Consulting Curator for Yin Yu Tang

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Founded in 1799 in Salem, Massachusetts, 15 miles from Boston, the Peabody Essex Museum is the oldest continuously operating museum in the United States. PEM has achieved a singular record of growth over the last decades. In 2003, when Yin Yu Tang first joined the campus, PEM completed one of the most striking museum transformations in American history, expanding the operating budget from $3M to more than $29M, and adding over 250,000 square feet of new and renovated gallery and public spaces. A 2019 expansion added an additional 40,000 square feet of new gallery space.

The museum’s many collection areas are among the finest of their kind, showcasing American, Asian and Asian Export, African, Contemporary, Maritime, Native American, and Oceanic art, as well as Architecture, Fashion and Textiles, and Photography. The museum presents a vibrant schedule of changing exhibitions, many organized and circulated nationally and internationally developed by internal teams and guest curators, and others organized by leading museums in North America, Europe, and Asia.

PEM’s adventuresome curatorial approach emphasizes innovation, crisp execution, and close partnership across departments and with external, leading-edge thinkers in a range of fields. The position provides a range of opportunities for the curator to leverage team resources with reference to current trends and new developments in various fields.

PEM seeks an innovative Consulting Curator with deep experience in Chinese vernacular art, architecture, and history to enhance PEM’s interpretation of Yin Yu Tang in preparation for celebrating the 20th anniversary of this mid-Qing dynasty merchant’s house at PEM.

Yin Yu Tang—translated as “Hall of Plentiful Shelter”—was home to the Huang family for more than two hundred years. Built in the Huizhou region of southeastern China and re-erected on PEM’s campus in 2003, Yin Yu Tang continues to be a major driver for visitation to the Museum. Representing Chinese culture from around 1800 to the late 20th century, Yin Yu Tang reveals the Huizhou region’s unique architectural style as well as diverse cultural changes that occurred in China throughout the home’s occupancy. Relocated from its original site in China in 1997, the house was transformed from a multigenerational family residence to an historic house in a museum setting at PEM. Yin Yu Tang has been interpreted as it appeared when it was last occupied by the Huang family in 1982, allowing visitors to gain rare perspectives into Chinese art, architecture, and culture through the history of the house and its owners. This unique, immersive environment tells a captivating story of daily life in rural China.

The central responsibility of this 2-year position will be to develop a new interpretive approach for the house, which will be expressed in the house itself, in an adjacent interpretive gallery for Yin Yu Tang, and on a new microsite dedicated to Yin Yu Tang. Additionally, this position will work collaboratively with team members in Curatorial, Education and Institutional Advancement to develop a slate of innovative programming that will enhance the visitor experience of this unique historic home.

Reporting to the Associate Director – Collections, the Consulting Curator for Yin Yu Tang will work collaboratively with a team of internal and external partners to enhance visitors’ experience of Yin Yu Tang via its interpretation on multiple platforms.

Responsibilities include:

Develop an overarching interpretive strategy for Yin Yu Tang
Develop new approaches for the delivery of information and experiences within the house
Develop an interpretive approach and curatorial content for a new 2100 square foot gallery adjacent to Yin Yu Tang to augment visitors’ experience of the house
Conceptualize and implement the inclusion of curatorial content into a new microsite dedicated to Yin Yu Tang
Develop strategy for a slate of engaging and ongoing programming and publishing related to Yin Yu Tang and Chinese art and culture at PEM
Promote Yin Yu Tang by expanding the museum’s international network relevant to Chinese art and culture
Provide tours of Yin Yu Tang to select patron and school groups
Collaborate with Yin Yun Tang’s collection management team as well as PEM’s collection and registration teams to support their work in Yin Yu Tang
Collaborate with Education and Civic Engagement team to create educational tours for intergenerational audiences
Collaborate with Institutional Advancement team to engage with funders
Participate in Curatorial meetings and other PEM departmental meetings when appropriate
Other duties as required

The successful candidate will:

Have an advanced degree in art history, history or cultural studies, with a specialty in Chinese art and culture (PhD or Master’s degree preferred)
Be fluent in English and Chinese
Possess previous experience organizing innovative museum exhibitions and installations
Have experience working collaboratively with curatorial, interpretive, education and programming staff
Possess good communication skills, the ability to write clear and engaging text, and the ability to speak eloquently to the public
Knowledge of the guiding principles of historic preservation a plus
Be an outcome-oriented, hard worker with a high energy level and initiative; a “doer” with a willingness to work hands-on
Be a mission-driven individual with a commitment to PEM’s core values and transformative goals, open to experimentation and thinking “outside the box”
Be a good listener and strategist; comfortable receiving input from many sources, and able to analyze and formulate disparate information into sound, well-organized goals, strategies, and proposals.
Be a partner able to flexibly collaborate with people of diverse areas of expertise, experience, cultures, and personalities.
Be an emotionally mature individual with strong self-awareness and a good sense of humor.

This is a full-time, benefits eligible position located in Salem, MA. Eligibility to work in the United States is required. PEM is committed to diversity among its employees and encourages qualified candidates from all backgrounds to apply.

CHINESE COLLECTION AT PEM

Peabody Essex Museum’s collection of Chinese art has unique strengths in 18th, 19th, and 20th-century art and material culture. Areas of emphasis include: textiles including embroidered apparel, screens, hangings, bed coverings, and patchwork which comprise 40% of the overall collection; religious objects, among them paintings, woodblock prints, and sculptures; decorative, daily use and celebratory objects such as porcelain and woodblock prints; imperial portraits, porcelain, and sculpture; painting and calligraphy from 1700 to the present, including examples of contemporary art representing traditional and non-traditional art forms; and art works that manifest influences from American and European cultures. Many of these collection areas are absent at most other museums.

PEM’s Chinese collection is richly complemented by the museum’s Asian export, library, maritime, 19th-century photography, and textiles and costume holdings. The museum’s photography collection includes unrivalled holdings in 19th- century photographs of China, many of them unique or exceedingly rare. The Phillips Library’s ships’ logs, diaries, cargo lists, commercial papers, firsthand accounts, and rare books and maps help to document America’s early relationships with China. The Frederick Townsend Ward Collection at the Phillips Library is one of the world’s outstanding collections of Western-language books, pamphlets, periodicals and rare maps and prints on the history of China. The library’s Herbert Offen Research Collection emphasizes Chinese architecture, furniture, and gardens.