Associate Curator, Crafts and Decorative Arts

Associate Curator, Crafts and Decorative Arts

US-CA-Oakland

Job :
Type: Regular Full-Time
# of Openings: 1
Category: Curatorial
Oakland Museum of CA

The Imogene Gieling Associate Curator of Craft and Decorative Arts will engage visitors by celebrating, documenting, researching and interpreting OMCA’s collections of and related archives related to craft and decorative arts. Drawing on OMCA’s rich collections, with emphasis on regional stories, and with an interest in connecting those stories to national histories and contemporary discussions, the position’s research driven and community-centered curatorial projects will emphasize dynamic stories in the history of craft and decorative arts, while highlighting the work of makers, their methods, materials.

This newly created position is funded for the next several years through the estate of local jewelry artist, Imogene Gieling. Gieling passed away in 2024, and left funds to OMCA for the expressed purpose of supporting a curatorial role dedicated to craft and decorative arts.

• Support the Museum’s mission, values, vision, and core commitment to the visitor experience, community engagement, and institutional relevancy for the future.
• Contribute to and support the OMCA strategic plan, annual priorities, and institutional initiatives such as diversity advancement.
• Contribute to a positive organizational culture based on mutual respect, a spirit of collegiality, cooperation, and openness to many perspectives.
• Participate in a culture of ongoing learning, collaboration, innovation, creativity, and community engagement.
• All positions will have core functional responsibilities, cross functional team activation and learning and development as a core function of each role.

• Research and develop ideas for craft and decorative arts focused exhibitions, gallery installations and programs that meet OMCA’s mission, community engagement, social impact, and business goals, and leverage our collections and campus in new ways; provide content expertise as part of a core team that leads the collaborative development and implementation of exhibition and gallery projects.
• Prepare annual workplans and budgets.
• Identify and coordinate professional consultants and vendors to support annual workplans.
• Partner with Collections staff on general research and the development of care plans on the craft and decorative arts collections objects and archives.
• Partner with Registrars on data entry and maintenance of accurate records and files.
• Partner with Development on the research and preparation of donor reports and grant applications related to craft and decorative arts.
• Participate in the ongoing review and implementation of OCMA’s collections care and deaccessioning plan.
• Collaborate with colleagues to develop and present related programming.
• Support coordination and facilitation of research requests.

• Ability to display and encourage visitor and internal customer service, take and share responsibility and treat others with respect
• 3-5 years related experience
• Knowledge of California craft and decorative arts history
• Excellent research and communication skills
• English language proficiency in both spoken and written form
• Proficient with MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The environment may include:

• Museum environment involves both indoor and outdoor working conditions.
• Ability to travel between OMCA locations, and other travel as required by position responsibilities.
• Ability to work a flexible schedule, including evenings and weekends.
• Engage with diverse visitor populations for extended periods of time in the galleries or throughout the campus.

The Oakland Museum of California is dedicated to diversity, inclusion, accessibility and equity. We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ability/disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We highly encourage our diverse community to apply for available employment, internship, fellowship and volunteer positions at the Museum, as we aim to ensure our staff reflects the diversity of our visitors and surrounding community.

In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, OMCA will provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities.

$37.85/hour