Position: Education Curator
Reports to: Director of Programs
Job Summary: The Education Coordinator is responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of programming resources and educational materials for exhibitions organized or produced by the Visual Arts and Humanities (VAH) division of Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA).
Representative Examples of Work Performed:
- Accomplish the work of Mid-America Arts Alliance
- Implement the organization’s mission strengthening communities and Improving lives through extraordinary cultural experiences.
- Sustain the purpose of the Visual Arts and Humanities division by helping to create access to an array of arts and humanities exhibitions, nurture the development and understanding of diverse art forms and cultures, and encourage the expanding depth and breadth of cultural life in local communities.
- Develop and produce programming resources and educational materials for NEH on the Road, ExhibitsUSA, HELP! and other special projects.
- Develop and Implement Educational Programming
- Develop and produce programming resources, interactives and educational materials including programming guides, Teacher/Docent Packets, labels, text panels, gallery guides, and hands-on materials.
- Identify key concepts and research, write, and/or purchase appropriate materials necessary to convey the curatorial theme of each exhibition to constituents.
- Provide educational support and guidance for exhibitors of traveling exhibitions. Duties include answering questions, reprinting programming guides, labels, and text panels, replacing old or lost books and videos, locating missing educational material, and providing labels and other information on disk upon request.
- Monitor and assess success of educational materials and make adjustments to meet the needs of constituents.
- Research, develop, and manage portions of the exhibition budgets pertaining to educational materials during the exhibition’s development and tour.
- Coordination of Departmental Work
- Administer all grants for education programs associated with ExhibitsUSA or NEH on the Road exhibitions. Duties include answering questions, working with the Exhibitor Relations Department, adjudicating applications, managing budgets, entering data, and compiling reports.
- Identify and manage consultants to produce support material for specific exhibitions. This includes overseeing the content, scope, and delivery of appropriate materials.
- Keep abreast of trends and directions in arts, humanities, museum, and community-based education and integrate that knowledge into educational materials for ExhibitsUSA.
- Perform other duties as may be discussed with and assigned by COO and/or CEO of Mid-America Arts Alliance.
Essential Functions: All responsibilities related to coordinating the educational programming efforts of the Visual Arts and Humanities Division.
Working Conditions: Most work is of a sedentary nature, sitting at a desk using a computer, phone and other office equipment. Will occasionally be required to travel to attend various Board meetings and/or other agency events. Work requires extensive reading, editing, researching, and evaluating a variety of materials. While a majority of work occurs in relation to a long term plan, the individual will be required to be flexible to changing priorities and additional projects that can require overtime and ability to manage short term deadlines.
The following are key items that will be utilized to evaluate performance of the work:
- Demonstrated ability to produce high quality educational programming.
- Development, implementation, and evaluation of effective educational programming strategies.
- Maintain quality constituent relationships via phone calls, email, mailings and other methods determined by programming needs.
- Management of contractors to ensure a high performance level.
- Effective working relationships with all divisions.
- Pro-active approach to the Education program.
- Bachelor’s degree in education, museum studies, art history, or a related field and three year’s experience in developing educational programming.
- Ability to build relationships and communicate with a national constituent base via telephone, email, direct mail, and in-person contacts.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to collaborate with staff, professional colleagues, and supporters.
- General knowledge of museum theory, practice, and operations.