The Skirball Cultural Center seeks an innovative, collaborative, audience-minded Associate Curator to join its Museum team. This individual will organize exhibitions intended to draw large, diverse audiences—on a wide range of subjects, and in a variety of media—aimed at advancing the Skirball’s mission as a Jewish cultural institution that celebrates discovery and hope, fosters human connections across generations and communities, and inspires visitors to help build a more just society.

Reporting to the Chief Curator, the Associate Curator will work collaboratively with other members of the Museum team (Museum Director, Deputy Director, curators, registrars, preparators, and administrative employees); Skirball colleagues in Education, Programs, Visitor Experience, Communications and Marketing, and Retail; and consultants and collaborators within the broader community to ensure that projects meet the highest professional standards while advancing the Skirball’s values of inclusion, relevance, innovation, and broad audience engagement. The Associate Curator will also work with the Advancement Department to identify and cultivate resources necessary to fund exhibitions and related offerings.

This is a full-time, exempt position with benefits.

Starting salary range: $24–29 per hour

Responsibilities

• Identify and develop exhibitions; generate original exhibition concepts that directly support the Skirball’s unique mission and engage diverse, intergenerational audiences. Skirball exhibitions are often participatory and range in focus from the visual arts to history and popular culture. Two themes of ongoing institutional importance are immigration and civil rights.
• Work collaboratively with exhibition teams at each stage of development, for both Skirball-originated projects and exhibitions traveling from other institutions.
• Develop exhibition narratives and checklists, secure loans, , write didactics, and create and edit content for AV components, audio guides, and printed interpretive materials.
• Assist in the formulation of exhibition budgets under the direction of the Deputy Director and contribute to grant proposals and fundraising prospectuses as needed.
• Meet deadlines and objectives essential to on-time and on-budget exhibitions.
• Embrace opportunities for community engagement in exhibition development, building and expanding upon existing Skirball relationships – from integration of community voices to exhibition co-curation.
• Work productively with members of forward-facing Skirball teams (security, admissions, docent corps, school and family programs, store, private events) to create exhibitions that support overarching goals for the Skirball visitor experience; provide trainings and informational materials.
• Support the Communications and Marketing team in promoting exhibitions, contribute to press releases, supporting social media efforts, and engage with journalists and other members of the press.
• Support Public Programs colleagues in the creation of exhibition-related programming.
• Foster productive relationships with colleagues at museums and arts institutions. Represent the Skirball and its initiatives at professional conferences and remain current on trends and developments in the field.

Qualifications, Experience, and Attributes

• Advanced degree in humanities discipline or equivalent training/experience. Background in one or more of the following subject areas: popular culture (music history, film history, comics), visual arts, museum studies, cultural studies, American history. Interdisciplinary orientation preferred.
• Three or more years’ of curatorial experience.
• Demonstrated track record of conceptualizing, researching, and planning innovative exhibitions that have engaged large, diverse, and ideally cross-generational audiences.
• Prior success in curating exhibitions that involve community engagement preferred.
• Exceptional written and oral communication skills.
• Strong interpersonal and organizational skills, flexibility, and attention to detail, deadlines, and follow-through.
• Experience with exhibition evaluation.
• Affinity for working collaboratively and consultatively in an institutional setting.
• Previous experience managing junior staff or interns preferred.
• Jewish cultural knowledge desirable but not required.
• Personal resonance with the Skirball Cultural Center’s mission and approach.

Please send resumé and cover letter, preferably by email, to:
Human Resources
Re: Curator
Skirball Cultural Center
2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90049
hr@skirball.org