Senior Curator

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Sarasota Art Museum

Posting Number: 20230023
Job Title: Senior Curator, Sarasota Art Museum
FLSA: Exempt
Job Type: Full Time
Job Status: Regular

Sarasota Art Museum www.sarasotaartmuseum.org/is The Ringling College of Art and Design’s multidisciplinary, international laboratory for the exploration and advancement of contemporary art. As Sarasota’s only museum solely focused on contemporary artists and their work, Sarasota Art Museum offers visitors a place to see thought-provoking, boundary-pushing exhibitions and experience education programs that start conversations and fuel the city’s creative spirit.

Sarasota Art Museum is a catalyst for appreciation and understanding of the art of our time. As a platform for exposure, education, and experimentation, the Museum inspires new ideas and new ways of being through an endless rotation of transformative, relevant, and pioneering exhibitions and programs designed to elevate and empower all by cultivating discerning visual thinkers and ethical citizens.

The Sarasota Art Museum (SAM) seeks a dynamic, creative, and expansive-thinking Senior Curator to join our team. Reporting to the Executive Director, the Senior Curator will develop a compelling curatorial vision and program, manage the Exhibitions Department and oversee SAM’s exhibition related public programs, and develop the educational and interpretive framework for exhibitions and other related Museum initiatives to engage varied audiences, from specialists to first-time visitors and enthusiasts. The Senior Curator will bring a strong network of artistic relationships and partnerships to the exhibition planning process. This position will develop and effectively implement strategies, systems, and programs at SAM that create an environment that will draw, welcome, and cultivate a diverse group of stakeholders including artists, students, collectors, international visitors, scholars, and curators. This is a new curatorial and leadership opportunity for a flexible leader with a collaborative spirit to work in a rapidly transforming museum.

The successful incumbent will establish a multi-year vision and agenda for Sarasota Art Museum’s multidisciplinary curatorial program centered on contemporary art, design, architecture and the environment that will engage visitors and elevate our position as a leader in contemporary art museums. The Senior Curator will seek opportunities to expand Museum exhibition programs to meet our goals for growth, and lead the exhibitions team in presenting a dynamic annual program of exhibitions and installations curated in-house and by a diverse group of independent curators, as well as traveling exhibitions.

The Senior Curator oversees all aspects of the curatorial program from budgets, schedules, logistics, and production for originally conceived shows and projects borrowed from other institutions. Balances the creative and intellectual process of developing programs and partnerships with duties associated with administrative and financial oversight and planning.

The Senior Curator provides leadership, guidance, and support to staff in a manner that promotes collaboration, open communication, creative problem-solving and professional development. The Senior Curator will build and grow relationships with artists, curators, faculty, and arts and culture leaders across Sarasota, the region, nationally, and internationally, and develop partnerships and a curatorial program that will resonate with a local and national audience.

The requirements listed are representative of the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to successfully perform the duties of the job:

Ability to take a long-range planning approach to programming and clearly articulate an arc of ideas.
Demonstrated background developing exhibits and related printed and interpretive material (publications, wall text, brochures, press releases, etc.).
Strong organizational and operational skills; ability to develop and monitor departmental and exhibition budgets, contracts, agreements, and other administrative documents.
Demonstrated experience and passion for building strong teams, mentoring, managing, and developing staff.
Self-directed and a team player, able to build collaborative relationships with diverse stakeholders and engender trust and inspire potential in our communities locally and internationally.
Proven success in communicating effectively in writing, grant writing, public speaking, as well as interaction with key partners, donors, or potential donors, and professionally affiliated contacts.
Lead through a deep commitment to diversity, accessibility, equity, and inclusion, both within the Museum and with the intergenerational communities that we serve.
Flexibility, passion, creativity, and adaptability to handle various needs in a dynamic and changing environment.

Minimum Qualifications

Advanced degree in art history or other relevant subject or an equivalent level of education.
Five years’ experience organizing exhibitions that demonstrate rigor and original thinking.
Demonstrated knowledge of 20th and 21st century art, and a deep knowledge of contemporary art essential.
Experience with museum operations including development of exhibitions is expected, as is the ability to interpret collections for the educational and aesthetic enjoyment of a broad and diverse public.