The curator’s duties entail day-to-day and long-range planning for departmental budgets, organizing exhibitions, and writing for publications and labels. He/she is responsible for identifying and securing significant exhibitions on loan from other institutions and serving as these exhibitions’ in-house curator. He/she assists the curator of education with program development, with docent training, and with the faculty, staff, and students of the university in viewing and/or working with the collection. The curator of American art also trains and oversees student interns and performs other duties as assigned.

The curator develops the collection by recommending and soliciting acquisitions, conducting research, writing publications, and maintaining donor relations. Donor relations are an important aspect of the curator’s job, and he/she aids the director in identifying and cultivating prospects for future gifts of works of art to the museum’s permanent collection, as well as working with the museum’s Board of Advisors. In conjunction with the director and the development officer, the curator will assist with the solicitation of funds for the purchase of art.

A wide range of professional activities is expected, including lecturing, teaching, participation in scholarly symposia, and contributing to scholarly publications. Serving on museum committees is also required, as is active participation in professional organizations and committees.

Qualifications: A doctorate in the history of art or a closely related field is required. The candidate must also have substantial, proven knowledge of nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty first-century American art, evidence of a curatorial background (preferably five years in a museum setting), scholarly writing, connoisseurship, and knowledge of issues regarding conservation.