Museum Diversity Fellow–Museum Education, Reynolda House Museum of American Art

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:

  • Schedule, plan, and facilitate tours and art experiences for self-contained, exceptional children’s classes.

  • 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.

  • Plan and facilitate monthly family studio art workshops for 1st – 6th graders and accompanying adults.

  • Give public talks on objects in the collection.

  • Assist with other educational programming and trainings.

  • Participate in evaluation of the Museum Diversity Fellowship.

  • Represent the museum as a recipient of the Walton-Ford Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative fellowship.

  • Handle registrations for programs.

  • 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.

  • Ability to work flexible schedule to include evening and weekend hours

  • Strong interest and experience in art making, object-based teaching, and facilitating learning experiences

  • Strong interest in and experience working with children (formal or informal)

  • Sensitivity to the needs and learning styles of individual visitors, with a helpful disposition for interacting with the public

  • Ability to work as a team member and independently on multiple and diverse tasks

  • 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 the 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 workspace.

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.