Audience Insight Analyst at the Walters Art Museum

ABOUT THE WALTERS ART MUSEUM

The Walters Art Museum is among Americas most distinctive museums, forging connections between people and art from cultures around the world and spanning seven millennia. Located in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood, the Walters is free for all. The museums campus includes five historic buildings and 36,000 art objects. The Walters Art Museum has a COVID-19 Vaccination Policy that requires all employees to be fully vaccinated per the CDC’s definition of full vaccination.

Today, the Walters serves Baltimore and Maryland by embracing its role as educator and storyteller, using the collection as a vehicle of knowledge and cultural expression to support learning, dialogue, and community engagement. The museum is committed to public education, offering essential programs that help people to connect art to their lives. The Walters Visitor Promise aligns staff and volunteers across the museum to preserve and share the works in our care for future generations, partner with communities, and create welcoming, accessible experiences for visitors. The museum offers challenging and creative work opportunities by promoting collaboration, teamwork, and a culture that celebrates the diversity and inclusion of all. In December 2020, the museum finalized a set of multiyear diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (DEAI) goals in alignment with the museums Strategic Plan and grounded in the following commitments: expand the histories the museum examines and share; partner with our communities; and center equity, inclusion, and accountability in our culture and decision-making.

Overview of Role

The Walters Art Museum is hiring an Audience Insights Analyst (AIA) to be a thought-partner on the Evaluation and Audience Impact team. The Audience Insights Analyst will support the research and evaluation efforts of the Walters Art Museum to further the institution’s understanding of and ability to support its audience. They will collaborate with teams across the museum to weave evaluation practices into internal processes. In this role, the AIA will contribute to projects including front-end through summative exhibition and program evaluation, as well as general audience research.  They will be responsible for collecting and analyzing data and for communicating findings to inform strategic decisions.

Qualified candidates will have strong interpersonal skills for engaging with visitors and technical research skills for performing qualitative and quantitative evaluation work. Prior research experience might include developing and conducting surveys, interviews, focus groups, and tracking/timing studies. The candidate should also be adept with data analysis tools (excel, SPSS, etc.) and able to distill findings into actionable next steps. This position is a hands-on role that requires creativity, collaboration, and a nimble working style. The role is well-suited for an individual who is passionate about learning, enjoys engaging with visitors, and likes digging into data. The Audience Insights Analyst will report to the Manager of Evaluation and Audience Impact and be a key member of the Visitor Experience Department.

Primary Responsibilities

• Support the Manager of Evaluation and Audience Impact and other stakeholders to implement research projects and conduct evaluations of exhibitions, programs, marketing strategies, and other potential experiences across the Walters Art Museum. 
  • Collaborate with stakeholders to understand research goals
  • Project manage research plans and timelines
  • Develop evaluation tools including surveys and interview guides and other testing materials for onsite and online data collection
  • Collect, clean, analyze, and interpret data from a variety of platforms and sources, such as excel, google analytics, SurveyMonkey, etc.
  • Translate results into meaningful findings and actionable recommendations
  • Clearly communicate results to internal and external stakeholders through written reports and public presentations
• Collaborate with crossmuseum teams to advocate for and weave evaluation work into museum practices
• Collect, analyze, and synthesize findings from across museum divisions to report on key metrics and elevate institutionwide trends
• Coordinate and manage research projects with outside vendors, monitoring response rate, reporting schedules, etc.
• Support the training of staff or volunteers involved in evaluation and data collection
• Represent the Evaluation and Audience Impact and Visitor Experience teams to internal and external stakeholders
• Stay current on best practices regarding visitor studies, audiencebased research, impact in museum and relevant fields.   
• Other duties as assigned.

Required Experience and Skills

• Bachelor’s Degree required, with a focus on Museum Studies, Education, Sociology, Marketing or other research-based related field of study. Masters’ Degree is preferred.
• 2-5 years of demonstrated experience in consumer insights, market research, visitor studies, user experience design, and/or data analytics.
• Familiar with a broad range of evaluation methodology and data collection techniques, including qualitative and quantitative evaluation and research methodologies.
• Computer proficiency to include Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook at the intermediate level.
• Experience working with survey platforms like Survey Monkey, Qualtrics, or other data collection tools; statistical analysis software or other relevant programs is a plus.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including ability to present to small and large groups, including staff, volunteers, and trustees.
• Strong analytic skills, including demonstrated ability to communicate complex ideas and use data to inform decision making processes.
• Excellent visitor service mindset, with a positive, proactive, and personal approach to support the visitor experience.
• Creative thinker, willingness to innovate and experiment with new modes of engaging visitors and collecting and interpreting data.
• Comfortable interacting with a diverse group of people.
• Enthusiastic desire and ability to work in cross-departmental and divisional teams, as well as to conduct independent work effectively.
• Passionate about furthering a visitor-centric culture of evaluation and research.
• Ability to multi-task, organize work, and meet deadlines with careful attention to detail.
• Availability for a Monday-Friday work week, some weekend and evening hours are required.

Schedule: Full time (40 hours per week; Monday-Friday; some weekend and night hours required.)

Salary: $40K-$45K/year

The Walters Art Museum provides an excellent comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental, prescription, vision, subsidized transportation and parking, museum membership, short term disability, FSA (flexible spending account), 457b retirement, and free professional financial management counseling.

All employees must be legally authorized to work in the United States.