Director, Collections & Curatorial
Glenbow
Position: Full-Time Permanent
Hiring Manager: Melanie Kjorlien, COO & VP Engagement
Closing Date: Tuesday, September 10, 2024
To apply, please visit glenbow.org/careers.
Glenbow is an equal opportunity employer and values different perspectives, backgrounds, identities, and lived experiences. We are committed to building a diverse team and encourage people from underrepresented groups to apply. Should you have special accommodation needs, please let us know.
About Glenbow
Situated in Calgary, Glenbow is an arts and culture museum undergoing a complete transformation and reimagining of what a museum can be.
Glenbow’s team is passionate and dedicated to making art accessible for everyone. Every member of our team, regardless of job title or description, is focused on serving our community and reimagining the museum experience.
As an integral part of Calgary’s community, the Glenbow team is focused on making arts and culture experiences accessible to everyone. We are dedicated community builders, working to shape the future of arts and culture in Calgary and beyond. Working at Glenbow also means you are part of an organization that recognizes its role in reconciliation and is working toward building an equitable community.
The Opportunity
The director, collections & curatorial must be a creative, collaborative, and flexible thinker with experience leading museum collections and curatorial projects. They must be comfortable working across disciplines and be able to enliven art and artifacts from a spectrum of cultural and collected histories. Candidates should be inspired by the museum’s curatorial vision and the opportunity to collaborate with museum colleagues, artists, and communities to build relationships from among Glenbow’s diverse collections. An overview of the museum’s collections can be found at Glenbow.org/Art-Objects/Collection-Overview.
Candidates must also demonstrate a sensitivity to the ethics and politics of working with Indigenous collections and partners and will contribute to discussions that interrogate what it means to deliver a nationally significant museum program in an era of reconciliation. Working with Indigenous curators and colleagues, the director will engage with Indigenous communities and stakeholders on collections and curatorial strategies.
The successful candidate will have a proven track record of developing an ongoing exhibition program that is responsive to organizational needs and demonstrates community engagement, and experience developing strategies for museum collection development that reflect current museum practices and optimal long-term community engagement.
Reporting to the COO & VP engagement, the director is a member of the museum’s management team and actively participates with museum colleagues in shaping the organization’s collections and curatorial program to broaden and enhance audience engagement and further the museum’s curatorial vision, while working in a collaborative, team-centric organizational culture.
The director will lead the curatorial team in developing exhibitions from the museum’s permanent collection and will lead discussions on how the collections should evolve to meet Glenbow’s role as a public art museum and its curatorial vision, including the development of collection plans for each collection area. The director must be at ease in a highly visible and public position, and must cultivate relationships with colleagues, donors, collectors, and the broader community to build support for Glenbow’s program.
Key Responsibilities
Curatorial Management
- Manage curatorial department policies, procedures, budgets, and exhibition-specific budgets.
- Work with the COO & VP Engagement to set the master calendar for exhibitions, including the presentation of the collection and touring exhibitions that will meet the goals of the curatorial vision and contribute to Glenbow’s mission, vision, and values.
- Research and develop original concepts and content for exhibitions and supervise the curatorial development of Glenbow-originated exhibitions.
- Collaborate with the exhibition production department to ensure successful planning and installation of the touring and rotating exhibition program.
- Lead curatorial discussions on how the collections should evolve to meet Glenbow’s curatorial vision, including the development of collection plans, soliciting gifts, and proposing acquisitions as resources allow.
- Contribute to discussions related to decolonization and collaborate on strategies for curatorial and collections work that will advance decolonization.
- Support the development of curatorial content for the museum’s dissemination channels, including programming, publications, digital content, and external relations to ensure the accuracy and relevance of information delivered to the public.
- Research permanent collection objects, and disseminate information through exhibitions, programming, publications, and digital channels.
- Develop and maintain collaborative relationships with artists and others in the arts and culture community locally, regionally, and nationally.
Collections Care & Management
- Manage collections care staff, policies, procedures, and budgets.
- Develop and oversee strategies that address the management of the collection, including acquisitions, deaccessioning, repatriation, storage, conservation, care, security, documentation, loans, risk management, pest control, and proper exhibition requirements. Ensure that policies reflect up-to-date professional museum practices and standards.
- Increase knowledge of and access to collections through the oversight of accessible collection record management to benefit internal and external researchers.
- Broad knowledge of best practice professional museum standards for collections management, encompassing the care and display of art, object, and archival collections, as well as database management and registration methods.
- Knowledge of and active research in repatriation and provenance in compliance with collection policies and any applicable laws or best practices.
- Manage fine arts insurance liability, negotiate insurance renewals, maintain insurance coverage, and ensure up-to-date valuations of collections.
- Oversee acquisitions and deaccessioning according to the collections management policies governing the collections as required. Prepare and present acquisition and deaccession reports to the appropriate committee(s) of the Board as required.
- Advise on tax matters relating to bequests and gifts of art, accessions, estate planning, and co-ownership agreements of works in the collection, in consideration of ethical and risk management issues.
- Advise on collections-related facility issues. Work with building operations to ensure that environmental standards are maintained according to professional museum standards. Make recommendations for storage planning, taking into consideration promised gifts and anticipated collection growth.
- Work with the Operations department to develop, maintain, and implement organizational policies related to operations, the collection, and the Disaster Preparedness Plan.
- Collaborate with the Advancement department to develop a long-term strategy to build the collections through gifts and financial support and enlist support for the collection.
- Leadership & Communication
- Collaborate with board members, donors, collectors, artists, gallery owners, curators, and scholars, as well as publishers, designers, volunteers, and staff members at every level.
- Proven track record of managing and mentoring a large team of high-performing individuals in an outcomes-focused environment; ability to foster a culture of collaboration, creativity, and belonging among a team and motivate and develop staff to perform at high standards.
- Create and present highly developed research using exemplary written communication skills.
- Network and act as an ambassador for Glenbow during the organization’s events, programs, and community engagements.
- Liaise with other institutions, museums, galleries, collectors, artists, and experts to further the reputation and goals of the museum; attend conferences and give lectures or papers.
- Demonstrate a commitment to fostering, cultivating, and preserving a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion through respectful communication and cooperation with others while modeling inclusive behaviors.
Qualifications, Education & Experience
Qualifications
- An exemplary record of professional or academic achievement in direct support of museum work, including some combination of study or credentials in a related field, exhibitions, collections development, collections management, and collaborative success.
- A strong professional track record in museum management, including contributing to organizational goals and outcomes and building collaborative relationships internally and externally, with demonstrable results.
- A demonstrated ability to develop exhibition, collection care, and development strategies that address multiple collections, stakeholders, and audience and organizational needs.
- Successful curatorial development of exhibitions that meet organizational, curatorial, and audience criteria.
- Previous experience mentoring colleagues on curatorial practices in support of exhibition and collection development.
- Demonstrated interest in achieving greater accessibility of content for non-traditional museum audiences.
- Willingness and ability to work collaboratively, recognizing that the museum’s exhibition, curatorial, and collection program must meet organizational and artistic standards.
- Excellent management, organizational, and operational skills, with an ability to handle competing priorities.
- Proficiency with museum collections management systems, with knowledge of current best practices and trends in collections management technology.
- Knowledge of museum ethics, as published by provincially, federally, and internationally recognized museum associations and bodies.
- Effective planning and decision-making abilities.
- Knowledge of Microsoft Office programs.
- Advanced knowledge of museological standards, codes of ethics, conservation policy, collections management policy, copyright and intellectual property policy, disaster preparedness plans, security policy, and health and safety policy.
Education & Experience
- 8 – 10 years of progressively responsible curatorial and museum collection management experience.
- Previous experience working in consultation with Indigenous Elders, advisors, and artists that has led to successful and respectful partnerships.
- Previous experience developing a rotating exhibition program that incorporates exhibitions from a permanent collection and touring exhibitions, resulting in increased attendance and audience engagement and furthering strategic goals.
- A demonstrated ability to develop exhibition strategies that address multiple collections, stakeholders, and audience and organizational needs.
- Previous experience developing collection plans that lead to growth in the depth and breadth of collections and related community engagement.
- Demonstrated expertise in at least one major area of the museum’s collection.
- Demonstrated experience with management and mentorship of a team, long-term planning, budgets, and time management.
- Demonstrated experience curating exhibitions that have meaningfully engaged museum audiences and impacted audience reach.
Additional Requirements
- Travel within Canada and internationally when required.
- Overtime, evening, and weekend work when required.
Benefits of Working at Glenbow
We recognize there are many reasons to believe in your work—and that everyone deserves to be valued, be part of a caring culture, be compensated fairly and be part of building our community.
Flexible work environment: We know having flexibility in how you work is important in today’s workplace. From hybrid working options, flexible hours and more, Glenbow offers ways to achieve the balance you’re looking for in your life.
Health & wellness benefits: We believe in physical and mental well-being. Our benefits package supports you and your family in your ongoing health.
RRSP matching: Glenbow matches employee RRSP contributions, up to 5%. Employees structure their retirement savings how they choose and Glenbow tops up those contributions.
