Donald and Marilyn Keough Curatorial Fellow (Limited term)

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With the generous support of the Donald and Marilyn Keough Foundation, the Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame has established a pre-doctoral, curatorial fellowship focused primarily on the development of its growing collection of Irish art dating back to the eighteenth century. The Fellow will be appointed for 12 months, working 30 hours per week with the assumption that the remaining 10 hours will be dedicated to the completion of the dissertation. The fellowship carries a $36,000 stipend plus benefits, including medical benefits, life insurance and two-weeks vacation, with an additional $2,000 travel fund to conduct research or attend conferences related to the Museum’s collections. The Fellow will be appointed for one-year with the possibility of renewal (with an attendant standard 3% increase of the stipend) based on progress toward completion of the dissertation and the advancement of the Museum’s objective to raise the profile of its collections through publications, participation in conferences, and the organization of exhibitions. The 12-month appointment runs on the University’s academic calendar, beginning in mid-August or early September 2022. This role does offer a hybrid work schedule.

Job description

The primary responsibility will include research into the Snite Museum’s growing collection of Irish prints, drawings, paintings, sculpture, and photographs. The Museum values its collaborations with the Keough-Naughton Institute for Irish Studies (KNI) and the Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC) division of Hesburgh Libraries whose holdings of Irish material is well known and highly esteemed. Reporting to the Curator of European and American Art before 1900, Fellows will have full access to these resources and the many faculty and visiting scholars from a wide array of disciplines they attract.

This is an especially exciting time for the visual arts at the University of Notre Dame as the Snite Museum prepares to transition into the new Raclin Murphy Museum of Art. Phase one of the building featuring permanent and temporary exhibition galleries and education spaces is scheduled to be complete in 2022 with a target date of opening to the public in fall 2023. The Keough Fellow’s curatorial research would be immediately relevant in planning for the interpretation of the collections in new installations of the RMMA’s permanent galleries, digital interpretation, and planning temporary exhibitions. A chief initiative is the organization of an exhibition focusing on the Irish artist Walter Osborne tentatively scheduled for 2025. The Fellow’s efforts at completing cataloguing will further contribute to the Museum’s ongoing collection digitization project entitled Marble.

The Snite Museum has an active academic program, serving more than 10,000 university students from many disciplines every year. In light of the increasing collaborative opportunities between the Snite Museum and KNI resulting from the growth of the Irish art collection, the Fellow may, at times, be asked to assist with supporting these classes by coordinating with the curator of education and her efforts to provide meaningful access to the collection not currently on view.

Application process

Along with your application, resume, and cover letter we ask you to submit the following in the “other documents” field:

1. A writing sample
2. A page with 2 references with their phone number and email address
3. A letter of interest identifying the relevance of the Snite Museum’s collections to their research from faculty and/or previous employers sent under separate cover.

Applications will be reviewed by the Curator of European and American Art before 1900, the Curator of Education for Academic Programs, and one outside University of Notre Dame faculty from KNI or Rare Books and Special Collections, Hesburgh Libraries. The Director of the Snite Museum will have final approval of the appointment.

For more information, please refer to the website of organisation.