Position Announcement: Curator of Exhibits and Collections, Abbe Museum

With the mission to inspire new learning about the Wabanaki Nations with every visit, the Abbe Museum is a decolonizing museum, offering changing exhibitions and a robust programming schedule for all ages, and welcoming 30,000 visitors each year on Mount Desert Island, Maine, home of Acadia National Park. Wabanaki people are engaged in all aspects of the museum, from curatorial roles to policy making.

The Curator of Exhibits & Collections is a highly visible position within the fast-paced Abbe Museum environment with three main areas of focus: exhibitions, collections care & management, and research.

  • Exhibitions: Manages the Abbeʼs interpretive content in collaboration with the Curator of Education, as guided by the museumʼs tribally-appointed Wabanaki Council. Leads the exhibits team to plan, organize, and implement exhibits and frequently serves as project manager and content specialist.
  • Collections Care & Management: Primary responsibility for the Wellman Archaeology Research Laboratory and Collections Storage and the documentation, management, and care of the museumʼs collections and institutional archives, seeking to make them accessible to internal and external audiences and to make sure the museum maintains a high level of accuracy.
  • Research: Provides support for researchers within well-defined guidelines; keeps abreast of current publications relative to research methods, techniques, and developments; supports the dissemination of findings; acts as a content specialist to the Museum board and staff members.
  • Tribal Relationships: Provides direct support and relevant resources to Wabanaki communities in support of collections care and management, and exhibitions, upon request.
  • Project Management: Acts as project manager on grant-funded internal projects in collections care and management, exhibitions, and research, as assigned by the Executive Director & Senior Partner with Wabanaki Nations.

More here.

Position Announcement: Curator of Native American Art, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art invites all people to explore the art in its care, and through its vast collections, the depths, and complexities of human experiences.
We strive to create a sense of belonging, where staff and volunteers can do meaningful work connecting people to art. We create an informed, invested group of staff and volunteers through shared values and open, direct, and respectful communication. We embrace IDEAS (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access, and Sustainability) in every aspect of our ideals and aspirations, as we believe these values to be paramount to success.
Each staff member and volunteer will embody the institution’s commitments and agrees to exhibit behaviors that align with them. We hold one another to these expectations so that, together, we may know, own, energize and sustain our culture and the institution for generations to come.
Curator, Native American Art
Reporting to the Deputy Director, Curatorial Affairs, the Curator, Native American Art, is responsible for research, exhibition, documentation, preservation, and growth of the Native American art collection. The Curator is responsible for the permanent collection, gallery installations, and generating original exhibitions related to their expertise and collection area and serves as a member of a larger cross-institutional teams including, but not limited to, curatorial, exhibition-related, outreach, development, and educational museum projects.
**Preference in filling this role will be given to qualified, Native American candidates enrolled in a federally recognized tribe.**
KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES/ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
  1. Collection: Assists and advises the Director and CEO and Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs on matters concerning the collection, their documentation, care, and disposition and exhibitions of Native American art in all media.
  2. Special Exhibitions: Conceptualizes and organizes exhibitions and collections installations in all media that place the collection in cultural and historical contexts. Acts as venue/presenting curator for incoming traveling exhibitions related to collections area.
  3. Collection Acquisition: Works to develop collections with area, national and international collectors to strengthen the museum’s collection through gifts and purchases. Liaises with artists, galleries, and lenders to commission work or secure loans for exhibitions. Follows the art market and maintains dealer relations for new acquisitions; conducts research for possible purchases and/or gifts. Presents proposed acquisitions and deaccessions to the Director and CEO and Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs.
  4. Research: Catalogues and conducts research on Native American art collections—collaborating with other curatorial departments including African Art; American Art; Architecture, Design and Decorative Arts; Contemporary Art; East Asian Art; European Arts; Modern Art; Photography; and South and Southeast Asian Art, as well as Registration department; updates document files and insurance valuation. Works with Conservation department on the care of works.
  5. Donor Relationships: Supports the Director and Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs, as well as Development Department in promoting relationships with donors and collectors.
  6. Tours/Lectures: Conducts tours and lectures on the permanent collections and installations for the public, museum docents, donors, the media, and community groups.

More here.

Zoom Workshop For Students & Emerging Professionals On Publishing, Council for Museum Anthropology & Society for the Anthropology of Work & SAPIENS 

April 18, 2023 / 12:00-1:30 HST (UTC -10) / 3:00-4:30 PDT / 6:00-7:30 EDT // April 19, 2023 / 0:00h – 1:30h CEST

https://communities.americananthro.org/discussion/april-18-a-zoom-workshop-for-students-emerging-professionals-on-publishing-1

(virtual)

The Council for Museum Anthropology invites all students and emerging professionals to our online workshop on publishing. For more information, see below or the attached flyer.

Workshop speakers:

Hannah Turner, editor, Museum Anthropology

Mythri Jegathesan, editor, Anthropology of Work Review

Eshe Lewis, project director, Public Scholars Training Fellowship Program, SAPIENS

Are you interested in publishing your research in a peer-reviewed journal or an independent magazine? Are you interested in forms of publishing beyond peer-reviewed academic essays?

Join us for a conversation with the editors of Museum Anthropology and Anthropology of Work Review (two AAA section journals) and a fellow with Sapiens magazine to learn more about the world of anthropological publishing. Our speakers will share some tips and review the different forms of writing (peer-reviewed essays, event reviews, book reviews, magazine articles, etc.) that their publications will publish. This event is free and open to the public.

Register here:

https://hawaii.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYkd-GurjgpE9U2CFaOkLPlqLQnywqeH8dz

For more information, email halena@hawaii.edu  

Reminder: Applications for the African Critical Inquiry Programme

The African Critical Inquiry Programme is pleased to announce the 2023 Ivan Karp Doctoral Research Awards to support African doctoral students in the humanities and humanistic social sciences who are enrolled at South African universities and conducting dissertation research on relevant topics. Grant amounts vary depending on research plans; the maximum award is ZAR 50,000.

ACIP_CFP_ResearchGrants2023_FillableForm

ACIP_CFP_ResearchGrants2023_REMINDER

The African Critical Inquiry Programme invites proposals from scholars and/or practitioners in public cultural institutions in South Africa to organise a workshop to take place in 2024. The African Critical Inquiry Programme (ACIP) seeks to advance inquiry and debate about the roles and practice of public culture, public cultural institutions, and public scholarship in shaping identities and society in Africa.

ACIP_CFP_Workshops2023_FillableForm

ACIP_CFP_Workshops2023_REMINDER

Position Announcement: Associate Professorship in Museum Anthropology / Curatorship at the Pitt Rivers Museum

The School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography (SAME) and the Pitt Rivers Museum, in association with Linacre College, seek jointly to appoint an inspirational teacher and accomplished research scholar to an Associate Professorship in Museum Anthropology. Applications are welcomed from outstanding candidates with teaching experience and a strong research background in any area of Museum Anthropology.

We welcome applications from academics who hold a doctorate in anthropology, or a closely related field, and have the excellent interpersonal skills necessary for teaching high-achieving students; a track record of obtaining research funding, evidence of research accomplishment and potential commensurate with the current stage of your career, and the collaboration and leadership skills necessary to manage excellent research programmes and to attract external funding. The main duties of the post are to carry out research at an international level, to teach, supervise and examine undergraduate and postgraduate students, and to make a contribution to School administration.

The appointee will be a Governing Body Fellow of Linacre College. Appointments to Associate Professorships are confirmed as permanent on successful completion of a review during the first 5 years. Any offer made will be subject to pre-employment checks.

The post is offered on a full-time basis, available from 1 September 2023 or as soon as possible thereafter. Applications are encouraged from women and black and minority ethnic candidates, who are underrepresented in academic posts in Oxford.

Closing date: Tuesday 25 April 2023, 12.00.

More here.

Dartmouth College, the ‘Native Ivy’, Has Been Using the Bones of Indigenous Ancestors as Teaching Material

Via Native News Online, March 30, 2023

Dartmouth College has unknowingly been using the bones belonging to Native American ancestors to teach with as recently as fall 2022, the college announced this week.

The discovery came about during an internal collections review between the anthropology department and the school’s Hood Museum of Art in November 2022. Museum staff realized that acquisition numbers for the human remains documented in their collection for eventual return matched numbers cataloged by the anthropology department, where at least 23 individuals—and as many as 123—were used as teaching materials for classes on bones.

In some cases, the bones of individual Native American ancestors were split between the department and the Hood museum. At least three individuals had already been returned to their tribal nations in the late 1990s.

College faculty are unclear about how the ancestors came to the anthropology department because documentation is limited or nonexistent over the university’s two-and-a-half century history, according to Jerry DeSilva, Dartmouth’s Chair of Anthropology.

More here.

What Would Ben Franklin Say? Artists Weigh the Dream of Democracy

Via The New York Times, March 23, 2023

It’s just a few blocks on Arch Street between the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the oldest art school and museum in the United States, and the African American Museum in Philadelphia, founded in 1976 to celebrate the achievements of African Americans from pre-colonial times to the current day. Yet rarely have visitors at one museum made the walk to the other. “How do we create this corridor between us?” posed Dejay Duckett, vice president of curatorial services at AAMP.

Now, an unusual collaborative exhibition has opened at the two institutions; together they commissioned 20 artists — including Alison Saar, Hank Willis Thomas, Wilmer Wilson IV and Dread Scott — to make new work and bring a multitude of perspectives to the knotty question Benjamin Franklin reportedly pondered in 1787, as the Constitution was being written: Was the sun rising or setting on American democracy?

“Rising Sun: Artists in an Uncertain America,” on view through Oct. 8, was conceived during Donald J. Trump’s tumultuous presidency by Jodi Throckmorton, then curator of contemporary art at the academy known as PAFA, in partnership with Duckett. They started conversations with artists in early 2020 that gestated throughout the pandemic lockdown, the killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd that reignited a nationwide racial justice movement, and the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, all buffeting the show’s central query.

More here.

How Will Technology Shape the Museum of Tomorrow? 20 Museum Directors Will Convene in the Bay Area to Explore Digital Horizons

Via ArtNet News, March 22, 2023

As technology grows ever more present in the cultural institution—reshaping its operations, how it engages audiences, and what it exhibits—the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) is hosting a forum to contemplate what the digital frontier means for the museum of today and tomorrow.

On April 21, FAMSF, in partnership with seven other Bay Area museums and cultural strategist András Szántó, will convene a symposium, titled Museums of Tomorrow, at Stanford University. The full-day program will feature presentations from a line-up of museum directors, artists, and academic experts on how technology is transforming power structures within the arts and institutions.

The moment, said Thomas P. Campbell, director and CEO of FAMSF, is ripe for such a discussion, coming as it does on the heels of the NFT boom and the rise of A.I., and in the wake of a pandemic-driven digital acceleration.

“Museums around the world are grappling with the opportunities and the costs of thoughtfully introducing technology in their work and audience engagement,” he told Artnet News. “And considering that so much of this development is coming out of the Bay Area, it seemed logical and an opportunity for us to convene a roundtable here.”

More

How Will Technology Shape the Museum of Tomorrow? 20 Museum Directors Will Convene in the Bay Area to Explore Digital Horizons

here.

Call for Applications: Volunteer Museum Anthropology Blog Manager, Council for Museum Anthropology

The Council for Museum Anthropology (CMA) Communications Committee is looking for a Blog Manager.

In existence for over twelve years, the CMA blog is a leading online resource for museum anthropologists, practitioners, and scholars. The blog circulates job and fellowship opportunities, news from the field, news and reviews about museums and exhibitions, and serves as a venue for public scholarship. As blog manager, your responsibilities will include:

  • Finding and posting relevant job, internship, and fellowship opportunities, as well as information on relevant conferences or workshops.
  • Reading and posting relevant news articles.
  • Publicizing any CMA or AAA announcements in regards to the annual meetings, calls for papers, awards, workshops, etc.
  • At times, working with the communications committee on guest posts.
  • Working as a member of the communications committee at-large and thinking through best communications strategies for the organization.

Though this is a volunteer position, this opportunity offers significant mentorship and professional development opportunities with both the CMA and its parent organization, the American Anthropological Association.

The blog is run via WordPress as part of the larger CMA web platform. WordPress experience is recommended but not required.

For more information or to apply, please email CMA secretary and outgoing blog manager, Lillia McEnaney, council.museumanth@gmail.com. In your application, please include:

  • Name, email, and phone number
  • Any institutional affiliations you hold
  • Areas of specialization or potential interest
  • 500 word description of your interest in the position, and any background you have in communications or social media

Applications are due on March 31, 2023.

Event Announcement: Museums in the Infodemic  “Extinct Monsters to Deep Time” Paperback Book Launch

Join the Center for Archival Futures and Museum Scholarship and Material Culture Program at the University of Maryland for this upcoming hybrid event on Friday, March 17th!

Museums in the Infodemic
A Paperback Book Launch Featuring Behind-the-Scenes Stories

March 17 | 11:00 AM–12:30 PM EST | HBK 2119 & Virtual | Registration Required
Snacks will be provided!

Abstract:
In honor of the paperback release of Extinct Monsters to Deep Time, the Center for Archival Futures and the Museum Scholarship and Material Culture program at the University of Maryland invite you to a critical conversation about the shifting responsibilities of museum practitioners in an era of information (and misinformation) overload—and how this is changing the way that museums communicate with the public. Renowned experts in collections and exhibitions will join us to share behind-the-scenes stories and discuss their efforts to convey hard truths about our shared past, present, and future in the current information landscape.

Speakers:
Ariana Curtis, National Museum of African American History and Culture
Steven Luckert, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Diana Marsh, University of Maryland, Author of Extinct Monsters to Deep Time
Jennifer Shannon (Moderator), National Museum of the American Indian
Lindsay Zarwell, National Geographic

About the Book:
Extinct Monsters to Deep Time: Conflict, Compromise, and the Making of Smithsonian’s Fossil Halls is an exploration of the growing friction between the research and outreach functions of museums in the 21st century. Describing participant observation and historical research at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History as it prepared for its largest-ever exhibit renovation, Deep Time, the author provides a grounded perspective on the inner-workings of the world’s largest natural history museum and the social processes of communicating science to the public.