• Job Description

  Req#: 97875

  Job Details

  Job Location: Walters Art Museum - Baltimore, MD

  Position Type: Full Time

  Education Level: 4 Year Degree

  Salary Range: $70,000.00 - $73,000.00 Salary/year

  Description

  ABOUT THE WALTERS ART MUSEUM

  The Walters Art Museum is among America’s most distinctive museums, forging connections between people and art from cultures around the world and spanning seven millennia. Located in Baltimore’s Mount Vernon neighborhood, the Walters is free for all. The museum’s campus includes five historic buildings and 36,000 art objects.

  Today, the Walters serves Baltimore and Maryland by embracing its role as educator and storyteller, using the collection as a vehicle of knowledge and cultural expression to support learning, dialogue, and community engagement. The museum is committed to public education, offering essential programs that help people to connect art to their lives. The Walters Visitor Promise aligns staff and volunteers across the museum to preserve and share the works in our care for future generations, partner with communities, and create welcoming, accessible experiences for visitors. The museum offers challenging and creative work opportunities by promoting collaboration, teamwork, and a culture that celebrates the diversity and inclusion of all. In December 2020, the museum finalized a set of multiyear diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (DEAI) goals in alignment with the museum’s Strategic Plan and grounded in the following commitments: expand the histories the museum examines and shares; partner with our communities; and center equity, inclusion, and accountability in our culture and decision-making.

  Overview of Role

  A commitment to community engagement is a core imperative of the Walters Art Museum’s Strategic Plan (November 2015) and Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion goals (March 2021). The Walters has defined community engagement as follows: Community engagement is relationship-building. We stand with our communities by spending time together, finding out what matters to them, and achieving shared goals with creativity and the arts. We seek to strengthen relationships from a foundation of listening, open dialogue, and mutual respect.

  The David Hirschhorn Head of Community Engagement builds partnerships and relationships across the region and works with colleagues across the museum to engage and support Baltimore’s diverse communities with the aim of achieving shared goals. Reporting to the Ruth R. Marder Director of Learning & Community Engagement, this role serves as a bridge within the internal museum community as well as between the museum and external communities.

  In close partnership with the Director of Learning & Community Engagement, the Head of Community Engagement will refine, update, and implement the Walters’ strategy for community engagement. The position will develop community engagement initiatives and partnerships; conduct outreach; execute strategic community projects; support capacity building within the museum; and manage the Community Engagement Unit and at least two staff members.

  Duties and Responsibilities:

  Develop, implement, and present initiatives and reciprocal partnerships that align with our community engagement strategy.

  • In collaboration with the Director of Learning & Community Engagement, identify and execute community engagement projects that support the community and the institution’s DEAI goals and Strategic Plan and establish the museum as a welcoming and engaging place for all members of the community.
  • Strengthen current strategic alliances to build and cultivate strong, sustainable relationships with Baltimore’s diverse communities.
  • Research, identify, and develop new partnerships to extend the museum’s impact, particularly among historically under-represented and under-invited constituencies.
  • Listen to and understand the needs of potential partners in order to assess how the Walters could best support those needs.
  • Support the building of community engagement capacity across the Walters, including through Staff Engagement Committee activities, with the goal of embedding community engagement as a core skill and value across the museum.
  • Serve as a spokesperson for the Walters by presenting on the Walters’ community engagement initiatives in community events, publications, and professional convenings.
  • Outreach to target audiences and drive attendance to museum exhibitions and programs, onsite and offsite.
  • All other duties assigned.

  Implement and collaborate with internal and external stakeholders on mechanisms for community representation, voices, and feedback in the Walters and its decision-making.

  • Develop community engagement strategies for all major exhibitions and installations.
  • Collaborate with departments across the institution to identify mechanisms for community representation and feedback in projects and develop media that features community voices.
  • Manage and facilitate the College Student Advisory Group, which provides college student perspectives within exhibitions and programs, and implement resulting initiatives and programs.
  • Collaborate with the Director of Learning and Community Engagement and the Manager of Evaluation and Audience Impact on the development, facilitation, and implementation of community engagement advisory groups for identified projects.
  • Identify potential programmatic and curatorial partners and connect external and internal stakeholders as opportunities arise.
  • All other duties assigned.

  Oversee community engagement projects and programs focused on youth , specifically after school teen programs and other initiatives that fall outside of the school day.

  • Oversee three core teen programs with the support of the Assistant Manager of Teen Programs: Teen Lab, a teen photography program, and teen advisory group.
  • Review and provide input on all aspects of teen program development, implementation, and staffing.
  • Liaise with museum colleagues across the museum to connect teen audiences with professional development learning opportunities across a range of museum work.

  Develop and implement a strategy for strengthening relationships with the Baltimore artist community in partnership with the Director of Learning and Community Engagement.

  • Collaborate with colleagues across the museum to highlight contemporary artists’ stories, work, and perspectives as they relate to WAM’s collections, exhibitions, and buildings.
  • Develop a strategy for the Walters’ participation in community events that engage the broader artist community, including but not limited to Artscape.
  • All other duties assigned.

  Manage the Community Engagement unit.

  • Hire, train, mentor, and assess staff.
  • Ensure staff performance meets and supports organizational needs by providing effective coaching and mentoring.
  • Propose and manage budget for community engagement; ensure cross-departmental visibility into community engagement expenses that may reside in other departments’ budgets.
  • Organize reports on Community Engagement activity and impact, and as required by the Director of Learning and Community Engagement.
  • Support fundraising efforts for the unit, department, and institution, including collaboration on the writing and reporting of grants.
  • All other duties assigned.

  Qualifications

  
  

  Qualifications:

  • Master’s degree in art/museum education, education, or a field related to community engagement; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
  • At least five years of experience working in museums, community or cultural organizations, or other relevant settings.
  • At least three years of experience with facilitation and collaborative projects, including the ability to actively listen and find connections among multiple and sometimes differing perspectives.
  • Experience with managing youth programming preferred.
  • Highly skilled in managing multiple projects and budgets and leading collaborative projects with multiple stakeholders.
  • Experience managing initiatives that are grounded in equity, anti-racist pedagogy, and inclusive practices.
  • Experience with program evaluation and audience research.
  • Hands-on knowledge of best practices in community engagement and sustainable, reciprocal community relationship building. Knowledge of community organizing preferred.
  • Broad-based knowledge of a range of community organizations, artist networks, and historically under-invited and underrepresented communities in the greater Baltimore region.
  • Demonstrated ability to align external communities’ needs and interests with an organization’s mission, values, and policies.
  • Ability to navigate challenging situations and bring forward-looking approach to solving current challenges and initiatives.
  • Critical thinker and self-starter who is willing to work proactively to identify key priorities and work across teams to implement the necessary solutions.
  • Demonstrated effective verbal and written communication skills, able to influence and converse with individuals of diverse backgrounds, and present ideas in an organized fashion.
  • Demonstrated ability to work across teams and departments through information sharing, open communication, and being an effective partner, for example, by actively listening, providing recommendations in support of shared goals, and respecting the abilities and ways of knowing of others.

  Schedule:

  Regular work week is Monday to Friday. Able to work evenings and weekends as needed.

  Starting Annual Salary:

  $70,000-$73,000

  The Walters Art Museum provides an excellent comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental, prescription, vision, subsidized transportation and parking, museum membership, short-term disability, long-term disability, life insurance, FSA (flexible spending account), 457b retirement, and free professional financial management counseling.

  All employees must be legally authorized to work in the United States. The museum does not sponsor work visas.

• About the company

  61611 The Walters Art Museum, located in Mount Vernon-Belvedere, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is a public art museum founded and opened in 1934.

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