Museum Curator
Do you have museum curatorial and/or art history experience and are looking for a permanent placement at the home of one of America’s premier artists in a beautiful part of the country? If so, the team at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park would like to see your application to be our next Museum Curator.
The incumbent of this position serves as the museum curator (with a focus on fine arts) for Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park in New Hampshire and assists with curatorial functions for Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Vermont.
The museum curator serves as the park’s subject matter expert on all aspects of museum collections care and management, with a focus on fine art collections of bronze, plaster, and marble sculpture, paintings, works on paper, and decorative arts, as well as archival materials. The curator is a hands-on position that requires comfort working with an actively used fine art collection, preparing pieces for loan, coordinating the work of fine art conservators, developing funding priorities, reviewing research reports, maintaining museum documentation, implementing efficient use of storage and innovative rehousing methods, and leading and coordinating historic housekeeping and preventative conservation for a significant historic house museum and several outdoor public monuments. The curator ensures that professionally recognized museum procedures are applied in all operations in accordance with the park’s status as a museum facility accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. The curator represents the park director/superintendent when working with external partners on cultural resource or museum management matters, actively builds partnerships with outside academic institutions, researchers, and special interest groups, and works closely with the park's Visitor Experience team to devise and pilot initiatives that engage the public in learning about the park’s robust collections and unique histories.
The curator will have or develop a strong working knowledge of the artistic history of late 19th and early 20th century paintings, sculpture, and paper works, particularly works by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and members of the Cornish Colony of artists, and will become a resource to the art historical community on these subjects through the development of publications, articles, presentations, responses to research requests, and informal conversations with art historical colleagues. Having education or relevant experience in the field of art history or art museum curatorial affairs is a plus and will aid the incumbent in dealings with museum partners in the art historical community. The curator coordinates the rotation of objects from the park’s collection for exhibit in park galleries, organizes periodic special exhibits of thematic materials from the park’s collection, and coordinates with the park’s partner organization, the Saint-Gaudens Memorial, on annual contemporary art exhibitions in one of the park’s galleries.
This position directly supervises a museum technician and also coordinates a museum internship program that prepares the next generation of museum professionals for careers in the museum field.
This position is duty stationed in Cornish, New Hampshire, but may also spend some work time 30-minutes away at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Woodstock, Vermont, which holds an extensive collection of Hudson River School and associated artworks, as well as Asian ceramics, historic furnishings, and decorative arts. The two parks are jointly managed. The position reports to the supervisory curator for the two parks. Starting salary for the position will be between $54,727 (GS-9) and $66,214 (GS-11) for employees new to federal government employment and salary will increase at established intervals with satisfactory performance. As a permanent federal employee, you will be eligible for the full suite of federal employment benefits, including health insurance, a three-tiered retirement program, and other benefits.
A Great Opportunity:
- Lead the museum program at the home of American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, stewarding the unparalleled collection of Saint-Gaudens and Cornish Colony artwork.
- Building upon a personal base of education and experience in art history and art curation, develop knowledge and expertise in Augustus Saint-Gaudens, his artwork and history, and the artists of the Cornish Colony to become a go-to resource on this subject in the art historical community.
- Supervise a junior museum technician and lead the only museum internship program in the Northeast Region of the National Park Service, helping to prepare the next generation of museum professionals for careers in the museum field.
- Lead the development of exhibition plans, special exhibitions, scholarly publications, and similar outreach activities, and work with partners on the management of a contemporary art exhibition program.
- Be a part of a park team that consistently ranks among the highest in the National Park Service in the annual Employee Viewpoint Survey Best Places to Work Index (91% Best Places to Work; 96% Supervisor satisfaction; 90% Intrinsic Work Experience Satisfaction).
- Join a park team that values collaboration, teamwork, and learning and that is small enough to know everyone on staff by name but complex enough to offer real and varied challenges.
- Enjoy the professional collaboration with outstanding partners at both parks and a strong network of museum professionals throughout the National Park Service
- Tap into the opportunities for career development and training at the renowned NPS Stewardship Institute, co-located at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP.
About the Parks:
The parks tell diverse stories including art, conservation, African-American history, strong and visionary women, agricultural history, and recreation, just to name a few.
Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park preserves the home, studios, gardens, and museum collection of American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The museum collection consists of over 10,000 catalogued items including hundreds of original works of art. The park boasts the largest collection of Saint-Gaudens sculpture in the world and is regularly contacted by national and international scholars interested in the work of Augustus Saint-Gaudens and the Cornish Colony. The park operates in partnership with the Saint-Gaudens Memorial to advance programs and educational opportunities that promote public awareness of Saint-Gaudens, his work, and sculpture in general including a robust concert series, art exhibitions and fellowships, student scholarships, and support of conservation treatment of museum objects and acquisitions of unique works of art by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and the Cornish Colony. The Park: www.nps.gov/saga The Saint-Gaudens Memorial: saint-gaudens.org
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP preserves and interprets the story of conservation history and the evolving nature of land stewardship in America. The museum collection consists of over 116,000 items, primarily historic furnishings, but also extensive nineteenth and twentieth century art and artifacts belonging to the Billings and Rockefeller families, and a few items associated with George Perkins Marsh. It is a diverse collection that includes household furnishings, fine arts, decorative arts, archives, carriages, textiles, and family mementos. Of particular importance are the collection of Hudson River School landscape paintings. The park operates in partnership with the Billings Farm & Museum/Woodstock Foundation to advance cultural resource stewardship, and other shared mission-based goals. www.nps.gov/mabi
The NPS Stewardship Institute, co-located at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP advances conservation stewardship and preservation practices for the future and supports conservation leaders in their work. The Institute carries a national and international portfolio of programs that advance conservation practice through leadership development, collaboration and engagement, and research and evaluation. www.nps.gov/csi
Area Information:
The position is duty stationed at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park.
Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park is located in the inspiring landscape of Cornish, New Hampshire, which has attracted renowned artists to the area since Saint-Gaudens’s time. The site was operated as a non-profit museum by the Saint-Gaudens Memorial starting in 1919. The park was established in 1965 and its mission is to preserve, and interpret the properties associated with the life and achievements of sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907) and to promote the arts through events in the spirit of those conducted by Saint-Gaudens and the Cornish Colony. The National Park Service manages and interprets Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s home, Aspet, his studio, classically inspired gardens, and cultivated landscapes and forests; and Blow- Me-Down Pond and Mill and Blow-Me-Down Farm, which are associated with Charles C. Beaman Jr. who was instrumental in bringing Augustus Saint-Gaudens to Cornish and establishing the Cornish Colony of artists.
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park is located in the year-round resort community of Woodstock, Vermont – an area of great natural beauty alongside the Ottauquechee River in the foothills of the Green Mountains. The park opened for the first time to visitors in 1998 and is the first unit of the National Park System to focus on the theme of conservation history and the changing nature of land stewardship in America. It manages and interprets the early 19th century Billings/Rockefeller mansion and grounds complex. The park also includes a 500-acre forest on the slopes of Mount Tom where hiking, nature study, and cross-country skiing are popular with visitors.
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP is also home to the NPS Stewardship Institute, the Northeast Temperate Inventory and Monitoring Network (NETN) and Rivers and Trails Conservation Assistance (RTCA) Vermont and New Hampshire offices. Saint-Gaudens NHP also includes the relatively new addition of Blow-Me Down Farm, which is envisioned as a campus that will be home to a variety of partners supporting the park’s mission as a National Park for the Arts. It currently has a long-term lessee, Opera North, a professional musical theatre company offering a robust summer program of on-site performances and events adding further vibrancy to this National Park for the Arts. As a robust and thriving two-park NPS campus, this collection of parks, programs and partners embrace collaborative and innovative projects, and offer park staff the opportunity to pursue interdisciplinary experiences.
New Hampshire has no income tax and no sales tax and has many affordable communities nearby that offer an outstanding quality of life. Full-service communities near Cornish include Lebanon, Claremont, and Hanover, New Hampshire, and Windsor, White River Junction, Woodstock, and Springfield, Vermont. The areas largest employers are Dartmouth College and the medial industry, including the only academic medical center in New Hampshire. Other government entities in the area include the Veterans Administration and Army Corps of Engineers.
The climate includes four distinct seasons, including mild summers with countless opportunities for outdoor activities, legendary autumn colors that bring visitors flocking to the region, and winters that provide opportunities for alpine and Nordic skiing, skating, and other pursuits. Boston is 2.5 hours from Cornish while Montreal, Quebec, is just over 3 hours away (and rural French Canada is even closer than that). New York City is approximately 5 hours away and can also be reached by daily Amtrak or luxury coach bus service.
Apply at:
https://www.usajobs.gov/job/663846600