Senior Curator

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Title: Senior Curator
Reports to: Executive Director
Direct Reports: Curator, Assistant Curator, and additional staff as assigned
Status: Full time, Exempt
Salary Range: $90,000 – $110,000 annually, full benefits; relocation considered on a case-by-case basis Schedule: M – F, with additional evening and weekend hours per events, travel required

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH) is seeking a Senior Curator to advance our exhibitions, curatorial strategy, and public realm initiatives within and beyond the museum. This key role will join CAMH’s senior leadership team at a pivotal moment in the Museum’s 74-year history and represents a unique opportunity to positively impact an ambitious kunsthalle program in the United States’ most diverse city.

About the Museum

CAMH presents extraordinary, thought-provoking arts programming and exhibitions to educate and inspire audiences nationally and internationally.

Established in 1948, CAMH is one of the oldest non-collecting contemporary art museums in the country and is internationally known for presenting pivotal and landmark work by artists recognized as the most important of the 20th and 21st centuries. CAMH’s mandate is to be present, to connect artists and audiences through the urgent issues of our time, and to adventurously promote the catalytic possibilities of contemporary art. CAMH’s programming, both in and beyond the Museum, is presented free to the public, and advocates for artists’ essential role in society.

Position Description

The Senior Curator brings insightful and seasoned leadership to CAMH’s Curatorial Department, which encompasses exhibitions, community projects, and artist-driven initiatives in the public realm. The role offers a rich platform for a curator who is equally committed to making impactful exhibitions, directly engaging with communities, and imagining new possibilities for artists to work at civic scale.

The ideal candidate works from a position of deep integrity, curiosity, and ambition. CAMH seeks a leader who balances joy and a sense of humor with intellectual rigor and a disciplined approach to managing complex projects. You bring a collaborative, influencing style of leadership rooted in care for your colleagues and a commitment to the broader success of the Museum. As a key member of the senior management team, you will manage and advocate for the Curatorial Department, and counsel and collaborate with the Executive Director and senior colleagues on strategic goals.

The ideal candidate keenly understands the specific context and opportunities of contemporary and artist- centered organizations—their curatorial practice seeks to cultivate trust of artists and care for community. The Senior Curator will chart an adventurous path for CAMH that elevates artists, authentically engages diverse audiences, and meaningfully engages the public life of our community and city.

As a non-collecting museum, CAMH is focused on the art of our time and realizing projects that create unexpected, and hopefully unforgettable, experiences of contemporary art. The Museum typically presents six exhibitions per year, which are mostly organized by CAMH, and often tour to major venues nationally. Historically, CAMH has presented important, curator-driven exhibitions including debut solo Museum shows (Cindy Sherman, Julian Schnabel, Garrett Bradley); catalytic mid-career surveys (Robert Rauschenberg, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Pipilotti Rist); art history defining exhibitions such as Radical Presence, The Dirty South, and The Old, Weird America; and apex projects by established yet under-recognized artists such as Barkley Hendricks and Ming Smith (forthcoming).

Recently, CAMH has significantly broadened its curatorial reach through local partnerships with community organizations such as Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy and collaborations with the City of Houston and Houston Independent School District (HISD). Additionally, CAMH supports multiple national public art initiatives that directly benefit local contexts and audiences and span from intimate experiences to civic scale. These projects offer expansive opportunities to work beyond the walls of the Museum.

The role presents significant scope and opportunity for a curatorial leader with an entrepreneurial mindset, and a strong belief in the role of artists and the Museum to serve as catalysts of cultural change.