Position Description

Performs professional duties in a specialized collection such as art, history, education, or natural sciences in an assigned area. Supervises all personnel assigned to a specialized area including professional, technical, clerical, graduate assistants, and volunteer staff.

About the Department and/or College

The Museum of Texas Tech University (hereafter The Museum) welcomes applications for the Helen DeVitt Jones Curator of Art. The Museum is looking for an imaginative, forward-thinking, and collaborative art historian, storyteller, and aesthete who is fascinated by the process of art-making.

Reporting to the Executive Director and working in close collaboration with the other museum divisions, the Curator will lead the Museum’s art division. The Museum’s art collection includes over 25,000 artworks of the visual arts, especially emphasizing their relevance, history, and impact in the regions of the Southwestern United States. The collection includes 20th and 21st-century art of the Southwest, the Diamond M Art Collection, the Talkington Collection, the Artist Printmaker/Photographer Research Collection, Dr. Robert Neff and Louise Willson Arnold Collection, 20th and 21st-century three-dimensional art forms (glassware, sculpture, etc.), and Pre-Colombian Art.

The successful candidate will (1) develop programs, innovative in-house and travel exhibitions (with the exhibits division), and special guided tours to captivate the public and broaden our impact in the community and beyond as an academic resource, cultural attraction, and stimulator of humanity’s ideals; (2) grow the collection through donor gifts, selective purchasing, and building relationships with artists and studios in areas that are within the scope of the division’s collection and collection plan; (3) conduct active research and produce publications (peer-reviewed, books, etc.) that will elevate both the candidate’s specific area(s) of interest and the research strength of the Museum and the University; (4) communicate, facilitate, and generate more accessibility of our dynamic art collections for external researchers and university students use; and (5) assist the Museum to flourish through building advocates in the community, cultivating relationships with potential donors, and assisting the Executive Director in projects that provide the division and institution sustainability and support.

The Museum of Texas Tech University was established in 1929 and includes nearly 250,000 square feet of enclosed space (the main museum building and the Bob Nash Interpretive Center at Lubbock Lake Landmark). The Museum is a multi-disciplinary institution that includes active collecting and research in anthropology, art, clothing & textiles, history, the natural sciences, and paleontology. The Museum includes the main museum building with the Natural Science Research Laboratory (NSRL) and the 360-acre Lubbock Lake Landmark archaeology and natural heritage site. With a staff of more than 50, the Museum sees on average over 160,000 visitors and participants a year. The Museum of Texas Tech University also houses the University’s nationally recognized Heritage and Museum Sciences Master of Arts Program, which is educating the next generation of museum professionals.

Major/Essential Functions

• Provide oversight and leadership to a division staff member, graduate student apprentices, and volunteers through the utilization of a team-based approach. Provide systematic and strategic ideas to enhance the development of collection pieces to reflect the Museum’s mission and goals; update and communicate the Art Division’s collection plan with leadership; implement Museum collections management policies and procedures; provide basic collections management.
• Recommend the acquisitions of collections and ensure the authenticity of the collection. Collect and catalog donor information, artist information, provenance, and collection value for newly accessioned materials. Maintain curatorial electronic databases. Conduct conservation evaluations and stabilization efforts; conduct provenance research; foster donor relationships. Provide and monitor evaluations of the collection for insurance purposes. Conduct environmental monitoring in the collections rooms and maintain records. Coordinate with Museum Registrar on evaluations. ·
• Assist in the advocacy of the Museum by working with the Museum’s executive director, development personnel, education, and marketing and communication staff on projects, public events, and programming. Collaborate with campus personnel and entities and off-campus institutions to expand collections dissemination, potential partnerships, and research opportunities.
• Conduct and facilitate collections-based and discipline-based research, produce peer-reviewed publications, develop and submit grant proposals, and execute successfully funded projects.
• Maintain divisional infestation reports. Coordinate with Museum Registration and Operations staff.
• Carry out the responsibility in exploring topics, storyline development, collections research, assessment, and selection of objects and images, drafting text and labels for in-house exhibitions. Collaborate and coordinate with the Museum’s exhibits division. Coordinate with Exhibits Division the movement of objects between collections storage and exhibit galleries. Develop travel exhibitions for rental in coordination with the Museum’s exhibits division, the museum registrar, and marketing.
• Coordinate and work in partnership with the Education division to develop public programming (including special tours), for a large array of age groups.
• Provide assistance and collaborate with the Museum of Texas Tech University’s Museum Association on events and programs that complement both the division and Association.
• Maintain an active role in professional art and museum organizations.
• Deliberate loan requests and assess collections regarding availability and loan rigors. Coordinate all division loans with Museum Registrar. Complete condition reports and loan inventories. Update and maintain the division’s loan database. Coordinate with Museum Registrar regarding the distribution and receipt of collection loan agreements.
• Deliberate image use requests. Coordinate with the Museum Registrar.
• Advocate and liaison with University faculty members to collaborate with, and promote the use of, the Division and its collections and exhibits as part of undergraduate and graduate coursework and education programs.

Required Qualifications

• Master’s degree and two years of experience in a closely related field.

Preferred Qualifications

• Doctorate (Ph.D.) in an art-related field or art-centric museum studies field. Two – three+ years’ experience in a museum or non-profit cultural institution, preferably with 1+ years in a collections or director leadership role.