Job Description

SPARC is seeking a Director for The Great Wall Institute, an 8-year initiative to extend The Great Wall of Los Angeles Mural, currently located in Valley Village inside the Los Angeles River. The Great Wall Institute will be an interior mural studio that will house the painting production for six new decades of the Great Wall mural, beginning in the 1960s and ending in 2020. The Great Wall Institute Director will oversee the creation of a ½  mile of new mural led by Artistic Director Judy Baca. The project’s artistic team will conduct research and design of each decade to the full scale painting production with a team of mural artists and youth at the Great Wall Institute.

 The Great Wall Institute’s Director will oversee community partnerships and youth engagement, supervise curriculum development and support programs at the institute, support content development, provide administrative support for the program, and oversee the development of social media and marketing content. The Great Wall Institute Director will work with the SPARC team to identify and acquire the studio warehouse facility. The Great Wall Institute Director will manage and staff the Great Wall Institute team to efficiently and safely ensure that the Great Wall’s artistic vision is realized and maintained for the long-term. They will assess opportunities and partnerships, evaluating the conditions to estimate and understand the cost of acquiring and operating the Great Wall Institute. They will be responsible for ensuring that project milestones are completed on schedule by coordinating all of the facets of the Institute, including the installations of each decade at the Great Wall mural site inside the Tujunga Wash. 

Duties and Responsibilities

• Identify scholars and contributors
• Experienced in historical research, organizing media and scholarship, and able to capture and catalog a variety of media
• Familiar with timeline software and/or digital humanities technology
• Works collaboratively to develop curriculum for the youth engagement program
• Coordinating transportation and youth tours to the Great Wall Institute
• Working with community partners to coordinate tours to the Great Wall of Los Angeles
• Identify and acquire Great Wall Institute warehouse, and support the outfitting and operation of the studio
• Prepare and installation of logistics and equipment at the Great Wall Institute
• Support the design team with historical resources, collaborators, contributors and original media and content
• Secure copyrighted historical materials
• Familiarity with procedures for storing and archiving drawings, documents, and ephemera created during the production
• Support hiring and vetting of illustrators and support staff
• Supporting grant and development research for the Youth Program
• Support the creation of articles and publications on the Great Wall Institute
• Coordination of contributing scholars, oral historians, and community participants
• Support and Coordination with Community Partnerships and stakeholders, including local organizations, local government, artists, suppliers and contractors
• The position may occasionally require lifting, carrying, and moving heavy equipment

Requirements and Qualifications

• 4 years of Project Management experience
• Minimum BA in one of the following: (Education, Ethnic Studies, Political Science, Nonprofit Management)
• Familiar with US / California History and historical research capacity
• Familiar with digital equipment and computers for visual art productions
• Experience in project based accounting and reporting preferred
• Working knowledge of Adobe Creative Cloud, G-Suite, Microsoft Office, and project base accounting software
• Background in working with High School Youth
• Contracted with a 5 Year Project Timeline 
• High school or college teaching experience a plus
• Comfortable with working across diverse leaders and community groups
• Experience with coordinating contractors and installers
• Able to work collaboratively and communicate effectively with teams
• Deep understanding of computers and software, such as adobe for visual art production
• Experience in curation a plus
• The ability to work at heights a plus 

This is a full-time position with a competitive benefits package. Salary commensurate with experience. 

About the Organization

Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) is a community-based non-profit arts organization founded in 1976 by muralist Judith F. Baca, filmmaker Donna Deitch and artist Christina Schlesinger.  SPARC is dedicated to producing, presenting and preserving public artworks in Los Angeles neighborhoods.  The organization is best known for its work in hundreds of Los Angeles neighborhoods at a grassroots level to produce the rich legacy of Los Angeles murals.

Submitting an Application

Please submit a resume, cover letter and 3 references to jobs@sparcinla.org. Please also include the following in your submission: 

• Work samples of previously managed projects 
• Writing samples including but not limited to: grant writing, articles/publications, or technical documents