Association of Academic Museums and Galleries

Director of the Bates College Museum of Art

Job no: 492936

Work type: Staff Full Time – Full Year

Location: Lewiston, ME

Categories: Academic Affairs: Museum of Art

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Title: Director of the Bates College Museum of Art

Bates College invites applications for the position of Director of the Bates College Museum of Art. This is a continuing, full-time, 12 month managerial staff position reporting to the Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty, beginning in June 2025.

The Bates College Museum of Art (BCMA) is a nationally-recognized teaching museum at a small liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine that brings a world of ideas to campus to enhance the vitality of the intellectual and cultural life of Bates, the surrounding communities, and beyond. Founded in 1955 as the Treat Gallery, BCMA is the center for The Marsden Hartley Memorial Collection, which includes over 100 Hartley drawings and sketches, as well as other ephemera. Featuring around 10,000 objects today, the museum’s diverse collection includes works by Maine artists and artists of national and international significance working in Maine, modern and contemporary works, contemporary craft, select holdings of pre-modern prints, photography, Pre-Columbian art, African art, and shaman art from Vietnam. The BCMA is committed to creating spaces that are free and open to all and addressing barriers that might inhibit access. The BCMA collaborates with professional staff and community to create exhibitions and programs that reflect the diverse perspectives, experiences, and contributions of artists.

A successful candidate will bring innovation and leadership towards leveraging the museum’s resources in an effort to increase engagement and access with the arts across campus, in our Lewiston community, and beyond. We seek a communicative, collaborative leader who will be thoughtful and proactive about creating partnerships with faculty, staff, students, and community members.

Review of applications will begin on January 27, 2025. Applications should include a cover letter expressing interest in the position (and that provides examples of past related experience), and a curriculum vitae.

Job Duties:

Personnel Management

• Hires, manages, and evaluates professional staff.
• Oversees supervision of hourly and temporary staff.
• Oversees Performance Development Program for the museum.
• Participates in management development programs offered by the College.
• Develops plans and resources for project-based temporary staff (e.g., guest curators).
• Teaches and supervises numerous student interns with an emphasis on education, museum training and experience, and leadership skills through the internship program.

Program Development

• Working with professional staff, oversees development of exhibition programs, collections and acquisitions, education, publications, and programs that serve the College and the broader community.
• Maintains a multi-year schedule for exhibitions and serves as a member of the Marsden Hartley Legacy Project.

Financial Management

• Develops the operating budget of the Museum.
• Develops project budgets for exhibitions.
• Develops capital budgets for building improvements and technology.
• Audits financial activities monthly.

Planning

• Undertakes long-range strategic planning for the museum, with a focus on resource development, collections development, physical plant needs, and personnel needs.
• Participates in college-wide planning processes.

Inclusion, Accessibility and Community Engagement

• Ensure the museum attends to bias that might inhibit access and fosters a welcoming, inclusive, and accessible environment for all visitors, staff, and communities.
• Develop and implement an inclusion and accessibility strategy aligned with Bates mission.
• Collaborates with professional staff and community to create exhibitions and programs that reflect the diverse perspectives, experiences, and contributions of artists.
• Develop initiatives to engage underrepresented and marginalized groups.
• Build and maintain relationships with diverse community organizations, advocacy groups, and cultural leaders.
• Lead efforts to integrate public art projects into the museum’s programming, collaborating with local artists and communities.
• Works with campus partners to develop anti-bias training programs for museum staff.

Resource Development

• Works with the Office of College Advancement to identify and cultivate individual donors of cash and collections.
• Leads staff in seeking appropriate government and foundation resources and prepares grant applications.
• Develops and maintains relationships with prospective donors, including visits, donor events, correspondence, and actively participates in comprehensive campaign planning and execution.
• Participates in college-wide events that identify prospects and increase financial support.

Physical Plant

• Oversees the physical management of the museum.
• Assesses, advocates for, and develops space for exhibitions, programs, storage, teaching, and preparation.
• Working with the staff, develops capital requests for plant and technology improvements.
• Oversees museum security.

Collaboration with Academic Departments and Programs

• Cultivates relationships with faculty and staff in academic departments and programs to build strong integrative collaborations that enhance teaching and learning across the curriculum.
• Develops strategies and resources to encourage faculty partnerships, potentially including guest curating and writing for museum publications.

Publicity and Marketing

• Directs all publicity and marketing for the museum.
• Oversees production of exhibition and program mailings, posters, and advertisements.
• Coordinates with other arts departments of the College around event planning and promotion.
• Works with the Office of Communications and Media Relations to increase the visibility of the museum.
• Oversees the museum’s Website.
• Directs the production of the museum newsletter.
• Represents the museum among regional and national peer institutions.

Leadership in the Arts

• Serves as an advocate and spokesperson for the Museum and arts at Bates, and in the academic and museum field regionally and nationally.
• Develops the museum as the nexus of the arts at the College.
• Takes an active role in committees that advance the arts.
• Provides leadership for public art initiatives on campus, including serving on building, planning, and search committees as needed.

Teaching

• If interested, and depending on need and capacity, may offer undergraduate courses in the appropriate academic unit on such topics as museum studies, art history and criticism, or material culture. Any teaching must be negotiated with the appropriate chair and the VPAA/DOF.
• With education director, oversees a robust academic and paid internship program.

Minimum Qualifications:

Education

• M.A. degree required
• Ph. D preferred

Experience

• Extensive experience in museum administration required, preferably in an academic museum setting.
• 10+ years experience in a leadership position in a museum or arts organization is preferred.

Skills and Knowledge

• Commitment to equity and inclusion, and serving the needs of a culturally and educationally diverse community.
• Ability to envision and innovate.
• Excellent personnel and project management skills.
• Proven experience of staff management.
• Proven experience with effective budget management and financial reporting.
• Demonstrated strength in tactical and strategic planning.
• Wide range of art knowledge and museum best practices.
• Excellent writing and editing skills including grant-writing and fund-raising.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and public speaking skills.
• Ability to work effectively with all college constituencies, including faculty, staff and students.
• Ability to work with museum professionals, artists, and donors.

Benefits:

Bates College offers competitive salaries, excellent benefits (health, dental, sick leave, 24 days of vacation, 2 personal days, 13 paid holidays, dependent care subsidy, free parking, access to library and athletic facilities & more), and a supportive, collegial environment in a drug and smoke-free workplace.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement:

Bates College is committed to the principle of equal opportunity and providing an educational and work environment free from discrimination. The college prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, age, disability, genetic information or veteran status and other legally protected statuses in the recruitment and admission of its students, in the administration of its education policies and programs, or in the recruitment of its faculty and staff.  Bates College adheres to all applicable state and federal equal opportunity laws and regulations.  All college faculty, staff, students, contractors, visitors, and volunteers are responsible for understanding and complying with the Non-Discrimination Policy.

Inquiries concerning the college’s policies, compliance with applicable laws, statutes, and regulations (such as Title VII, Title IX, and ADA/Section 504), and complaints may be directed to Gwen Lexow, Title IX Officer, 207-786-6445 or via email at glexow@bates.edu.

About Bates:

Bates is internationally recognized as a leading liberal arts college, attracting 2,000 students from across the U.S. and around the world.

Since 1855, Bates has been dedicated to educating the whole person through creative and rigorous scholarship in a collaborative residential community. Committed to opportunity and excellence, Bates has always admitted students without regard to gender, race, religion, or national origin.

Cultivating intellectual discovery and informed civic action, Bates prepares leaders sustained by a love of learning and zeal for responsible stewardship of the wider world. Bates engages the forces — intellectual trends, demographic changes, and technology — that are transforming higher education and the world into which our students graduate.

Bates has highly competitive admissions, graduates over 90 percent of its entering students, and more than half of its alumni earn graduate degrees. Bates employs 200 faculty members and 550 staff.

The college is proud of deep roots in the Lewiston/Auburn community, Maine’s second-largest urban area with a population of approximately 65,000. Bates is located on a beautiful, 133-acre, traditional New England campus in Lewiston, an emerging city with an entrepreneurial climate, a lively arts scene, and a dynamic business community. Bates is 35 miles north of Portland, 140 miles north of Boston, and 350 miles north of New York City.