Assistant Curator of Ceramics

The Museums at Washington and Lee are thrilled to announce the launch of an exciting new chapter at the Art Museum and Galleries—an inaugural endowed curatorial initiative: The Euchlin D. Reeves Curatorial Fellowship for Ceramic Art. The curatorial fellowship is a testament to our commitment to ceramics education and our dedication to broadening the scope of our collection. The fellowship is designed to attract emerging curators, deepen scholarship, and expand our national reach, all while researching our esteemed ceramics collection to enhance the visibility and impact of the museum.

Reporting to the Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs (ADCA), The Assistant Curator of Ceramics will educate, provoke, and engage others about ceramics, work with ADCA to enhance and grow the collection, and further position the Museums and Washington and Lee as a leader in ceramics through outreach, exhibitions, and publications.

The curatorial fellow must be in residence at the W&L Art Museum and Galleries in Lexington, Virginia, during the fellowship period, starting in late Fall 2024, lasting for three years, with the possibility of contract renewal or promotion to a permanent position.

About the Museum at Washington and Lee:

The Museums at W&L encompass two distinct entities: the Art Museum and Galleries, and the Institutional History Museum and Chapel Galleries. Each is dedicated to showcasing unique collections and exhibitions, and building a community inspired by art and history. The W&L Art Museum and Galleries include three sites: the Reeves Museum of Ceramics, Watson Galleries, Washington Gallery, and the McCarthy Gallery.

The Museums’ mission is to promote learning through direct engagement with its collections and to foster an interdisciplinary appreciation of art, history, and culture. It achieves this through a variety of permanent and rotating exhibitions that support the liberal arts curriculum, align with the university’s academic objectives, and reflect the diverse interests of the community. With approximately 15,000 objects from diverse periods, geographies, and various media in its decorative and fine arts collection, the Art Museum and Galleries offer students and faculty opportunities for research, internships, employment, exhibitions, and programmatic offerings.

The Reeves Collection of Ceramics has a storied history. In 1967, Washington and Lee University received 200 barrels filled with over 2,000 ceramic treasures from Asia, Europe, and America, dating from 1500 to 1900. This generous gift from alumnus Euchlin D. Reeves, Law Class of 1927, and his wife, painter Louise Herreshoff, laid the foundation for what is now the Reeves Museum of Ceramics. Through subsequent gifts and acquisitions, our collection has grown to approximately 6,000 ceramics alongside 8,000 fine arts items, including 200 of Herreshoff’s paintings, and is particularly noted for its nationally significant holdings of Chinese and Japanese export porcelain.

About Washington and Lee University:

Washington and Lee University (W&L) is a small liberal arts college nestled in the Virginia mountains, with an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 1,860. W&L is the ninth-oldest college in the U.S. and a top-ranked private university. W&L is located in Lexington (pop. 7,000), a vibrant and picturesque town in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.  Visit jobs.wlu.edu to learn more about working at W&L, our benefits, community, and living in the area.

To achieve our mission as a liberal arts college, we continually strive to foster an inclusive campus community, which recognizes the value of all persons regardless of identity. Along with the University, Museums at W&L is committed to contributing to an educational environment that is rich with cultural, social, and intellectual diversity.

Essential Functions: 

• Contribute to knowledge about the collections and increase access to the collections through deep research and cataloguing, including interdisciplinary interpretation and provenance research.
• Curate wide-ranging exhibitions and installations of historic, modern and contemporary ceramics.
• Assist the ADCA with formulating plans for continuing to grow and shape the Reeves collection, including the collection’s growing subset of modern and contemporary ceramics.
• Expand physical and digital access to ceramics collections, establish priorities for storage and display, and work with contracted specialists to identify conservation needs and treatment.
• Assist with establishing priorities for storage and display, and work with contracted specialists to identify conservation needs and treatment.
• Supervise interns and students.
• Support the University’s teaching needs by facilitating direct engagement with the ceramic collection, including teaching or co-teaching courses, conducting gallery-based class visits, or leading object study sessions.
• Develop and contribute to public and campus-based programs, lectures, and other special events, including programs for and with students and faculty, with particular attention to expanding and diversifying Museum audiences.
• Represent the Museum and contribute to the field through participation in conferences, public lectures, publications, and institutional and scholarly partnerships.
• Inspire researchers, scholars, and students beyond the southeast to engage with the Museum’s collections, exhibitions, events, and other activities.

Minimum Qualifications:

• A master’s degree in material culture, decorative arts, history, art history, anthropology or related field. Candidates with a doctoral degree must have been officially conferred within seven years of the start date of the fellowship. 
• Knowledge of museum ethics and the legal regulations governing collecting.
• Demonstrated strength working collaboratively and in an innovative manner.
• Special consideration will be given to candidates with special research focuses in American, European, or East Asian ceramics. 

Pay: Anticipated pay for this role is $62,000

Please upload the following documents in the cover letter and resume document upload section of the application:

• Cover letter Should include your reasons for applying, and specific areas of research and their relationship to the museum’s collection. Should not exceed 1,000 words
• Full curriculum vitae of education, professional experience, honors, awards, and publications
• Copy of a recent writing sample or published paper.

Application Instructions:  

Review of applications will begin October 14 and continue until the position is filled.  You will be asked to provide names and contact information for three professional references. Include at least one academic reference and one professional reference from recommenders who know your work well.

Application instructions and information about Washington and Lee University can be located at https://www.wlu.edu/employment-opportunities.

Physical Requirements: 

• Fingering: Picking, pinching, typing or otherwise working, primarily with fingers rather than with whole hand or arm as in handling.
• Grasping: Applying pressure to an object with the fingers and palm.
• Repetitive motions: Making substantial movements (motions) of the wrists, hands, and/or fingers.
• Walking: Moving about on foot to accomplish tasks, particularly for long distances or moving from one work site to another.
• Standing: Remaining upright on the feet, particularly for sustained periods of time.
• Balancing: Maintaining body equilibrium to prevent falling when walking, standing or crouching on narrow, slippery or erratically moving surfaces. This factor is important if the amount and kind of balancing the amount and kind of balancing exceeds that needed for ordinary locomotion and maintenance of body equilibrium.
• Climbing: Ascending or descending ladders, stairs, scaffolding, ramps, poles and the like, using feet and legs and/or hands and arms. Body agility is emphasized. This factor is important if the amount and kind of climbing required exceeds that required for ordinary locomotion.
• Stooping: Bending body downward and forward by bending spine at the waist. This factor is important if it occurs to a considerable degree and requires full use of the lower extremities and back muscles.
• Kneeling: Bending legs at knee to come to a rest on knee or knees.
• Crouching: Bending the body downward and forward by bending leg and spine.
• Crawling: Moving about on hands and knees or hands and feet.
• Reaching: Extending hand(s) and arm(s) in any direction.
• Pushing: Using upper extremities to press against something with steady force in order to thrust forward, downward or outward.
• Pulling: Using upper extremities to exert force in order to draw, drag, haul or tug objects in a sustained motion.
• Lifting: Raising objects from a lower to a higher position or moving objects horizontally from position to position. This factor is important if it occurs to a considerable degree and requires the substantial use of the upper extremities and back muscles.

Working Conditions: The worker is not substantially exposed to adverse environmental conditions.

Types of Work: Light work: Exerting up to 20 pounds of force occasionally, and/or up to 10 pounds of force frequently, and/or a negligible amount of force constantly to move objects. If the use of arm and/or leg controls requires exertion of forces greater than that for Sedentary Work and the worker sits most of the time, the job is rated for Light Work.