Assistant Director/Curator of Alfred Ceramic Art Museum

The Alfred Ceramic Art Museum Assistant Director/Curator aids the Director in overseeing the administration, programs, public relations, and strategic plan of the Museum working closely with Museum staff to ensure that the mission is fulfilled. The Assistant Director/ Curator works closely with the Principal Curator and the Curator of Collections to interpret the Museum’s collection, adjudicate acquisitions and to plan, curate, and design exhibitions as well as help to organize and manage traveling exhibitions including correspondence with venues. Additionally, the assistant curator will help to implement an exhibitions program that reflects the Museum’s commitment to its mission. The Assistant Director/Curator reports to the Director and Principal Curator and will act in the Director and Principal Curator’s behalf in their absence, and will have the opportunity for growth. The ideal start date for this position will be in September of 2024, with an annual salary of $60,000-$80,000, depending on experience.

Essential Functions

• Assisting in the recruiting, hiring and retention of qualified staff.
• Involvement in budget oversight, fundraising, marketing, and community outreach.
• Assisting the Director in the Museum’s desire to build a pedagogical connection between faculty and students across the university spectrum.
• Communicating effectively with the administration of Alfred University.
• Providing, in a timely and accurate manner, all information necessary for the Museum to thrive within Alfred University and beyond.
• Attention to overseeing all public relations materials including the annual news magazine Ceramophile.

Other Duties & Responsibilities

• This 12-month, full-time position may require after-hours participation in Museum related events such as exhibition openings, lectures, etc.
• The incumbent will be required to travel periodically on Museum business and will need to possess the appropriate identification to do so.
• Maintains a safe working environment within and around their facilities and associated equipment and supplies including, but not limited to, obtaining Safety Data Sheet (SDS) information pertaining to any hazards associated with their work environment.
• Safety: Participate in safety training and comply with safety rules, regulations, and protocols.
• Participates in all required assigned trainings.
• Highly effective written and oral communication skills.
• A commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and a high degree of cultural competence and respect for a wide range of identities and experience.
• Contributes to the overall success of the University by performing other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• The ideal candidate will have at minimum a master’s degree with experience in Art History with an emphasis on American art of the late 19th century to the present and in Ceramic Art Studio practice.
• Museum studies course work will be considered beneficial and/or related experience in a museum or gallery setting.
• Budget management skills.
• Strong research, writing, and editing ability, as well as strong computer skills; excellent verbal communication and interpersonal skills including public speaking are required.
• The ability to convey a vision of the Alfred Ceramic Art Museum’s (ACAM) strategic future to staff, advisory board, volunteers, and donors in written and spoken communications is of major importance.
• The incumbent must be able to work independently, collaboratively, and effectively in a fast-paced, creative environment.

About The Alfred Ceramic Art Museum
In 1900, Charles Fergus Binns was appointed as the founding director of the New York State College of Clay Working and Ceramics at Alfred University, thus the study of ceramic art and science was established as an educational focus at the University and has remained so for over a century. Binns’ teaching formed the foundation for the rise of American ceramic art. He is considered to be the founding father of American studio ceramics. The graduate program in ceramic art is today considered to be the number one program of its kind in the United States.

The Alfred Ceramic Art Museum at Alfred University houses nearly 8,000 ceramic objects ranging from small pottery shards recovered from ancient civilizations to modern and contemporary ceramic art. The outstanding collection of graduate thesis work created by Alfred educated ceramic artists is unique in the world. It forms an important aspect of the collection and provides an especially significant view into the progressive development of American, contemporary ceramic art. In addition, the permanent collection has grown to include works by international ceramic artists such as Rosanjin, Hamada, Leach, Cardew and Rie as well as Chinese funerary jars, tomb sculpture from the Neolithic period, Roman and Byzantine lamps, Nigerian market pottery and the Krevolin Collection of Pottery of the Ancient Americas. The museum collection also features the work of numerous American ceramic art masters including the Alfred art school’s renowned ceramic art faculty as well as - Ruth Duckworth, Mary Frank Ken Ferguson, Karen Karnes, Howard Kotler, Harrison MacIntosh, David Shaner, Robert Turner, Ken Price, Peter Voulkos, Patti Warashina, Beatrice Wood, Betty Woodman, and Eva Zeisel to name just a few.

Mission:
The primary mission of Alfred Ceramic Art Museum is to collect, preserve, conserve, research, interpret and exhibit ceramic art for aesthetic and educational purposes. The museum is a research and teaching facility, which offers an engagement in cultural history via ceramic art to the student, artist, scholar, and collector as well as the local, national, and international community. Alfred University’s well-known, multi-media art school is unique in its expansive growth from the Charles Fergus Binns ceramic art legacy. Alfred Ceramic Art Museum acknowledges this fact by celebrating all the visual arts within various aspects of its exhibition cycle, while concentrating its collection policy on ceramic art.

About Alfred University
Lighting the way for students since 1836.“We've always been a place for makers, especially those who make the future. Our commitment to independent thinking, creativity, academic rigor and community have made us a unique kind of leader since 1836.”

Alfred University (AU) was founded on principles of social justice in 1836 by liberal, independent thinkers who placed high value on education for all citizens. The University has retained and built upon the strong values of its founders, developing as an institution of national and international renown that is responsive to the needs of contemporary society while remaining consistent with the spirit of its origins. Alfred University is the second oldest coeducational college in the United States as well as one of the earliest nineteenth century colleges to have enrolled African American and Native American students. It has a long-standing history of educating socially conscious students who make a difference in their professions and their communities. Over the course of the twentieth century, Alfred University evolved into a complex institution offering a full range of programs in the liberal arts and sciences, art and design, engineering, business, education, counseling, and school psychology to its nearly 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students that live, learn, and play on a 232-acre campus located in an idyllic, creative valley in Western New York. Today, Alfred University focuses on a professional education with an emphasis on APEX (applied and experiential learning program). To learn more, visit alfred.edu.
 

Alfred University actively subscribes to a policy of equal employment opportunity, and will not discriminate against any employee, student or applicant because of race, age, sex, color, sexual orientation, gender identification or expression, physical or mental disability, religion, ancestry or national origin, marital status, genetic information, military or veteran status, domestic violence victim status, criminal conviction status, political affiliation or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Protected veterans, minorities and women are encouraged to apply.