AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

from Franklin Furnace

Position: Director of Education
Status: Full-time, Exempt

Job Summary
The Director of Education leads a creative, adaptive, innovative, and mission-driven
education department. The Director of Education is strategically focused and aims to
connect inclusivity, diversity, access, and equity for Museum audiences through
education, interpretation, and programs. A successful Director of Education will create a
lasting impact that broadens and deepens relationships with Museum audiences.

Essential Functions
Role #1: Leadership, Management, Accountability
• Lead the Museum’s interpretive initiatives, public programs, and K-12 outreach
efforts to strengthen the Museum’s mission while providing innovative learning
experiences for a diverse audience of all ages
• Supervise the education and public programs department
• Guide a high performing team that collaborates effectively with other
departments with strong collegiality and communication
• Model the Museum’s values by following and enforcing systems, policies, and
procedures
• Represent the Museum’s mission, vision, values, and strategic priorities with
internal and external stakeholders
• Guide team members’ growth and development, set clear priorities, and foster an
inclusive work environment that fulfills the Museum’s mission, vision, and values

Role #2: Interpretation and Programs
• Provide leadership in interpretation planning for exhibitions and collaborate with
the curatorial department and contractors to ensure that the content and
interpretive techniques used in the Museum best meet our audiences’ needs
• Oversee the development of exhibition engagement spaces in the permanent
collection exhibition and rotating exhibition spaces
• Fulfill strategic priorities for the Museum’s Teaching Fellows program and
development of the Adult Teaching Fellows program
• Provide oversight and guidance for a distinctive and innovative Teen Council
program
• Oversee the planning and execution of robust studio programs that integrate art
and hands-on studio activities into K-12 core subject areas
• Provide guidance for Art Therapy programs and other studio initiatives
• Ensure public programs are developed cross-departmentally, connect with
strategic priorities, and strengthen relationships with new and current Museum
audiences
• Work with the Museum Director and Development team to create innovative
programs and projects for prospective funders and grant initiatives
• Ensure accurate tracking of audience data
• Prepare recommendations for program developments that are based on program
evaluations informed by audience research and data

Role #3: K-12 Student and Teacher Engagement
• Oversee the implementation of school and teacher resources
• Build relationships with teachers and administrators and create opportunities to
increase state-wide school group visitation
• Work closely with local and statewide school administrators, including the
Jackson Public School District, to prioritize the value of Museum visits, art
curriculum, and resources

Role #4: Curricula Development
• Develop formal and informal learning goals and resources to connect new and
existing audiences with the MMA, its exhibitions, facilities, and programs
• Oversee the development of both printed and digital educational resources, such
as exhibition guides and the digital app

Role #5: Early Childhood Initiatives
• Implement the Museum’s Second and Third Grade Initiative, a statewide
expansion of the Museum’s education programs to focus access to art education
• Connect early childhood learners with art enrichment through Museum visits and
Curriculum

Supervisory Responsibility
• Yes

Competency
• M.A. in Art History, Art Education, related field, or equivalent experience
• Direct experience with managing a high functioning team
• Experience developing educational curriculum in a museum setting

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
• Knowledge of educational methodologies and philosophies
• Knowledge of current issues in the field of museum education and Mississippi’s
curriculum standards
• Detail-oriented, thoughtful, and excellent judgement
• Excellent oral, written, computer, and communication skills
Travel
• Some travel may be required

Expected Hours of Work
• Exempt - This is a 40-hour a week job, primarily between Monday through Friday.
Some evenings and weekends may be necessary to support Museum events and
programs.
Salary: $50-60,000.00

Physical Demands and Work Environment
The physical demands and work environment characteristics described here are
representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the
essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to
enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
• Some duties may require long periods of standing and walking as well as
frequent reaching and kneeling, pushing, pulling, carrying, lifting, and moving
objects 5 pounds or more.
• Work may be performed by indoors and outdoors in different weather conditions.
About the Mississippi Museum of Art

The Museum is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to creating a
diverse environment. The Museum is a private not-for-profit and is not a department
or agency of the state or federal government.

The Mississippi Museum of Art is more than an art museum in Jackson, Mississippi. It is
a museum of Mississippi – a museum that connects Mississippians to our culture, our
history, our communities, and to each other. It is a museum informed by the legacy of
our past and emboldened by a vision of a future without division.

We believe it our responsibility to the community to explore and examine every facet of
the Mississippi story. The Mississippi Museum of Art is committed to curating a shared
space for every Mississippian – a brave space where we can all find wonder, peace,
and a voice.

We pride ourselves in being a visitor and community-focused art museum and garden in
downtown Jackson, Mississippi. The Museum employs a collaborative staff that works
to ensure the exhibitions, programs, operations, and community outreach fulfill the
mission, vision, and core values of the institution. We are committed to building a
culture of inclusivity that includes continued professional development opportunities at
all levels of the Museum.

Mission
The Mississippi Museum of Art connects Mississippi to the world, and the power of art
to the power of community.

Vision
Committed to honesty, equity, and inclusion, the Mississippi Museum of Art is a leader
in engaging art, artists, and participants in the critical work of reckoning with the past,
connecting with each other in the present, and envisioning a future without division.

Core Values
• Warm Welcome + Inclusion. The Museum will model open hospitality for all
people and will demonstrate inclusiveness at all levels of its operations and
programs.
• Honesty + Diversity. Honoring diverse viewpoints, histories, and lived
experiences, the Museum will be a place for honest conversations that respect
difference in the service of increased understanding and empathy.
• Local Relevance + National Distinction. The Museum pursues deep
investigations into Mississippi’s cultural history and produces programs of high
quality and relevance that attract new national partners seeking to explore the
relationship between Mississippi and the world.
• Artworks + Artists. Museum programs will honor the primacy of artistic objects as
sources of meaning and will include, when possible, meaningful opportunities for
participants to have personal experiences with visual artists.
• Excellence + Equity. Museum programs, exhibitions, and collections will place
artistic value as critical, while simultaneously dismantling traditional hierarchies of
genre and style.
• Trust + Authority. The Museum values academic scholarship and accuracy; and,
at the same time, it trusts the voices of people who have lived experiences that
deepen the meaning of its exhibitions.

Employee Values
A successful member of the Museum’s team will be mission-driven, welcoming,
inclusive, respectful, empathetic, ambitious, will bring a level of excellence to their work,
have a high respect for artists and artistic integrity, and will collaborate within their
department and with other departments.

To apply, please send your cover letter and résumé to careers@msmuseumart.org.