Director of Interpretation and Community Engagement

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The mission of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco is to connect our visitors with local and global art in order to promote their knowledge of and curiosity about the past, deepen their engagement with the art and ideas of today, and stimulate their creative agency in their own futures. We are committed to embracing DIEA values in our programs and culture, in order to provide our audiences with an inclusive and equitable lens on historic and contemporary issues.

To help achieve this goal, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco seeks an ambitious scholar or museum educator of inclusive histories for a position to anchor a new division within the Education Department. Reporting to the Director of Education, working closely with the Director and CEO and working in partnership with FAMSF curators, educators, and editors the Director of Interpretation and Community Engagement will be responsible for mapping more inclusive interpretive frameworks, co-creating and editing content, designing new processes to augmenting visitor and community engagement opportunities through the delivery of content, and evaluating metrics of interpretation success. Working in partnership with curators, educators, collaborators, consultants and community members, the Director will propose new interpretive approaches and/or programs for permanent collection objects and exhibitions at both the de Young and Legion of Honor. This position will bring a critical lens to the collections and suggest inclusive, historical narratives to help maximize visitors’ experiences – both in the galleries and digitally – as they consider objects from broader global perspectives. As outlined in FAMSF’s Strategic Plan, the Director of Interpretation and Community Engagement will play a key role in shaping the Museum’s narrative and storytelling.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Work with curators to provide a more inclusive lens for gallery didactics and virtual content. Example: refresh of de Young and Legion of Honor collection narratives and gateway object labels.
Assist with online lifelong learning classes. Suggest additional voices to broaden object based exploration, build bridges between historical content and current events, and co-create an inquiry based learner experience.
Assist in collection training for docents, gallery guides, security, and frontline staff to enhance visitor experience through content.
Collaborate with current community partners and suggest new partners to help the museum create engaging interpretation and programming.
Re-engage community advisors and formulate plans for the recruitment of additional advisors to better represent the population of the Bay Area.
Advise on strategies for learning how FAMSF can authentically serve communities.
Support education programs (both digital and analog) content creation and review. Advise education staff on inclusivity issues for public and school education programs.
Advise on paid internships that encourage a diverse body of students from communities underrepresented in arts administration and museum education to obtain training in the museum field.
Evaluate interpretation approaches through user testing, focus groups, and formative and summative assessment.
This position will have supervision over project coordinator.

Minimum Qualifications:

Education: Bachelor’s Degree (MA preferred) in Art History, Ethnic Studies, Museum Studies, or related degree.

Work Experience: 5 years of experience managing programs, developing interpretive strategies, and conceiving didactic materials, in a museum setting.

Skills and Abilities:

Proven ability to develop and implement new interpretive strategies in a museum of art and culture.
Demonstrated Leadership skills and the ability to supervise and provide direction to staff.
Extensive knowledge of administrative, exhibition, and educational issues facing museums and ability to communicate understanding of those issues to a diversity of academic and nonacademic audiences.
Knowledge of art history and educational theory.
Strong interpersonal skills, with attention to consistency, flexibility, clear directions, leadership and dependability.
Skill at interacting with the media and potential funders with professionalism and confidence.
Demonstrated ability to work with living artists, indigenous communities and international community stakeholders.
Demonstrated skill in public speaking.
Skill in interacting diplomatically with the public for the purpose of developing closer ties with the museum.
Ability to establish and maintain cooperative working relationships with other staff members, subordinates, administrators, and volunteers.
Skill in writing both for academic audiences and for the general public.
Ability to work in teams with scholars in the development of exhibitions.
Strong negotiating and leadership skills; exchanging ideas, information and opinions with others to formulate policies and programs and/or arrive jointly at decisions, conclusions, or solutions.
Ability to train education staff as effective gallery teachers and communicators.
Knowledge of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.
Demonstrated expertise in qualitative research studies and disseminating findings to effect positive change on the project or organization.
COFAM offers a competitive salary and generous benefits package. Cover letter required.

Application Deadline: Open until filled

COFAM is the Corporation of Fine Arts Museums and is the privately funded non-profit corporation which supports the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, a department of the City and County of San Francisco.

COFAM is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and is committed to a policy of nondiscrimination in all phases of employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco are the city’s largest public arts institutions and comprise the de Young and the Legion of Honor museums. The de Young, designed by Herzog & de Meuron and located in Golden Gate Park, showcases American art from the 17th through the 21st centuries, international contemporary art, textiles and costumes, and art from the Americas, the Pacific, and Africa. The Legion of Honor displays a collection of over 4,000 years of ancient and European art including Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker and houses the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts in a Beaux-Arts style building overlooking Lincoln Park and the Golden Gate Bridge.