Department Summary
The Fowler Museum at UCLA explores global arts and cultures with an emphasis on Africa, Asia, the Pacific, and the Indigenous Americas—past and present. The Fowler enhances understanding and appreciation of the diverse peoples, cultures, and religions of the world through dynamic exhibitions, publications, and public programs, informed by interdisciplinary approaches and the perspectives of the cultures represented. Also featured is the work of international contemporary artists presented within the complex frameworks of politics, culture and social action. The Fowler provides exciting, informative and thought-provoking exhibitions and events for the UCLA community and the people of greater Los Angeles and beyond.Position Summary
The Fowler Museum at UCLA seeks a Curatorial Specialist to participate in a collaborative interdisciplinary research project devoted to a recently acquired collection of African Art objects. The Fowler Museum at UCLA is pleased to offer full time, 18-month position dedicated to researching this newly acquired African Art collection in collaboration with the Collections and Registration Specialist also working on this new acquisition. Under the direction of the Senior Curator of African Arts and Manager of Curatorial Affairs, they will research the roles, meanings, materiality, and provenance histories of a large donation of African Art objects. Essential to this process is the hands-on work of robust and complete cataloguing of the objects beyond the data provided by the donor; such information would include past attributions, cultural affiliations, collection history, and materials analysis. In the process of undertaking this research they will perform comparative studies with similar types of objects already in the Fowler’s collection and update the database records of all objects with comparable findings. In order to gain a deep understanding of these objects and those already in the collection, the Curatorial Specialist will work predominantly in person. Joining a project already underway, they will collaborate with the Collections and Registration Specialist on all updates to the database, including all possible cataloguing, cultural information, and provenance data in advance of the release of this information on the Fowler’s public collections portal. The Curatorial Specialist will also produce online resources to highlight groups of objects from this acquisition. They will be expected to produce two StoryMaps, a web resource used across multiple departments at the Fowler to produce educational content, that will be shared on the Fowler’s website. Time allowing, the Curatorial Specialist may also produce virtual exhibitions and curate selections of objects for the Fowler’s public collections portal
Salary & Compensation
*UCLA provides a full pay range. Actual salary offers consider factors, including budget, prior experience, skills, knowledge, abilities, education, licensure and certifications, and other business considerations. Salary offers at the top of the range are not common. Visit UC Benefit package to discover benefits that start on day one, and UC Total Compensation Estimator to calculate the total compensation value with benefits.
Qualifications
- At least one year of curatorial experience, or equivalent record of academic accomplishment (Preferred)
- Experience in research physical libraries, archives, and online sources of research information and documentation of same (Required)
- Experience with collections management software (Preferred)
- Substantial knowledge of African and Diaspora Arts, especially historical arts in museum collections (Required)
- Ability to work with registrarial, conservation, and curatorial staff at a museum (Required)
- Ability to work collaboratively and effectively with other staff, interns, fellows, and the Museum’s stakeholder constituencies. (Required)
- Ability to work productively with international colleagues (Required)
- Knowledge of museum standards for collections security and management (Required)
- Excellent administrative, analytical, research, and communication skills (Preferred)
- Ability to work independently with general supervision (Required)
- Ability to work with materials (feathers, fur, hairs, fibers, natural dyes, etc.) that may aggravate allergies (Required)
Education, Licenses, Certifications & Personal Affiliations
- PhD In Humanities, preferably art history, with a specialization in African Studies (Preferred)
