Exhibition Designer

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art collects, studies, conserves, and presents significant works of art across all times and cultures in order to connect people to creativity, knowledge, and ideas.
The Met presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy. The Museum lives in two iconic sites in New York City—The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters. Since it was founded in 1870, The Met has always aspired to be more than a treasury of rare and beautiful objects. Every day, art comes alive in the Museum’s galleries and through its exhibitions and events, revealing both new ideas and unexpected connections across time and across cultures.

About the Department
As the museum aligns its work toward a single vision – to create the most dynamic and inspiring art museum in the world – the Design department shapes and gives form to the many museum visitor experiences and communicates the museum’s scholarship, programming, and priorities through the creation of a consistent, compelling voice of the highest aesthetic quality and impact.

The Design department is made up of two integrated, multi-disciplinary teams: Exhibition Design and Communication Design.

The Exhibition Design team conceives and maintains the design of exhibitions, installations, and permanent gallery displays, collaborating with Curatorial departments, Conservation, Exhibitions, Buildings, and the Digital Department, among others. This team is comprised of exhibition designers, graphic designers, lighting designers, production artists, and producers. The Communication Design team establishes and manages the strong visual identity that distinguishes The Met experience, actively collaborating with External Affairs (Marketing), Digital, Education, Membership, and Development, among others. It designs and produces a wide range of printed materials used throughout the museum and externally. This team is comprised of graphic designers and producers.

GENERAL STATEMENT OF RESPONSIBILITIES & DUTIES:
The Exhibition Designer will support the development of the exhibition scope including concept design and presentation materials, architectural planning, millwork design and all drawings and renderings. This position will collaborate with other exhibition designers, graphic designers, lighting designers, and curators, bringing best practices, and new creative strategies to the table.
The Exhibition Designer must have the capacity to support the design team in all phases of an exhibition and be able to effectively communicate with external consultants from case manufacturers to architects, designers, media consultants and other types of expertise in order to realize needs of display and exhibition experience. They should have experience creating design documents, familiarity with construction bid packages, custom millwork detailing and possess the technical and rendering skills (Photoshop, AutoCAD, etc.) to develop, present and test design ideas visually. This person will collaborate with all Design Managers to bring alternative or enhanced design potential to shows across locations, create presentation models, making scale maquettes, and research visual / fabrication materials. This person should also be available to support institutional projects that require rendering, three-dimensional thinking or visitor experience design.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES & DUTIES:

Support exhibition design team across locations
Architectural design from research and concept through execution/production supervision
Possess a high level of organization and file management
Prepare design document drawings, floor plans, detail drawings, case lists or schedules for internal museum reviews and construction bid documents
Collaborate with exhibition design team to enhance design and realize exhibitions
Construct architectural models or mock ups for design and presentation purposes
Coordinate fabrication with in-house production team or outside vendors when needed
Help facilitate communication with all Design Managers during the final installation process of all major projects, installations, or exhibitions as assigned
Other duties as assigned

REQUIREMENTS & QUALIFICATIONS:

Experience and Skills:

At least three to five years of experience in exhibition design, industrial design, scenic design, or architectural design
Full knowledge of construction techniques, fabrication skills, materials, and project management
Knowledge of AutoCAD, Vectorworks, Rhino, and/or 3ds Max
Strong organizational and design presentation skills
Experience and knowledge of proper art handling procedures and art or object installation and display experience preferred
Good communication skills and ability to function as part of a team
Ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously and meet deadlines
Background in architecture preferred

Knowledge and Education:

B.A. degree in exhibition design, industrial design or equivalent field of work is required. MFA or MArch preferred
Modelmaking, good handcraft skills, and knowledge of construction techniques are required
Museum exhibition design experience preferred
Portfolio submission required