Director of Collections

Museum of the City of New York
Director of Collections

New York, NY

About the Museum of the City of New York

The Museum of the City of New York fosters understanding of the distinctive nature of urban life in the world’s most influential metropolis. It engages visitors by celebrating, documenting, and interpreting the city’s past, present, and future.

The Museum of the City of New York was founded in 1923 by Henry Collins Brown, a Scottish-born writer with a vision for a populist approach to the city. The Museum was originally housed in Gracie Mansion, the future residence of the Mayor of New York. Hardinge Scholle succeeded Henry Brown in 1926 and began planning a new home for the Museum. The City offered land on Fifth Avenue on 103rd-104th Streets, and construction for Joseph H. Freedlander’s Georgian Colonial-Revival design for the building started in 1929 and was completed in 1932. During the next few decades, the Museum amassed a considerable collection of exceptional items, including several of Eugene O’Neill’s handwritten manuscripts, a complete room of Duncan Phyfe furniture, 412 glass negatives taken by Jacob Riis and donated by his son, a man’s suit worn to George Washington’s Inaugural Ball, and the Carrie Walter Stettheimer dollhouse, which contains a miniature work by Marcel Duchamp among many others. Today the Museum’s collection contains approximately 750,000 objects, including prints, photographs, decorative arts, costumes, paintings, sculpture, toys, and theatrical memorabilia.

In order to fulfill this vision of a place that wholly reflects and fosters understanding of the manifold diversity of New York City, the Museum is committed to growing a culture of inclusion; working to diversify its internal community of staff, board, volunteers, and contractors.  

The Museum of the City of New York has an annual operating budget of $11.5 million and a team of approximately 63 full-time staff.

Position Overview and Responsibilities

The Museum of the City of New York seeks an experienced and visionary leader to strategize and implement long-term goals and manage daily operations of the Museum’s Collections Department. The Director of Collections will have the responsibility for overseeing a diverse collection with respect to accessibility, stewardship, and strategic planning, and for shaping a department to implement those goals. This person will lead by example on issues of diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion and will align the Department’s strategy with the Museum’s commitment to fostering understanding of the manifold diversity of New York City. 

The Director of Collections has primary oversight of areas of museum registration, object installation, contracts, exhibition coordination and implementation, and collections care and digitization. The Director will oversee collection management of all works in the MCNY collection, and on loan, including safe handling, care, conservation, accurate record keeping, accessioning, cataloging, insurance, storage, providing access, deaccessions, and coordinating loans to other institutions. The Director will also oversee exhibition installation coordination, including the safe packing and shipping of art works, installations practices, negotiating contracts, customs, and the management of traveling exhibitions.

Reporting to the Chief Curator, the Director of Collections will be a member of the MCNY senior leadership team, planning our strategic priorities and implementing programs in the context of overall institutional objectives. As a Department Head, the Director will have responsibility for the management, direction, long-range planning, projects, operations, and budget of a department including conservators, registrars, art handlers, and administrative professionals—together they have strengths in collections stewardship, description and access, collections digitization, exhibitions installation, rights and reproductions, incoming and outgoing object loans, management of satellite collections facility, oversight of institutional archives and records retention, and marketing and securing traveling exhibition venues both nationally and internationally.

Additional responsibilities include:

• Direct the intellectual and physical oversight of an approximately 750,000 object collection stored in two separate locations according to best practices.
• Identify and prioritize projects consistent with institutional priorities and newly adopted strategic plan that further collections stewardship and access; seek out appropriate funding opportunities for said projects; and author grant applications in conjunction with other Museum staff, including the development of budget, work plan, and schedule of completion; administer project work plans and project budgets; and provide materials for report to funding agency.
• Support the Manager of Collections Licensing and Digital Assets in the long-standing digitization project and collections Rights and Reproductions, including interdepartmental requests for digitization services, such as photography and printing for exhibition and retail.
• Provide oversight for ongoing collections assessments, following and updating Board-approved collecting plans in each collecting area.
• In conjunction with Collections department staff, develop and maintain a number of operational documents, including but not limited to: emergency response procedures, cataloging manual, accessions and deaccessions forms, outgoing and incoming loan contracts, collections insurance documents, and digital asset preservation modules.
• Support the use of Museum collections in exhibitions programming; oversee installation and deinstallation processes and surrounding activities such as loans and conservation.
• Oversee traveling exhibitions program and staff who research venues, track contacts and correspondence, develop prospectus packages, and negotiate contracts.
• Oversee the continued development of an Institutional Archives Program.
• Work closely and in cooperation with the President and Director, Chief Curator, CFO, and COO in planning, organizing and controlling collections budgets, including a number of restricted short-term projects.
• Working under the direction of the Museum’s President and Director and the Chief Curator, serve as staff liaison to the Collections and Storage Committees of the Board of Trustees, including coordination and preparation of reports, documentation, and presentations; represent the Collections Department at selected Executive Committee and Board of Trustee meetings.
• Support the Manager of Collections Licensing and Digital Assets in overseeing the collections management system and online Collections Portal software, and manage vendor relationships.
• Hire, train, and onboard new staff.
• Additional duties as assigned.

Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate will possess the following strengths and experience:

• Advanced Degree or equivalent in Museum Studies, Library and Information Science, Archival Studies, Material Culture, or comparable field.
• Significant experience in a role of leadership, with responsibilities for managing, recruiting, and developing a team through periods of change management and restructure
• Must have at least seven years of experience working in a museum, archives, special collections, gallery, or auction house in roles of increasing responsibility.
• At least four years of administrative experience including budgeting, financial oversight, and project planning.
• At least four years of experience writing and managing grant, with a record of fundraising success.
• Thorough knowledge of best practices, including but not limited to conservation and preservation, governance and documentation, and rights and reproductions.
• Comprehension of digital asset management practices and metadata standards.
• Commitment to a collegial work environment and to collaboration with colleagues in all of the Museum’s departments.
• Must have a commitment to inclusion and diversity and a passion for advancing equity. 
• An ability to anticipate and solve problems proactively, creatively, and efficiently.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; flexible, reliable, and detail-oriented; ability to prioritize tasks.
• Proven track record of participation in professional development organizations.
• A strong work ethic and interpersonal skills with an adaptable temperament.

Working Conditions

The Director of Collections position is based out of the Museum’s main building located at 1220 Fifth Avenue with additional work at our offsite storage location in Brooklyn. The position is scheduled for Monday through Friday, during normal business hours, but must be available to be on call for emergency conditions. Travel, evening, and weekend work may be required at times. Portions of the workday may be spent in non-traditional workplaces, including but not limited to loading docks and collections storage facilities.

Physical Requirements

Must be able to handle collections objects and visually inspect objects and images. On occasion, this can be a physically active job, and the Director of Collections must be comfortable climbing ladders; bending, stopping, kneeling; lifting up to 40 lbs. unassisted, and up to 75 lbs. with the assistance of others; using tools such as a pallet jack; and working in varying light conditions.

Approximately 75% of the time is spent in a stationary position operating a computer.

Benefits

The position offers a competitive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, FSA, HSA, life insurance, 401K and pension plan, short and long-term disability, critical illness, accident insurance, legal services and pet insurance, and Employee Assistance Program. The Museum has a generous paid time off policy including 12 sick days per year, vacation and 12 holidays.

Your employment relationship with the Museum qualifies you for free or discounted admissions to other participating cultural institutions. 

EEO Statement

The Museum of the City of New York is committed to fostering a collaborative and respectful work environment with a staff as diverse as New York City and the audiences who are curious about learning more about its history and engaging in contemporary urban issues. Our staff members are dedicated to working towards a common goal: creating the most dynamic and inspiring city museum in the world.

The Museum of the City of New York is an equal opportunity employer. As such, the museum provides equal employment opportunity for all employees and applicants without unlawful discrimination with respect to age, citizenship status, color, creed, disability, ethnicity, gender identification or expression, marital status, military status or veteran, national origin, political association, political/personal convictions, predisposing genetic characteristics, race (including traits historically associated with race, such as hair texture and style), religion (including attire, clothing or facial hair worn in accordance with religious requirements), sex (including pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions and transgender status), sexual orientation, socio-economic status, geographic location, philosophies, or any other classification protected by federal, state or local laws, in all employment decisions, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, training, compensation, promotion, demotion, transfer, lay-off, and termination, and all other terms and conditions of employment. The museum complies with applicable state and local law governing nondiscrimination in employment which prohibits discrimination and harassment against any employees, applicants for employment or interns, as well as contractors, subcontractors, vendors, consultants, other individuals providing services in the workplace or their employees in every location in which the museum has facilities. The Museum is an AAP employer.

Application Process

Please submit your resume and cover letter with desired salary range. Only complete applications will be reviewed. Please include as part of your application a brief (1-2 paragraph) statement on your contributions to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in your professional experience. Advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion are fundamental to our MCNY values of community, we believe that every member of the MCNY community has a role in sustaining a welcoming, respectful, and compassionate environment in which we all thrive.

To apply to this position please visit www.DRGsearch.com