Curatorial Assistant at The Jewish Museum
Job Title: Curatorial Assistant
Job Status: Full-time
Location: New York, NY
Salary: $48,000 – $53,000
The Jewish Museum:
The Jewish Museum serves people of all religious, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds through world-class art exhibitions ranging from ancient to contemporary. Founded in 1904 and located on New York City’s Museum Mile, the Jewish Museum aspires to be the global leader at the center of Jewish culture.
The Museum maintains a unique collection of nearly 30,000 works of art, ceremonial objects, and media reflecting the global Jewish experience over more than 4,000 years. The Museum’s thought-provoking, innovative, and intellectually stimulating exhibitions and education programs serve a wide range of audiences, including families, teens, students, educators, and visitors with disabilities.
As an identity-based institution, the Museum plays an important role among cultural institutions, challenging all forms of bigotry and discrimination and promoting understanding among wide audiences. The Jewish Museum invites applicants of all backgrounds to consider joining the Museum in its work.
The Jewish Museum is committed to creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for all and to promoting a positive work culture that celebrates difference, challenges prejudice, and ensures fairness. Integrity, collegiality, and excellence are central to the Museum’s values. These values, along with an institution-wide commitment to Diversity, Equity, Access & Inclusion (DEAI), are embedded in the Museum’s strategic plan and will be the focus of a comprehensive DEAI action plan.
The Position:
The Jewish Museum seeks a dynamic Curatorial Assistant who will assist on exhibition development, object research, and general departmental support as needed for the curatorial division. In addition to participating in departmental activities, the Curatorial Assistant will liaise with guest curators, artists, designers, scholars, collectors, and curatorial colleagues within and beyond the Museum. This entry-level position is a great opportunity to learn the ins-and-outs of curation in its many forms and to be part of a lively team reflecting a wide range of interests and areas of expertise.
Typical Duties and Responsibilities:
- Play an essential role in exhibition support, from the scholarly to the logistical, including scheduling meetings, processing image requests, liaising with outside specialists and partners, identifying, and securing objects for loan, and assisting in the workflow as needed.
- Actively participate in implementation of the Museum’s DEAI Action Plan as it relates to the research, scholarship and exhibition support that is integral to the position.
- Serve as departmental coordinator for all permanent collection labels, working closely with Editorial on editing, proofing and – when appropriate – writing such labels for the galleries.
- Contribute text for press releases, catalogues, brochures, and exhibition fundraising, including text panels, essays, and catalogue entries.
- Provide support on all major acquisitions – fine arts as well as ceremonial objects — including assembling documentation, drafting synopses and narratives about the selected works of art, and assisting on meeting preparation.
- Work with staff in education, digital media, marketing, visitor services, operations, communications, and development to ensure smooth workflow and deadline coordination for projects in development.
- Participate in all departmental activities and brainstorming retreats for exhibitions and acquisitions and travel as necessary for professional development.
- Perform administrative functions in connection with daily museum and departmental business. Participate in the work of museum committees as assigned.
- Collaborate with peers in cross-departmental dialogue and idea development.
- Travel as time and budget allow for conferences, symposia, and professional development purposes.
Requirements
- _M.A. degree in Art History or Curatorial Studies
- Excellent written and editorial skills
- 1-2 years museum experience; curatorial experience preferred
- Knowledge of and/or interest in Jewish history and culture
- Ability to work independently and take initiative
- Computer and digital media literacy; working knowledge of TMS a plus.
The Jewish Museum is an Equal Opportunity Employer that is committed to building a culturally diverse staff and encourages applications from diverse candidates.