POSITION OBJECTIVE:

Working closely with the museum’s Vradenburg Director & CEO, the position will lead the Phillips’s Education, Public Programs, and Library/Archives Departments, and collaborate with the Phillips@THEARC to broaden and deepen the museum’s reach by continuing to reimagine museum education and open access learning in the 21st century. As a member of the senior leadership team, this position will direct and oversee the design of a bold and inspired education and learning strategy that that increases equitable access and meaningful engagement with the museum’s collections, exhibitions, and archives through innovative programming and interpretation.            

• The museum’s education department helps individuals of all ages—students, teachers, family, and adult audiences—to see, connect, and engage with art in new and unexpected ways. For its PreK–12 school and teacher programs, the Phillips’s innovative approach to arts integration promotes student-centered teaching and learning and empowers students to express themselves and their values, opinions, and thoughts. The department has deep relationships with schools throughout the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virgina (DMV) local area and supports teachers and students through professional development, extended school partnerships, school tours, and digital resources.

• The museum’s adult public programming presents a bold, dynamic mix of offerings and serves as a vehicle for audience development, donor prospecting, and increased organizational visibility. This includes visual, performing, and hands-on creative arts and crafts. The museum’s creative aging programs partner with organizations across the city to reach seniors with memory loss. Monthly family programs help all ages feel comfortable in our museum.

• The museum’s library and archives have are committed to research, scholarship, and accessibility and provide research resources about the Phillips Collection—our history, objects, exhibitions, and stories. Our archives contain primary source documents that detail the history of the museum from its founding to today. The museum is in the ongoing process of digitizing its archival collection to make it more accessible to internal and external users.

• This position also provides strategic leadership for the rollout of the museum’s first Digital Asset Management System, enabling governance across internal stakeholders on digital asset management practices and consensus on how best to steward digital content, streamline workflows, and improve discoverability and accessibility of institutional digital assets. This position will lead cross-departmental teams that link and contextualize our collection and archive, ensuring broader access to and integration of this critical information for how we work internally and serve all stakeholders, internal and external.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Strategic Leadership

• Lead and oversee the design of a bold and inspired education and learning strategy that leverages the assets and expertise of The Phillips Collection and aligns with and amplifies the museum’s mission, priorities, and strategic goals, as elaborated in the strategic plan.
• Provide direction and management for education and library/archives staff, programs, and resources, creating open access to learning and making learning connections between the collection and archives.
• Work as a part of a team to develop interpretive spaces that are functional, practical, participatory, and foster collaboration across and beyond the museum.
• Oversee day-to-day function of the Education, Public Programs, and Library/Archive Departments, including structure, policies, budget, and procedures, and use of metrics and analytics to evaluate impact.
• Align the Department’s education and learning strategies as well as its people, processes, and policies with the Museum’s organizational values and aspirations.
• Demonstrate leadership on issues of diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion, with the objective of creating a culture where anti-racism and cross-departmental collaboration permeate every aspect of the Department’s work.

Vision and Innovation for Education and Learning

• Demonstrate entrepreneurial leadership to create and implement a vision for connecting education, learning, art, and archives, positioning the Phillips as a leader in the museum education field.
• Lead the design and implementation of education programming that increases equitable access and meaningful engagement with the museum’s collections, exhibitions, and archives.
• Oversee and lead team in development and delivery of relevant and meaningful education programs that bring people and art together for discovery, learning, and fun.
• Enhance the museum’s online and in-person educational offerings and encourage innovative and creative initiatives that inspire new and broader audiences to explore the museum’s collection and archives.
• Employ the museum’s collections, exhibitions, and archives to engage audiences with a variety of contemporary issues, spark learning, and promote social discourse.
• Provide leadership for planning and delivery of integrated exhibition and permanent collection interpretation that places the visitor at the center of the user experience and connects the collection and the archives to further support teaching and learning.

Collaboration and Relationship Building

• Collaborate with Education staff to develop, evaluate, and share education programs and initiatives that extend the museum’s mission locally, nationally, and globally.
• Lead by example to build bridges that will engender trust and develop strong cross-departmental relationships with departments and staff members across the museum.
• Build strategic partnerships that will enhance the educational potential of the museum and develop new and expanded audiences.

Team Management

• Build a high-performing culture of accountability, trust, and collaboration that embraces change and ensures team members feel appreciated and have equal access to opportunity.
• Empower staff through active communication and delegation; promote intra- and interdepartmental teamwork and foster a culture of experimentation that upholds the museum’s commitment to being an “experiment station;” encourage the continued expansion of team’s knowledge of museum education, theory, and practice and encourage them to push creative bounds.
• Lead, coach, and mentor staff in developing themselves and their direct reports; be sensitive and responsive to diverse needs of staff and celebrate and learn from their varied life experiences and perspectives.
• Possess strong and persuasive communication skills and a diplomatic personal style.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Minimum of 5 years supervising in an organization that includes full-time, part-time, onsite contractors, volunteer and supplier partner talent; as well as organizational development and talent definition, selection, development, retention.
• Avid learner with in-depth knowledge of and experience with innovative pedagogical approaches for lifelong learning, including current educational trends with an emphasis on participatory and digital learning.
• Educational Background: Bachelor of Arts or equivalent required; advanced graduate degree(s) preferred
• Continuing Education and special certifications/licenses in areas such as process improvement, foreign language, educational training preferred.
• Curriculum and course development expertise, assessment, evaluation.

Demonstrated grounding in, and deep appreciation for, both modern and contemporary art and art history.

• Proven organizational and administrative experience with budgets (people, expenses, capital), grants, staffing, deadlines, and deliverables; ability to think strategically about and advocate collaboratively with peers for resources needed for sustainability and growth.
• Outstanding presentation and communication skills; emotionally intelligent with the experience of being a passionate spokesperson and relationship builder.
• A politically astute, analytical, and systems-oriented leadership style with strong organizational and problem-solving skills; the ability to set clear priorities that support and enable sound decision making amid diplomatic influencing and disciplined problem solving.
• Nimble and entrepreneurial; ability to be proactive and creative in overcoming obstacles and resource constraints.

The Phillips Collection is an equal opportunity employer of qualified individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences. All employment decisions and personnel actions are conducted without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, national origin, age, physical or mental disability, genetic disposition or carrier status, marital status, veteran status, personal appearance, gender identity or expression, family responsibilities, matriculation, political affiliation, or any other category protected under applicable federal, state, or local law.

About The Phillips Collection

Founded by art collector and philanthropist Duncan Phillips in 1921, The Phillips Collection has been collecting modern and contemporary art for one hundred years. Duncan Phillips’s former home—and additions to it—in Washington’s historic Dupont Circle neighborhood provides a unique setting for the growing collection of over 5,000 works. Following Phillips’s unconventional approach to exhibitions, The Phillips Collection galleries are frequently rearranged to facilitate new conversations between artworks and fresh experiences for visitors. In addition to presenting selections from the permanent collection and special exhibitions, The Phillips Collection also offers award-winning education and community engagement programs for audiences of all ages and backgrounds, including initiatives at its satellite campus Phillips@THEARC. The Phillips Collection is a private, non-government museum, supported primarily by donations.

Connections working at The Phillips Collection