digital photography, collections database software, communication, organization, environmental monitoring, decision-making, stakeholder engagement, ethical conduct, risk recognition, and technological proficiency.
• Physical Demands: Regular communication, exchange of accurate information, and occasional weekend and evening work.

THE DETROIT INSTITUTE OF ARTS IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER.