Curatorial Projects Manager at the Museum of the City of New York
Job Title: Curatorial Projects Manager
Job Status: Full-time
Location: New York, NY
Salary: $62,500
The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) fosters understanding of the distinctive nature of urban life in the world’s most influential metropolis. It engages visitors by celebrating, documenting, and interpreting the city’s past, present, and future.
The Curatorial Projects Manager plays a critical role on the exhibition management team, overseeing day-to-day organization and implementation of approximately seven to ten exhibitions over the next one to two years. They coordinate the entire exhibition lifecycle from research and concept development to installation and project close. Acting as a liaison between internal departments (Curatorial, Design, Collections, IT) and external partners (designers, consultants, vendors), this role ensures seamless collaboration throughout exhibition development. This is a full-time, regular, position that reports directly to the Associate Director of Curatorial Projects.
Roles and Responsibilities:
• Actively facilitate collaboration between the Curatorial Department and all other internal stakeholders, and external designers, consultants, partners, and vendors to ensure the successful implementation of projects.
• Manage exhibition projects by creating and monitoring schedules for exhibition deliverables, assigning tasks, enforcing deadlines, and coordinating communication on progress and next steps.
• Develop and maintain project budgets in collaboration with the Associate Director of Curatorial Projects and the project team, including quarterly forecasting for departmental budgets.
• Lead postmortem reflections and leverage project management processes, best practices, and technology to continually improve workflows in the context of broader institutional objectives.
• Coordinate the development of exhibition designs (conceptual, schematic, technical) with the project team, ensuring accuracy through interdepartmental reviews and effective communication of changes.
• Support the Director of Exhibition Installation, exhibition designers, and vendors by creating and maintaining production, fabrication, and installation trackers to ensure all deliverables are produced on schedule, on budget, and to the required specifications.
• Organize and oversee the development, production, and editing of exhibition text, graphics, reproductions, and audiovisual content. Coordinate with the Administrative Assistant, Curatorial Affairs and exhibition designers to ensure quality and accuracy of all materials. Use Adobe InDesign and Illustrator for text layout.
• Manage collaboration between the project team, exhibition designers, and vendors to develop and realize opportunities for visitors to engage or interact with exhibition content or materials from initial conception and requirements gathering through production, installation, and routine maintenance.
• Actively oversee exhibition installation and manage related administrative tasks including file organization and archiving.
• Initiate, organize, and conduct meetings, supervise departmental interns, and facilitate content sharing with internal departments.
• Perform other duties as needed
A successful candidate will have:
• A commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion and a passion for advancing equity and addressing structural racism within nonprofit organizations
• Bachelor’s degree preferred; Associate’s degree accepted.
• Minimum of 2 years’ experience in exhibition or design production.
• Demonstrated experience in project management and process implementation.
• Proven ability to develop and manage budgets, with advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel.
• Foundation in exhibition management procedures is advantageous.
• Familiarity with Adobe InDesign and Illustrator is preferred.
• The desire to work in a collaborative, supportive collegial environment
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
Physical Requirements & Work Environment
This role requires being stationary for 75% of the time and navigating office and museum environments. Proficiency in operating office equipment and occasionally lifting up to 25 pounds is essential, along with significant wrist, hand, and finger movements. Strong visual acuity (close, distance, color, and peripheral vision) is necessary for tasks like data analysis and computer use. Occasional outdoor work and travel within the five boroughs may be required.
BENEFITS
The salary for this position is $62,500. The position offers a competitive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, FSA, HSA, life insurance, 401K and pension plan, short and long-term disability, critical illness, accident insurance, legal services and pet insurance, and Employee Assistance Program. The Museum has a generous paid time off policy including 12 sick days per year, vacation and 13 holidays. Your employment relationship with the Museum qualifies you for free or discounted admissions to other participating cultural institutions.
HOW TO APPLY
Please email your resume and cover letter to the Museum of the City of New York Attention: Human Resources Department to jobs@mcny.org. To be considered, please include Manager, Curatorial Projects within the subject line of your email.
The Museum of the City of New York is committed to fostering a collaborative and respectful work environment with a staff as diverse as New York City and the audiences who are curious about learning more about its history and engaging in contemporary urban issues. Our staff members are dedicated to working towards a common goal: creating the most dynamic and inspiring city museum in the world.
The Museum of the City of New York is an equal opportunity employer. As such, the museum provides equal employment opportunity for all employees and applicants without unlawful discrimination with respect to age, citizenship status, color, creed, disability, ethnicity, gender identification or expression, marital status, military status or veteran, national origin, political association, political/personal convictions, predisposing genetic characteristics, race (including traits historically associated with race, such as hair texture and style), religion (including attire, clothing or facial hair worn in accordance with religious requirements), sex (including pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions and transgender status), sexual orientation, socio-economic status, geographic location, philosophies, or any other classification protected by federal, state or local laws, in all employment decisions, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, training, compensation, promotion, demotion, transfer, lay-off, and termination, and all other terms and conditions of employment. The Museum complies with applicable state and local law governing nondiscrimination in employment which prohibits discrimination and harassment against any employees, applicants for employment or interns, as well as contractors, subcontractors, vendors, consultants, other individuals providing services in the workplace or their employees in every location in which the Museum has facilities.