The New Orleans Museum of Art is accepting applications for a Curatorial and Programs Assistant for a two-year grant-funded position. Generously supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the position will support programmatic and exhibition activities for the major traveling exhibition and publication project New Masks Now: Artists Innovating Masquerade in Contemporary West Africa. Reporting to the Curator of African Art and Director of the New Masks Now project, this highly organized, collaborative planner and researcher will work closely with the exhibition core team, and with NOMA’s Curatorial, Learning & Engagement, Registration, and Marketing departments. Aimed at early career professionals preparing for museum or arts administration work, this hands-on position will collaborate with multiple departments in realizing all components of a major exhibition project.
The Curatorial and Programs Assistant will support all aspects of the exhibition, publication, and installation plan. These responsibilities include: managing the logistics of the accompanying publication (including gaining image rights and artist permissions), preparing the exhibition for travel to other venues, researching travel and visa arrangements for visiting artists, daily administrative and registration duties, the co-creation and management of interpretive materials, and programmatic activities.
Additionally, the Assistant will have the opportunity to develop and implement three types of public programs that will take place over the duration of the exhibition at NOMA, in collaboration with NOMA’s Learning and Engagement team. Responsibilities will include communication with prospective collaborators, vendors, performers and other participants, collaborating with the New Masks Now core research team and across NOMA departments, assisting with day-of event activities, and managing contracts and payments.
Salary is $50,000 per year, plus benefits.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
• A Master’s degree or PhD in a Humanities Field (Museum Studies, Art, Art History, Public History, African Studies, Anthropology, or related field) completed within the last five years (not currently enrolled in a degree-granting program)
• Experience with contemporary art and/or African arts
• Strong familiarity with word processing software
• Knowledge of French (proficiency preferred)
• Project management skills
• Program coordination experience in a museum or similar institution is highly desired
• As a grant-funded position, applicants must be either a US citizen or a foreign national who has lived in the United States or its jurisdictions for at least three years
WORKING CONDITIONS
• Office environment (on-site)
• Stationary position that may involve moving about inside of the museum
• Occasional evenings, weekends, and special events as required
• Occasional lifting up to 40 lbs may be required
Please submit your resume or CV, graduate school transcript, writing sample, cover letter, and three letters of reference to SBUCHANAN@NOMA.ORG by 4:30 pm, Friday November 3, 2023.
https://noma.org/job/curatorial-and-programs-assistant/
ABOUT NEW MASKS NOW
In New Masks Now an international team of scholars and artists present the stories of four individual masquerade artists, their motivations, artistic choices, and the patronage and economic networks with which they engage in order to make clear that masquerade is fundamentally contemporary. The show offers fresh research models for contemporary masquerade, bringing to the fore issues relating to restitution, ownership, and research ethics. This is the first major exhibition on contemporary masquerade artists to focus on individual creators rather than the typical presentation of masquerades as products of entire cultures, which undermines the nuanced and layered stories that individual artists and masquerades tell.
NOMA is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to complying with all federal, state, and local equal employment opportunity laws. NOMA provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, marital status, military or veteran status, domestic violence victim status or any other basis prohibited by applicable federal, state, and/or local laws.
