Kiki Pohlad '13 Curatorial Assistant

About the role

The Curatorial Assistant (CA) will assist the Associate Curator, Malloy Curator, and Dayton Director in research, administrative, and editorial tasks for exhibitions and accompanying publications. The CA will also help facilitate access to the museum collection; give public, private, and class-based tours of the museum and exhibitions; respond to external requests for images and research on the museum collection; and supervise student interns. The CA has the opportunity to propose and execute exhibitions and programs that they author.

The successful candidate will have a wide range of interests, the ability to learn quickly, an innate aptitude for flexibility, the ability to juggle multiple tasks on projects with both near and distant deadlines, and a positive solutions-oriented approach.

Responsibilities

• Assist in all aspects of department administration, providing critical support to the Associate Curator, Malloy Curator, and Dayton Director on all exhibitions, publications, and other projects.
• Organize and maintain exhibition checklists, keeping all images and artwork captions up-to-date and communicating changes to relevant departments.
• Communicate about curatorial projects across departments, including collaborating with registrars on loan requests, brainstorming with the engagement team about programming, offering ideas for social media and publicity, and providing feedback to designers.
• Communicate with external book designers and freelancers about individual projects.
• Write and/or edit exhibition and publication texts under the supervision of the organizing curator. Requires research skills, in-depth knowledge of contemporary art and art history, excellent writing skills, and experience in proofreading or editing texts. Knowledge of Chicago Manual of Style required.
• Organize exhibition images, including liaising with outside photographers, ensuring timely photography of exhibitions, reviewing and approving images with supervising curators, and managing approved images.
• Manage exhibition catalogs and other publications, ensuring projects stay on track by liaising with photo editors, designers, writers, outside editors, and printers. Edit or proofread texts from various sources and secure hi-res images and copyright permissions as needed.
• Support the Associate Curator on cataloging and digitization needs by researching the collection, completing data-entry tasks, and updating approved revisions in the collections management system, EmbARK. Experience with a collection management system preferred.
• Correspond and engage with museum colleagues and external scholars, including responding to requests for image publication, loan requests, and research on the Tang collection or past exhibitions.
• Represent the curatorial department, museum, and its mission by giving public and private tours, attending art fairs and conferences, and assisting in hosting visiting artists and scholars.
• Propose and execute authored exhibitions, programs, or other projects, managing all logistical details and collaborating with key artists.
• Supervise 3–5 student interns by assigning projects, providing training, and offering feedback on tasks.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field.
• Museum and/or prior work experience.
• Research skills and in-depth knowledge of contemporary art and art history.
• Excellent writing and editing skills; experience with proofreading or editing texts.
• Knowledge of Chicago Manual of Style.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks with varying deadlines and maintain a high level of organization.
• Experience with a collections management system is preferred but not required.

Pay

$24.73 - $25.83 per hour ($45,000-$47,000 annually) for a 35-hour-per-week, 12-month position.

Schedule

35 hours per week, 12 months per year.