The three-year-long Arches Project had 200 people with disabilities help design technologies to help with visitors. [The Art Newspaper]
Penn Museum Redesign Aims Beyond Academics
The Penn Museum, geared towards becoming “a more public institution” has reinstalled its galleries with thousands of artifacts that have previously been in storage.
The museum has also created a program for immigrants and refugees from Africa, Central America, Mexico, Iraq, and Syria to guide visitors through the museum and speak about the collections of antiquities from their native countries. [The New York Times]
Museum Diversity Fellow – Museum Education, Reynolda House Museum of American Art
Summary: The 2020–2021 Reynolda House Museum Diversity Fellowship is a year-long position in the education department at Reynolda House Museum of American Art. This fellowship is a part of the Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative (DAMLI). DAMLI, funded by the Ford Foundation and Walton Family Foundation, seeks to provide professional art museum experience and mentorship to individuals from diverse backgrounds, especially those underrepresented in the museum field. The grant is designed to diversify leadership in art museums; the Fellowship will assist in this goal by providing foundational, entry-level museum experience to recent college graduates.
The Museum will give preference to applicants who express how their background, interests, and professional goals will add to the diversity of Reynolda House and to the work of art museums. Reynolda House does not seek to define or limit what constitutes diversity.
Essential Functions:
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Schedule, plan, and facilitate tours and art experiences for self-contained, exceptional children’s classes.
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Lead tours of the historic house, art collection, and temporary exhibitions for diverse audiences including K-12 school groups, visitors with special needs, senior citizens and the general public.
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Plan and facilitate monthly family studio art workshops for 1st – 6th graders and accompanying adults.
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Give public talks on objects in the collection.
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Assist with other educational programming and trainings.
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Participate in evaluation of the Museum Diversity Fellowship.
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Represent the museum as a recipient of the Walton-Ford Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative fellowship.
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Handle registrations for programs.
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Potentially drive college interns on field trips.
Required Education, Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:
- Applicants must have graduated with a bachelor’s degree in relevant field (e.g. studio art, art history, education, cultural studies, etc.) within the last five years.
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Ability to work flexible schedule to include evening and weekend hours
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Strong interest and experience in art making, object-based teaching, and facilitating learning experiences
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Strong interest in and experience working with children (formal or informal)
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Sensitivity to the needs and learning styles of individual visitors, with a helpful disposition for interacting with the public
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Ability to work as a team member and independently on multiple and diverse tasks
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Ability to appropriately interpret policy and procedures established within the museum
Physical Requirements:
- Medium physical work.
- Balancing, stooping, reaching, standing, walking, lifting, grasping, fingering, talking and hearing.
- Activities occur primarily inside but also outside.
Supervisory Responsibility:
Models instruction for special needs and older adult tours. Provides training, work direction and problem solving for semester college interns, serving as a peer mentor. Instructs adult volunteers in assignment of duties. Teaches studio art classes for children and adults.
Funding for the position is provided through the Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative. The Walton Family Foundation and Ford Foundation have committed $6 million ($3 million each) over three years, starting in 2018, to support a limited number of U.S. art museums that are developing strategies and programs to diversify leadership in curatorial and museum management.
About Reynolda:
Reynolda, in Winston-Salem, N.C., is a rare gem among the nation’s cultural institutions and historic greenspaces that features a 50-year old American art museum at its center, Reynolda House Museum of American Art. The museum presents a renowned art collection in a historic and incomparable setting: the original 1917 interiors of the country manor of R. J. Reynolds. Spanning 250 years, the collection is an uncompromisingly selective one, a chronology of American art, with each artist represented by one work of major significance. The collection was assembled by the unerring eye of Barbara Babcock Millhouse, granddaughter of R. J. and Katharine Reynolds. The Reynolda estate includes 129 acres of formal gardens and trails, and boutique shopping and dining in more than 25 conserved, historic buildings. A new app available for free download, Reynolda Revealed, shares the stories of Reynolda both inside and out. Reynolda delivers experiences that enlighten the mind and revive the senses, and we prioritize creating an environment where people thrive.
Additional information on the DAMLI initiative:
https://ford-foundation-4.forms.fm/diversifying-art-museum-leadership-initiative-loi
Hiring Manager and contact: Julia Hood, Manager of School and Family Learning, 336-758-5599, hoodje@wfu.edu
Apply through: Job postings at Wake Forest University, http://www.wfu.careers/
Application Deadline: January 15, 2020
Start Date: July 1, 2020
Salary: $40,000 annually
Benefits: Medical insurance, tuition for a certificate program (Business Essentials for Nonprofit Certificate), computer, and work space.
Required for application:
Cover letter (1-2 pages as PDF), to include:
- Why you are interested in this position and how your past experience (formal or informal) prepares you for this role
- How this position would help prepare you for future career goals and how you anticipate this position would help you grow and develop as an arts educator/museum professional
- As stated above, this position is funded through a grant seeking to increase diversity from underrepresented groups in positions of leadership in museums. Please address the ways in which you embody diversity and how you see yourself being a leader (both diversity and leadership being broadly defined).
- Resume or C.V. (as PDF)
Additional Job Description
Time Type Requirement
Full time
Note to Applicant:
This position profile identifies the key responsibilities and expectations for performance. It cannot encompass all specific job tasks that an employee may be required to perform. Employees are required to follow any other job-related instructions and perform job-related duties as may be reasonably assigned by his/her supervisor.
In order to provide a safe and productive learning and living community, Wake Forest University conducts background investigations and drug screens for all final staff candidates being considered for employment.
Wake Forest seeks to recruit and retain a diverse workforce while promoting an inclusive work environment committed to excellence in the spirit of Pro Humanitate. In adherence with applicable laws and as provided by University policies, the University prohibits discrimination in its employment practices on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, genetic information, disability and veteran status and encourages qualified candidates across all group demographics to apply.
About Ourselves/Inside Ourselves at the Denison Museum
About Ourselves/Inside Ourselves, an exhibition that explores the interaction between LGBTQ+ identities and their history, opened at the Denison Museum on September 6 and runs through December 13, 2019.
This exhibition is the first at Denison to feature the work of artists from the LGBTQ+ community and has been five years in the making.
About Ourselves/Inside Ourselves showcases the work of Felix Gonzales Torres, David Wojnarowicz, Mickalene Thomas, and many others.
Sheilah ReStack, one of the Denison studio art professors included in the exhibition argued, “This is a show with a diversity of expression and mediums of expression. When I was a first-year student at my college, there would never have been a show like this. Let this work be a catalyst for conversation, dialogue, and inspiration.” [Denison]
Feminist Art Coalition Announcement
In the year leading up to the 2020 election, the Feminist Art Coalition will present a series of exhibitions and programs featuring feminist artists and themes. Forty-nine other museums across the country will also develop programming for the year as part of a consortium.
The current list of participants is as follows:
- 80 Washington Square East, New York University
- Arcadia Exhibitions, Spruance Gallery
- Arizona State University Art Museum
- Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena
- Art21
- The Arts Club of Chicago
- The Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College
- The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
- The Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York
- Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College
- DePaul Art Museum, Chicago
- Emerson College Media Art Gallery, Boston
- EMPAC at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- Fine Arts Gallery, School of Art, San Francisco State University
- The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
- The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College
- Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles
- Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle
- Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
- Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
- Jacob Lawrence Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle
- Lawndale Art Center, Houston
- LAXART
- Massachusetts College of Art and Design + MassArt Museum
- Menil Collection, Houston
- Mills College Museum
- MIT List Visual Arts Center
- Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
- Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Downtown
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
- Museum of Sonoma County, Santa Rosa
- Newcomb Art Museum, Tulane University, New Orleans
- Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)
- Pitzer College Art Galleries, Claremont, CA
- Queens Museum
- Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University
- The Renaissance Society, Chicago
- Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Museum
- Root Division, San Francisco
- San Jose Museum of Art
- Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA)
- Seattle Art Museum
- swissnex San Francisco
- Tufts University Art Galleries
- Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
- Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts
- Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
- Williams College Museum of Art (WMCA)
- Women Photographers International Archive, WOPHA
“Working together through an unprecedented cooperative partnership, the Feminist Art Coalition will generate a cultural space for engagement, reflection, and action, while recognizing the constellation of differences and multiplicity among feminisms,” said Apsara DiQuinzio, a curator and member of the steering committee. [e-flux]
To learn more about what is to come, check the Feminist Art Coalition website.
Princeton Art Museum Partners with Historically Black Colleges and Universities
The the HBCU (historically black colleges and universities) Alliance of Museums and Art Galleries and Princeton University Art Museum have come together to help increase diversity in the art leadership field. [HBCU Buzz]
Against the Ableism in the Arts
Emily Sara wrote an open letter to members of the art world to fight against ableism. [Hyperallergic]
Podcast: Stony Brook University Assistant Professor on Why it’s Time for Academics to Decolonize Queerness
Cherokee citizen and Stony Brook University assistant professor, Joseph Pierce advocates for us to question how queerness circulates and states, “the moment has come for queer academia to seriously question the roots of their discipline.” [Hyperallergic]
How Your Institution Can Help Fight Ableism
An open letter urging the art community to proactively support the neurodiverse and disabled communities. [Hyperallergic]
The American Alliance of Museums Reveals 51 Museums as Part of National Initiative to Diversify Museum Boards and Leadership
A survey conducted in 2017 by the AAM and BoardSource examined museum board leadership and found that nearly half (46 percent) of museum boards are entirely white, but only 10 percent of museum boards have developed a plan of action to become more inclusive.
The AAM revealed the name of museums to take part in a national initiative referred to as Facing Change: Advancing Museum Board Diversity & Inclusion. Among the museums included are UC Berkley Art Museum and the Weisman Art Museum located at the University of Minnesota. [The American Alliance of Museums]