Assistant Curator of Ceramics
- Employer
- Washington and Lee University
- Location
- Lexington, Virginia, United States
- Salary
- Competitive Salary
- Date posted
- Sep 17, 2024
View more categoriesView less categories
- Position Type
- Faculty Positions, Arts, Art, Art History, Administrative, Academic Affairs, Arts Administration
- Employment Type
- Full Time
Job Details
Reporting to the Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs (ADCA), The Assistant Curator of Ceramics will educate, provoke, and engage others about ceramics, work with ADCA to enhance and grow the collection, and further position the Museums and Washington and Lee as a leader in ceramics through outreach, exhibitions, and publications.
The curatorial fellow must be in residence at the W&L Art Museum and Galleries in Lexington, Virginia, during the fellowship period, starting in late Fall 2024, lasting for three years, with the possibility of contract renewal or promotion to a permanent position.
About the Museum at Washington and Lee:
The Museums at W&L encompass two distinct entities: the Art Museum and Galleries, and the Institutional History Museum and Chapel Galleries. Each is dedicated to showcasing unique collections and exhibitions, and building a community inspired by art and history. The W&L Art Museum and Galleries include three sites: the Reeves Museum of Ceramics, Watson Galleries, Washington Gallery, and the McCarthy Gallery.
The Museums’ mission is to promote learning through direct engagement with its collections and to foster an interdisciplinary appreciation of art, history, and culture. It achieves this through a variety of permanent and rotating exhibitions that support the liberal arts curriculum, align with the university’s academic objectives, and reflect the diverse interests of the community. With approximately 15,000 objects from diverse periods, geographies, and various media in its decorative and fine arts collection, the Art Museum and Galleries offer students and faculty opportunities for research, internships, employment, exhibitions, and programmatic offerings.
The Reeves Collection of Ceramics has a storied history. In 1967, Washington and Lee University received 200 barrels filled with over 2,000 ceramic treasures from Asia, Europe, and America, dating from 1500 to 1900. This generous gift from alumnus Euchlin D. Reeves, Law Class of 1927, and his wife, painter Louise Herreshoff, laid the foundation for what is now the Reeves Museum of Ceramics. Through subsequent gifts and acquisitions, our collection has grown to approximately 6,000 ceramics alongside 8,000 fine arts items, including 200 of Herreshoff’s paintings, and is particularly noted for its nationally significant holdings of Chinese and Japanese export porcelain.
About Washington and Lee University:
Washington and Lee University (W&L) is a small liberal arts college nestled in the Virginia mountains, with an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 1,860. W&L is the ninth-oldest college in the U.S. and a top-ranked private university. W&L is located in Lexington (pop. 7,000), a vibrant and picturesque town in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Visit jobs.wlu.edu to learn more about working at W&L, our benefits, community, and living in the area.
To achieve our mission as a liberal arts college, we continually strive to foster an inclusive campus community, which recognizes the value of all persons regardless of identity. Along with the University, Museums at W&L is committed to contributing to an educational environment that is rich with cultural, social, and intellectual diversity.
Essential Functions:
- Contribute to knowledge about the collections and increase
access to the collections through deep research and cataloguing,
including interdisciplinary interpretation and provenance
research.
- Curate wide-ranging exhibitions and installations of historic,
modern and contemporary ceramics.
- Assist the ADCA with formulating plans for continuing to grow
and shape the Reeves collection, including the collection's growing
subset of modern and contemporary ceramics.
- Expand physical and digital access to ceramics collections,
establish priorities for storage and display, and work with
contracted specialists to identify conservation needs and
treatment.
- Assist with establishing priorities for storage and display,
and work with contracted specialists to identify conservation needs
and treatment.
- Supervise interns and students.
- Support the University’s teaching needs by facilitating direct
engagement with the ceramic collection, including teaching or
co-teaching courses, conducting gallery-based class visits, or
leading object study sessions.
- Develop and contribute to public and campus-based programs,
lectures, and other special events, including programs for and with
students and faculty, with particular attention to expanding and
diversifying Museum audiences.
- Represent the Museum and contribute to the field through
participation in conferences, public lectures, publications, and
institutional and scholarly partnerships.
- Inspire researchers, scholars, and students beyond the
southeast to engage with the Museum’s collections, exhibitions,
events, and other activities.
- A master’s degree in material culture, decorative arts,
history, art history, anthropology or related field. Candidates
with a doctoral degree must have been officially conferred within
seven years of the start date of the fellowship.
- Knowledge of museum ethics and the legal regulations governing
collecting.
- Demonstrated strength working collaboratively and in an
innovative manner.
- Special consideration will be given to candidates with special
research focuses in American, European, or East Asian
ceramics.
Please upload the following documents in the cover letter and resume document upload section of the application:
- Cover letter Should include your reasons for applying, and
specific areas of research and their relationship to the museum's
collection. Should not exceed 1,000 words
- Full curriculum vitae of education, professional experience,
honors, awards, and publications
- Copy of a recent writing sample or published paper.
Review of applications will begin October 14 and continue until the position is filled. You will be asked to provide names and contact information for three professional references. Include at least one academic reference and one professional reference from recommenders who know your work well.
Application instructions and information about Washington and Lee University can be located at https://www.wlu.edu/employment-opportunities .
Physical Requirements:
- Fingering: Picking, pinching, typing or otherwise working,
primarily with fingers rather than with whole hand or arm as in
handling.
- Grasping: Applying pressure to an object with the fingers and
palm.
- Repetitive motions: Making substantial movements (motions) of
the wrists, hands, and/or fingers.
- Walking: Moving about on foot to accomplish tasks, particularly
for long distances or moving from one work site to another.
- Standing: Remaining upright on the feet, particularly for
sustained periods of time.
- Balancing: Maintaining body equilibrium to prevent falling when
walking, standing or crouching on narrow, slippery or erratically
moving surfaces. This factor is important if the amount and kind of
balancing the amount and kind of balancing exceeds that needed for
ordinary locomotion and maintenance of body equilibrium.
- Climbing: Ascending or descending ladders, stairs, scaffolding,
ramps, poles and the like, using feet and legs and/or hands and
arms. Body agility is emphasized. This factor is important if the
amount and kind of climbing required exceeds that required for
ordinary locomotion.
- Stooping: Bending body downward and forward by bending spine at
the waist. This factor is important if it occurs to a considerable
degree and requires full use of the lower extremities and back
muscles.
- Kneeling: Bending legs at knee to come to a rest on knee or
knees.
- Crouching: Bending the body downward and forward by bending leg
and spine.
- Crawling: Moving about on hands and knees or hands and
feet.
- Reaching: Extending hand(s) and arm(s) in any direction.
- Pushing: Using upper extremities to press against something
with steady force in order to thrust forward, downward or
outward.
- Pulling: Using upper extremities to exert force in order to
draw, drag, haul or tug objects in a sustained motion.
- Lifting: Raising objects from a lower to a higher position or
moving objects horizontally from position to position. This factor
is important if it occurs to a considerable degree and requires the
substantial use of the upper extremities and back muscles.
Types of Work: Light work: Exerting up to 20 pounds of force occasionally, and/or up to 10 pounds of force frequently, and/or a negligible amount of force constantly to move objects. If the use of arm and/or leg controls requires exertion of forces greater than that for Sedentary Work and the worker sits most of the time, the job is rated for Light Work.
Position Type:
Exempt, Full Time, Benefit Eligible
Washington and Lee affirms that diverse perspectives and backgrounds enhance our community. We are committed to the recruitment, enrichment, and retention of students, faculty, and staff who embody many experiences, cultures, points of view, interests, and identities. As engaged citizens in a global and diverse society, we seek to advance a positive learning and working environment for all through open and substantive dialogue.
Washington and Lee is an Equal Opportunity Employer. As such, we are interested in candidates who are committed to high standards of scholarship, performance and professionalism and to the development of a campus climate that supports equality and diversity in our faculty, staff and student body. Job description requirements are representative, but not all-inclusive of the knowledge, skill, and abilities needed to successfully perform this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.
Company
About W&L
Washington and Lee University is a nationally ranked, private liberal arts institution located in
Lexington, Virginia. W&L integrates the rigorous inquiry and critical thinking of a liberal arts
curriculum with nationally accredited undergraduate programs in business and journalism, and
a graduate School of Law. Our academic units are strengthened by meaningful collaborations,
all in the service of the university’s mission.
With an undergraduate enrollment of approximately 1,860, our small size enables students to
find mentors and develop personal relationships across campus. W&L is committed to
institutional citizenship. We regard liberal arts education as an important public good, of value
not only to our students and alumni, but also to the larger communities in which we live.
Our Mission
W&L provides a liberal arts education that develops students’ capacity to think freely, critically,
and humanely and to conduct themselves with honor, integrity, and civility. Graduates will be
prepared for lifelong learning, personal achievement, responsible leadership, service to others,
and engaged citizenship in a global and diverse society.
Our Community
W&L is the ninth-oldest institution of higher education in the U.S. and is located in the scenic
Shenandoah Valley. We are a modern university located on a beautiful and historically
significant campus.
Our most valuable asset is the quality of our vibrant and welcoming community. Our faculty are
devoted teachers and scholars who uphold the highest academic standards and take a personal
interest in the lives of their students. Our staff takes pride in knowing that each individual
makes important contributions to the success of the university. Our alumni are extraordinarily
loyal and generous to their alma mater.
Our commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion affirms that diverse perspectives and
backgrounds enhance our community. The university is committed to the recruitment,
enrichment, and retention of faculty and staff who embody many experiences, cultures, points
of view, interests, and identities.
- Website
- http://www.wlu.edu/
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