Director of Development at New Britain Museum of American Art
Job Title: Director of Development
Job Status: Full-time
Location: New Britain, CT
Salary: : $145,000 – $175,000
Description
The Aspen Leadership Group is proud to partner with the New Britain Museum of American Art in the search for a Director of Development.
Working in close alliance with the Director and Chief Executive Officer, Board of Trustees, and senior staff, the Director of Development will lead and build upon all development activities including individual and corporate membership; annual gifts; corporate, foundation, and government grants; major gifts; planned gifts; endowment; special events; and campaigns. The Director of Development will identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward a portfolio of major individual, corporate, and foundation donors and prospects towards a current annual fundraising goal of $2 million that is expected to grow in the coming years.
The New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA), located in New Britain, Connecticut, was founded in 1903, making it the first museum of strictly American art in the country. A gift of $20,000 of gold bonds to the Museum’s former parent, the New Britain Institute, from industrialist John Butler Talcott, provided funds to purchase modern oil paintings. Further purchases with advice from New York museums and galleries led to the accumulation of the more than 9,000 works of art that make up the permanent collection. Representing over three centuries of the major artists and movements of American art, the collection contains paintings, works on paper, sculptures, videos, and photographs. Highlights of the collection include colonial and federal portraits, Hudson River School landscapes, and American Impressionists, not to mention the important mural series The Arts of Life in America by Thomas Hart Benton. The singular focus on American art and its view of American artistic achievement makes the New Britain Museum of American Art a significant teaching resource available to the local, regional, and national public.
In addition to showing its permanent collection, the Museum mounts 10+ changing exhibitions per year featuring American masters, emerging artists, and private collections. Recent examples include 30 Americans, which showcased an ambitious array of leading Black artists from the Rubell Family Collection, and Edward Burtynsky: Earth Observed, which traced the pioneering photographer’s decades-long engagement with humanity’s impact on our landscape.
The New Britain Museum of American Art offers programming for all ages. School visits (historically 10,000+ served per year) are designed to augment curricula and engage students in dialogue and discovery as they view artworks in the galleries and create hands-on art projects in the American Savings Foundation Art & Education Center with three age-appropriate studios. The Museum also offers educators and administrators professional development and classroom enrichment. Opportunities for engaging with families are equally important to the NBMAA. Summer camps, studio classes for children and youth, and family events are regular offerings on the calendar. For adults, the Museum runs creative studio classes and workshops, and hosts gallery talks, lectures, films, concerts, performances, and social events. For the community-at-large the Museum offers programming surrounding Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, and Juneteenth.
The New Britain Museum of American Art is committed to fulfilling its mission to tell the unfolding story of America through its art and history by including narratives of underrepresented cultures, viewpoints, and artists in its permanent collection, acquisitions, exhibitions, and educational programming. Through critical review of its Board of Trustees, leadership, staffing, and volunteer opportunities, it strives to be a better reflection of the community it serves. Toward that end, the Museum has established a Diversity Task Force of leadership, staff, and volunteers to increase diversity, equity, inclusion, and access across the organization and DEIA goals and strategies per department. The NBMAA has instituted training for staff, and incorporated DEIA curricula in docent training including workshops and presentations by scholars on such topics as Meeting the Moment: Museums, Race, and Building the Future; and Navigating Difficult Conversations, Exploring Unconscious Bias, with recommended readings and statements from artists responding to ongoing issues of racial injustice and inequality.
Requirements
The New Britain Museum of American Art will consider candidates with a broad range of backgrounds. A bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education and experience and at least seven years of development experience in an organization of similar size and budget, ideally within the arts and culture sector, is preferred. All applications must be accompanied by a cover letter and resume. Cover letters should be responsive to the mission of the New Britain Museum of American Art as well as the responsibilities and qualifications stated in the position prospectus.
Preference will be given to applications received by May 17, 2023.