Curatorial Assistant

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About Us

At The Huntington, we believe that having a team of diverse backgrounds and voices working together will enable us to support and promote the appreciation of the humanities, the arts, and botanical science. The Huntington is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and is committed to providing employment opportunities regardless of race, religious creed, color, national origin, disability, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other characteristic protected by local, state or federal law.

The Huntington

Founded in 1919, The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens is a collections-based research and educational institution open to the public, housing world-class library, art, and botanical collections. Its mission is to support research and promote education in the arts, humanities, and botanical science and to display and interpret its extraordinary resources for diverse audiences.

The Culture

Here we are committed to the highest of standards in all that we do – from preserving and protecting the collections, to exhibitions, educational and scholarly programming, visitor and reader services, and beyond. Achieving excellence across these pursuits requires a diversity of perspectives, expertise, experience, and methodologies. We are better together. We believe an explicit commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion directly impacts and improves staff and audience engagement and experience.

Job Description

The Role

Working under the direction of three curators – the Dibner Senior Curator, the Molina Curator, and the Chief Curator of American Art, provides interdivisional curatorial, research and administrative support. Position will have regular contact with staff at all levels, as well as contact with external researchers and the public. This will be an assignment of approximately eighteen months.

Essential Functions

Provides logistical and administrative support, including communication with Huntington colleagues and those outside the institution, in service of broader support for the Huntington’s involvement with the Getty Pacific Standard Time (PST) exhibit, planned to open in 2024.
Identifies, pulls, and organizes appropriate library and art collections works for curatorial use and review. Assists curators with item and topical research, checklist maintenance, correspondence, conservation and photography queuing, copyediting, label writing, and other duties as they arise. Conducts lender negotiations and communication for potential items to be borrowed from other institutions and individuals for use in the PST exhibit.
As needed, performs general clerical duties such as filing, copying, sorting mail, answering phones, and other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

BA, BS or MA in History, Literature, Art, or other humanities disciplines. Understanding of the complex curatorial activities of a 21st-century cultural institution, strong research skills, well-honed interpersonal skills, excellent written communication and administrative skills, detail orientation, patience, a sense of humor, and a willingness to work independently and/or collaboratively as needed
Proficiency in use of computer software and programs such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint; preferably including experience with (or an eagerness to learn) other software including Filemaker Pro, Aeon (a library collections management tool), and others.
Ability to learn the basic operations of the Art Division’s TMS (The Museum System) database, the Art Division’s collections software.
Excellent interpersonal and communication skills; effective organizational skills to assist with project monitoring and meeting established deadlines.
The candidate must be hard-working, detail-oriented, discreet, and collegial.

Experience

Requires a minimum of 2 years of experience in curatorial/administrative support, or equivalent experience dealing with historic artifacts.

Application Instructions

Visit us at – to apply directly!

Please include a cover letter in addition to a resume. You will have the opportunity to “upload” additional documents during the “My Experience” step of the application process.

contact hr@huntington.org for any questions

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