Category: opportunities

JOB: Chief Curator (including African American Art collection), University Museums @ University of Delaware

Deadline:  March 1, 2017

Pay Grade: 32E

Reporting to the Director of Special Collections and Museums, the Chief Curator performs the following responsibilities:

  • Envision and implement an innovative exhibition program that supports the university’s educational mission and curriculum and enhances the University of Delaware’s standing as a cultural center. Collaborate with the Director and members of the Special Collections staff in development of long-range exhibition plan. Develop and oversee exhibition budgets.
  • Identify and recommend realizable exhibition ideas. Curate exhibitions for Old College Gallery and Mechanical Hall Gallery, and manage curatorial efforts of faculty, graduate students, museums staff, guest curators as well as incoming exhibitions. Oversee installation design and successful implementation.
  • Ensure excellent program communications. Write and edit a range of texts in conjunction with exhibitions, including but not limited to essays, labels, promotional texts and grant proposals. Oversee all exhibition publications, both print and electronic.
  • Identify area collectors and donor prospects and funding opportunities and develop relationships beneficial to the museums.
  • Provide leadership for University Museums department including supervision of 3.5 FTE positions and participation on the Library Management Council

Qualifications: 

  • Ph.D. in art history or related field and a minimum of five years curatorial experience in a museum setting or a master’s degree in art history or related field with 8 or more years curatorial experience in a museum setting.
  • Subject expertise and curatorial experience related to the strengths of the collection:  American art, 1900 to the present (including African American art); photography, prints and drawings
  • Substantial experience providing leadership and supervision.
  • Demonstrated creativity and success in presenting diverse collections of art in a manner that engages students and supports the curriculum.
  • Proven experience as a team leader with excellent interpersonal skills.
  • Highly developed organizational skills with ability to work independently and as part of a team.
  • Outstanding oral and written communications skills.
  • Desire to work with and engage students, faculty, donors, and members of the public.
  • Familiarity with Past Perfect and WordPress preferred

General Information:

The recent merger of Special Collections and Museums at the University of Delaware Library brought together diverse collection of art, with special strengths in American art of the 20th century (especially prints, photographs and work by African American artists), European prints, Inuit art, Pre-Columbian art and minerals, with books, manuscripts, broadsides, periodicals, pamphlets, maps and ephemera from the fifteenth to the twenty-first century. Art exhibitions in Old College Gallery and Mechanical Hall Gallery, mineralogical exhibitions in Penny Hall, and exhibitions in the Morris Library engage students, scholars, the UD community and the general public. Collaborative initiatives and programming with students, faculty and departments across campus foster diversity and enhance interdisciplinary research and teaching. Additional information about Special Collections and Museums is available online at: http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/ and http://www.udel.edu/museums.

To Apply: Include cover letter and resume, along with the names and contact information of three employment references, in a single document, following University of Delaware application instructions at http://www.udel.edu/udjobs/.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Employment offers will be conditioned upon successful completion of a criminal background check. A conviction will not necessarily exclude you from employment. The University of Delaware is an Equal Opportunity Employer which encourages applications from Minority Group Members and Women. The University’s Notice of Non-Discrimination can be found at http://www.udel.edu/aboutus/legalnotices.html

CFP: 4th International Colloquium on Latinos in the US — Abstracts due Jul. 19, 2017

Casa de las Américas (Havana, Cuba) will be the site for a meeting (Oct. 16-20, 2017) focused on the theme “Socialization of Latinos in the United States: Education, Religion and Mass Media.”

The meeting intends to produce a thorough debate regarding the socialization processes that influence the relationships between migrants and their children in American society.

Participants will reflect on the perspectives Latinos in the United States as social subjects immersed in new socialization spaces that create formal educational processes that constitute breakpoints in the establishment of American society while being at the same time participants of informal processes that are substantiated by other socializing agents such as religions and their institutions; and the media and social networks on the Internet. Music and sports are areas that we also want to highlight in order to make them objects of analysis.

 

The Colloquium, consistent with the goals of previous meetings, will create a space of action with the presence of people of Latin American and Caribbean origins who are linked to the arts, literature and social sciences and humanities.

The following are proposed as central themes:

  1. Socialization of Latinos in the United States.
  2. Educative processes for Latinos in the United States as it relates to undocumented students and informal educational spaces.
  3. Public sphere, image and representation of Latinos in mass media.
  4. Music and socialization.
  5. Religions and their institutions as spaces for socialization of Latinos in the United States.

In addition, one of the working sessions will be dedicated to discussion of the history of Cuban emigration to the United States, the insertion of Cubans and Cuban Americans in the Latino communities, and the influence of the new scenarios in Cuba-U.S. relations. Furthermore, tribute will be paid to the life and work of the Cuban artist Ana Mendieta.

ABSTRACTS AND PAPERS

Scholars interested in taking part in the Colloquium may submit individual papers or panels. In either case, the following guidelines should be followed:

  • An abstract of no more than 250 words should be submitted before July 20th, 2017 with the title and name of the author and institution of origin.
  • The conference papers will not exceed 15 pages (double-spaced) which is equivalent to 20 minutes of oral reading.
  • Participants should bring along with the printed text of their presentations, making use of the international standards for notes, citation and bibliography, and the original text in digital format on a flash memory drive or a CD- ROM.RECOMMENDATIONS

    To facilitate your transfer and stay in Cuba, please contact your travel agent or:

    CASA DE LAS AMÉRICAS
    3a y G, El Vedado, La Habana, 10 400, Cuba,
    Telephone: (537) 838-2706/09, ext. 129. Fax: (537) 834-4554

    Emails: latinos@casa.cult.cu; http://www.casadelasamericas.org

 

Instruccíon en español

 

 

Opportunity for Historians of 19th and early 20th-century African American Architecture and Material Culture and Louisiana History and Culture

Betty Reid Soskin is the granddaughter of Louis Charbonnet (1869-1924), architect and builder of Corpus Christi Church and School in New Orleans.  Ms. Soskin has information and memorabilia about her grandfather that she would like to share with reputable researchers of 19th and early 20th-century African American architecture and material culture, and/or Louisiana history and culture.

Initially, a creator of ornamental iron work, Louis Charbonnet became an engineer, inventor and millwright.  His New Orleans business establishment dates to 1893.  After St. Louis School was destroyed in a 1915 storm, Charbonnet drew plans for its reconstruction and supervised the project.

To learn more, contact Ms. Soskin cbreaux@earthlink.net

Also see Betty Reid Soskin’s blog!

louischarbonnetsr

Photo of Louis Charbonnet Sr. at “The Charbonnets” homepage

FEL: Appel Fellowship @ Delaware Art Museum

Delaware Art Museum Appel Fellowship for 2017

The Delaware Art Museum is pleased to announce the project for the 2017 paid Alfred Appel, Jr., Curatorial Fellowship. The fellowship pays $3,500 for approximately two months of work, on site, at the Museum to be served between April and September 2017. The application is due March 1, 2017.

For details, please see our website: http://www.delart.org/about/opportunities/#fellowship.

The 2017 Appel Curatorial Fellow will assist in the planning and development of three exhibitions that focus on documenting the Civil Rights Movement. The trio of exhibitions will be on view in the summer of 2018 to mark the 50th anniversary of the riots and occupation of Wilmington, Delaware, in the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. The Museum will be hosting an exhibition of Danny Lyons’ photographs for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (1963–64). A second exhibition features drawings of the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1956) by Harvey Dinnerstein and Burton Silverman. In addition, the museum is commissioning a contemporary artist to work with images of the 1968 riots in Wilmington.

The Appel Curatorial Fellow will work closely with Margaret Winslow, Curator of Contemporary Art, and Heather Campbell Coyle, Chief Curator and Curator of American Art.

FEL: Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellow-Prints, Drawings, and Photographs @ RISD Museum

The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design is pleased to announce a fellowship funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for an outstanding junior scholar who wishes to pursue a curatorial career. The Mellon Fellow will be fully integrated into the Museum’s Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs. The Fellow will have access to the museum collections and research libraries in the region and will enjoy all the professional privileges of the museum’s staff. The Fellow will be expected to participate in strengthening the Museum’s engagement with the academic curricula at Brown University and RISD.

Core Activities
• Work with the two department curators to foster collaboration with faculty at RISD, Brown University, and area colleges to encourage greater use of the collection in classes and individual study.
• Supervise the department’s active study room and act as the primary liaison between the department and faculty teaching from the collections, including making regular presentations to classes.
• Become familiar with the collection’s 28,000 works on paper and undertake research in area of expertise, leading to an exhibition to be presented in the third year, preferably in collaboration with a faculty member from Brown and/or RISD. Assist with departmental exhibitions as assigned.
• Conduct research to accurately catalogue new acquisitions, answer queries about the collection, and interact with scholars, students, and the public on collection matters.
• Give presentations to docents, the general public, and other museum constituents on the collection and exhibitions.
• Travel with the department’s curators to explore potential acquisitions and to attend scholarly conferences and relevant exhibitions.
• Oversee use of and access to the departmental storage area and ensure the special care, security, and proper handling of collections.
• Train and direct student employees and interns as needed.
• Assist with additional departmental activities as assigned.

The Andrew W. Mellon Curatorial Fellowship is a full-time, limited term (3-year) benefited position. Travel and research funds are available. The appointment will begin as soon as possible. Applicants who complete their applications by January 9, 2017 will be given full consideration.

Ph.D or ABD in Art History or related field required. The Fellow should have a demonstrated interest in and knowledge of the history of prints, drawings, or photographs. Strong commitment to object-based teaching. Ability to handle original works of art with care. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and the ability to be a team player in an active office environment.

Museum and/or teaching experience. Knowledge of a second language is highly desirable.

The successful candidate will be required to meet our pre-employment background screening requirements.

To learn more about the RISD Museum visit http://risdmuseum.org/. To apply visit https://careers.risd.edu/postings/1411

JOB: Director of Curatorial Services @ African American Museum in Philadelphia

African American Museum in Philadelphia
Director of Curatorial Services

The Director of Curatorial Services manages and directs the curatorial and interpretive initiatives and activities of the African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP). The Director of Curatorial Services has primary oversight of AAMP’s exhibition, collection, and conservation functions. The Director of Curatorial Services provides the leadership necessary for the presentation of intellectually rigorous and compelling exhibits that fulfill AAMP’s mission while fostering civic engagement. The Director of Curatorial Services also oversees AAMP’s collection; ensuring its on-going preservation, daily management, and accessibility to diverse audiences. The Director of Curatorial Services works with the President and CEO and AAMP’s Board to ensure the development, adoption and implementation of policies and procedures to that adhere to established standards of stewardship. The Director of Curatorial Services works directly with the President and CEO and is part of the Museum’s Senior Management Team

Principal Duties and Responsibilities:

• Exhibitions. Lead the development of exhibition proposals and ensure they meet intellectual, interpretive, audience, and mission goals; identify and hire outside curators, artists, art historians, and historians to develop or consult on exhibition proposals and exhibition development; lead research phase of exhibition development; develop three- to five-year exhibition schedule; oversee exhibition design, production, and installation. Collaborate with AAMP’s Education and Public Programming Departments to ensure that exhibits create compelling and meaningful educational experiences for visitors to the Museum; oversee regular and ongoing audience research and evaluation of exhibitions and partnerships; oversee written, visual, and oral interpretive tools and collateral materials; assist in fundraising efforts for exhibitions..

• Collection and Conservation Management. Supervise the management of AAMP’s collection, including registrarial activities (loans, accessioning, deaccessioning, recordkeeping, inventory); preservation activities; and making the collection accessible through exhibition and online resources; oversee the updating and implementation of collection policies, procedures, and practices that meet prescribed national standards; assist the AAMP Board in to develop a collection strategy to build the collection to ensure it reflects the Museum’s mission; assist in fundraising efforts for collection preservation and access activities and programs.

Also:

• Oversees training and supervises professional staff, including the Exhibit Manager and the Collections Coordinator
• Develops annual goals and objectives for the exhibitions, and collection and conservation management in accordance with the institutional mission and strategic plan
• Serves as staff liaison to AAMP’s Collections and Acquisitions Committees;
• Represents, as assigned, the Museum on external committees, panel, or councils
• Develops and implements an annual budget
• Assumes other duties as appropriate for the operation of the Museum, or as assigned by the President and CEO

Qualifications:

• MS/MA in African American Studies, American History, Art History (African or American Art focus preferred), or a related humanities field
• Ten years experience in museum collection and curatorial work
• Seven years experience as a supervisor
• Record of scholarly research and publications and intellectual leadership
• Experience writing foundation and state and federal grants
• Knowledge of standard collection museum policies and procedures
• Experience managing exhibition development, production, and installation
• Experience leading and managing partnerships with other cultural organizations and community groups
• Ability to plan and manage budgets
• Ability to supervise people and manage complex programs and projects
• Ability to plan and implement new programs
• Ability to solve technical, administrative, and personnel problems creatively
• Ability to think strategically
• Superior verbal and written communication skills
• Commitment to the mission, values, and programs of the African American Museum in Philadelphia

To apply, send cover letter, resume and any supplemental materials to  Patricia Wilson Aden via email at pwilsonaden@aampmuseum.org or via the post at:

Patricia Wilson Aden
President & CEO
African American Museum in Philadelphia
701 Arch Street
Philadelphia, PA  19106

Inquiries via email only.

 

CFP: “Art History as Créolité/Creolising Art History” @ AAH Conference, Loughborough University, UK

“Art History as Créolité/Creolising Art History”

Deadline: November 7, 2016

Association of Art Historians (AAH) annual conference

6th – 8th April 2017

Loughborough University, England

As part of the three-day workshop titled ‘Créolité and Creolisation’, which took place on St Lucia as one of the platforms of Documenta 11 (2002), participants explored the genealogy of terms such as ‘creolization’ and ‘Créolité’, and their potential to describe phenomena beyond their historically and geographically specific origins (however slippery they are). Surprisingly, there has been little engagement with the potential of creolisation as a way of doing or writing art histories differently since that time. This session aims to redress this lacuna.

Stuart Hall, one of the workshop participants, writes that what distinguishes creolisation from hybridity or diaspora is that it refers to a process of cultural mixings that are a result of slavery, plantation culture, and colonialism. Yet, Martinican-born poet and theoretician Édouard Glissant notes that creolisation can refer to a broader set of sociocultural processes not only in the Caribbean but also ‘all the world’ (Tout-monde). Drawing on Hall and Glissant, Irit Rogoff suggests that créolité can more broadly reference the construction of a literary or artistic project out of creolising processes.

What would it mean to re-imagine art history as Créolité? That is, hegemonic Western art history has created in its wake an array of ‘other’ art histories connected to regions such as Latin America, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and South Asia to name a few. Of special interest in this session is not only considering such regional art histories as relational to each other, but also exploring how other constructions of identity – such as gender, sexuality, race, and class – are intertwined with them. Papers exploring contemporary and historical periods are both welcome; and those critically examining Glissant’s terms – such as ‘opacity’ and ‘globality’ – to bear on the session theme are especially encouraged.

Please email your proposals (max 250 words) for a 25-minute paper to session convenor Alpesh Kantilal Patel (Florida International University, Miami) at alpesh.patel@fiu.edu by November 7.

Also, include a short title, your name, affiliation and email.

CFP: Terra Foundation Int’l Research Travel Grants for US-based Scholars

Terra Foundation International Research Travel Grants offer US-based scholars working on American art and visual culture prior to 1980 the opportunity to conduct research outside the United States. Grant funding is available for short-term travel for scholars whose research projects require study of materials outside the United States, enabling scholars to:

  • Discover new primary source material;
  • Experience works of art first-hand in museums and private collections;
  • Make contact with artists, critics, art dealers, archivists, curators, and university scholars;
  • Consult archives and library collections outside the US;
  • Establish professional networks for future research.

Applications are due Jan. 15, 2017.
Grants will be awarded to doctoral students as well as postdoctoral and senior scholars.

For more information, go to the Terra Foundation’s website.

CFP: “Refracting Abstraction” symposium @ Stanford University, Jan. 27-28, 2017 | deadline Oct. 3, 2016

The Anderson Collection, Standford University

Photo (2014): Tim Griffiths at Stanford News

The discussion around what constitutes the boundaries of Abstract Expressionism continues to recur despite decades-long attempts by revisionists. Most provocatively, Ann Gibson’s Abstract Expressionism: Other Politics (1997) demonstrates how women, artists of color, and queer artists were systemically left out of the canon. Two decades later, it has become de rigeur to call for the addition of these artists into exhibitions, but academic scholarship has lagged. Jackson Pollock, Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, and Franz Kline remain the familiar anchors of Abstract Expressionism. Here at Stanford, The Anderson Collection showcases important works by the above-mentioned names yet there are many artists not currently a part of our permanent collection whose involvement in the movement has been omitted from the oft-repeated narratives of the period.

We celebrate the recent focus on women, on cultural inclusivity, on gender expansive dialogues and the move to allow a spectrum of identifications. The museum takes this opportunity to look in depth at black artists working abstractly at mid-century as a case study in order to nurture the growing scholarship in this area. How did the art praxis of African-American artists intersect with the overall Abstract Expressionist movement? How does African-American cultural production continue to undergird key fundamentals of mid-century abstraction? There were black Abstract Expressionists of both the first and second generation. Some showed at top-notch galleries associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement—Romare Bearden at Kootz Gallery and Norman Lewis at The Willard Gallery. Others such as Peter Bradley had advocates in the often denigrated figure of Clement Greenberg. This symposium aims to make visible these intertwined narratives in order to explore how blackness and the Abstract Expressionist movement have been tethered all along; but more often than not, their periodic overlapping aims tend to move between invisibility and hypervisibility depending on the needs of a public.

With a variety of programming over a two-day period, the Anderson Collection will work with scholars, professors, artists, musicians, collectors, and performers to open these topics up to wide discussion. The symposium will feature a keynote speaker, workshops, a live performance, and a conversation with contemporary black artists working in abstraction.

 

The two-day symposium is planned for January 27 and 28, 2017 at the Anderson Collection at Stanford University.

 

Interested participants are invited to submit an abstract of no more than 350 words along with a CV to andersoncollection@stanford.edu by October 10, 2016. Accepted participants will be notified by November 7, 2016. Presenters are invited to give papers suitable for 15- to 20-minute time slots.

The Anderson Collection at Stanford University is a world-class museum built around a permanent collection of 121 modern and contemporary American paintings and sculptures by 86 artists. As a center for research, scholarship, and appreciation of post-war and contemporary American art, the Anderson Collection works exemplify pivotal movements in modern art: Abstract Expressionism, Color Field Painting, Bay Area Figuration, California Light and Space, among others.

 

Organized by:

Andrianna Campbell, Doctoral Candidate, The CUNY Graduate Center

Jason Linetzky, Director, Anderson Collection at Stanford University

Aimee Shapiro, Director of Programming and Engagement, Anderson Collection at Stanford University

 

Collaborators include:

Jeff Chang, Executive Director, Institute for Diversity in the Arts, Stanford University

Richard Meyer, Professor of Art History, Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University

Alex Nemerov, Department Chair, Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University

ISCP Dedalus Foundation Artist Residency: Call for Applications

Deadline Oct. 15, 2016