About the Art Museum
The Art Museum is an internationally renowned centre for contemporary art and interdisciplinary inquiry located on the University of Toronto’s downtown campus, in Canada’s largest and most diverse city. With its two distinct gallery spaces (the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery at Hart House and the University of Toronto Art Centre at University College), the Art Museum offers intensive cycles of programming dedicated to artistic and curatorial experimentation. Featuring works in a wide array of traditional and contemporary media, the Art Museum’s exhibitions are further complemented by energetic offsite projects, digitally accessible programs, and research engaging with the University of Toronto’s extensive contemporary and historical art collections.
Working with artists and curators of diverse backgrounds, embodiment and cultural contexts, the program emphasizes the intersectional potential of the visual arts and cultural practices, their ability to undo existing and model new identities, creating other ways of knowing and belonging. This includes an emphasis on critical engagements with local histories, attention to their complex embeddedness in local and global relations, and the development of other, possible stories.
An integral part of all our programs are the in-depth and wide-ranging experiential opportunities for students and faculty, emerging and established scholars, visitors and communities alike – with mentorships, academic and co-curricular engagement, co-productions, partnerships, and other participatory involvement — to catalyze the possibility of transdisciplinary knowledge and greater awareness of the worlds we share.
Above all, the Art Museum aspires to be a welcoming meeting point to bring into conversation the university community and broader publics. Creating multi-faceted opportunities for dialogue, our program fosters deeper knowledge of the visual arts, and especially their unique contribution to ways of seeing, hearing, sensing, and thinking about what is happening at present, and what is urgent in our time.
Your Opportunity
The Art Museum is currently seeking a Curator, Exhibitions and Collections. Reporting to the Executive Director, and working with the team of the Art Museum, their mandate is to research, initiate, develop and implement original, guest-curated and collection-based exhibitions and outreach relevant to the Art Museum’s forward-looking program.
The Curator will produce exhibitions that contribute to the life of the university and the broader public and communities locally, nationally and internationally. Primarily focusing on developing within the context of the Art Museum, the curator will also explore how art might live in or redress public space on campus through exhibitions of works from the collection or new commissions. Throughout their work, the curator will address the existing paradigms of exhibition-making and collecting in our time, innovatively respond to the call for equity and its attendant forms in art. How do artistic works, in the form of images, objects, collaborations, and actions, contribute to a given place, and what are the forms of engagement that art may make possible amongst its publics, within and beyond the University community? Thinking through the nature of exhibition-making and collecting in the context of local histories, the curator will reimagine the relation between art and place, between visual culture and place-making, and the role that artistic and curatorial practice can play in relation to multi-faceted spaces, communities and publics.
Developing partnerships within and beyond the University in all aspects of their work, the curator will engage and implement best practices and protocols for building the collection through acquisitions and develop projects and exhibitions for presentation and circulation on and beyond the University’s downtown campus.
Additionally, they will oversee and direct the work of programming staff who report to them and whose focus is on developing engaged outreach, initiatives and partnerships that advance strategic objectives of their portfolio, including relevant lectures, exhibition tours, workshops and symposia.
Working with multiple stakeholders, they will build support for artistic projects toward overall programming enhancement, with consideration of the academic mission of the university and the educational and public role of the Art Museum.
They will bring to all their work embodied experience and proactive attention to sustainable exhibition production practices (toward reduction of waste and ecological impact, as well as the re-use and sharing of resources), and, together with the team of the art museum, ensure the implementation of anti-racist, anti-harassment, and non-discriminatory processes that enable and provide a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere throughout their own work and all the museum’s relations.
Closing Date: 11/14/2025, 11:59PM ET
Schedule: Full-Time. Hours of work: Monday through Friday from 8:45 AM to 5:00 PM, overtime on weekdays, occasional overtime on weekends. This role is currently eligible for a hybrid work arrangement, pursuant to University policies and guidelines, including but not limited to the University of Toronto’s Alternative Work Arrangements Guideline.
Compensation: USW Pay Band 13 — $86,340. with an annual step progression to a maximum of $110,415. Pay scale and job class assignment is subject to determination pursuant to the Job Evaluation/Pay Equity Maintenance Protocol.
Application Process: Submit your application via the posting on the University of Toronto Careers Portal. Please include a cover letter with your application.
For a complete overview of the position, including its responsibilities and requirements, please visit the University of Toronto Careers Portal through the link below.
Image Credit: Polina Teif.
