Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance

Vice President for Art and Education and Gund Family Chief Curator

The Barnes Foundation

Philadelphia, PA

THE SEARCH

The Barnes Foundation (the Barnes) seeks an accomplished scholar, enterprising leader, and collaborative administrator to serve as the Vice President for Art and Education and Gund Family Chief Curator. Reporting to the Neubauer Family Executive Director and President, the Vice President will serve as a key member of the Barnes’s senior leadership team, and, working in close partnership with the Executive Director, provide strategic vision and leadership for the planning, priority-setting, integration, and stewardship of a forward-looking and financially sustainable institution. They will shape the curatorial and educational vision for the institution in alignment with and reflecting the larger strategic goals of the Barnes. They will organize and publish their own curatorial projects while overseeing the curatorial, collections, conservation, registration, exhibitions, and research, interpretation, adult learning, and academic programs departments.

The ideal candidate will have a distinguished curatorial record and astute organizational and communication skills, and will be adept at creating and fostering collaborative working relationships across the entire range of departments and programs of the Foundation, including its affiliates, the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage and Calder Gardens. They will passionately convey the legacy, impact, strategy, and future direction of collections and exhibitions across audiences and constituencies.

The Barnes has retained Isaacson, Miller, a national executive search firm, to conduct this search. Confidential inquiries, nominations, and applications may be directed to Isaacson, Miller as indicated at the end of this document.

THE BARNES FOUNDATION

The Barnes is a nonprofit cultural and educational institution that shares its unparalleled art collection with the public, organizes special exhibitions, educates diverse populations of children and adults, and fosters new ways of thinking about human creativity. The Barnes’s permanent collection is displayed in ensembles that integrate art and objects from across cultures and time periods, overturning traditional hierarchies and revealing universal elements of human expression. Home to one of the world’s finest collections of impressionist, post-impressionist, and modern paintings—including the largest groups of paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Cézanne in existence—the Barnes brings together renowned canvases by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, and Vincent van Gogh, alongside African, Asian, ancient, medieval, and Native American art as well as metalwork, furniture, and decorative art.

The Barnes was established by Dr. Albert C. Barnes in 1922 in dialogue with progressive educational theorist John Dewey to “promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts and horticulture.” A visionary collector and pioneering educator, Dr. Barnes was also a fierce advocate for the civil rights of African Americans, women, and the economically marginalized. Committed to racial equality and social justice, he established a scholarship program to support young Black artists, writers, and musicians who wanted to advance their education. Dr. Barnes became actively involved in the Harlem Renaissance, during which he collaborated with philosopher Alain Locke and Charles S. Johnson, the scholar and activist, to promote awareness of the artistic value of African art and material culture.

Since moving to Philadelphia in 2012, the Barnes has expanded its commitment to diversity, inclusion, and social justice, teaching visual literacy in groundbreaking ways; investing in original scholarship relating to its collection; and enhancing accessibility through every facet of its programs onsite, online and in the regional communities it serves. The Barnes has built an internationally renowned special exhibition and publication program that draws from and expands upon the rich resource of the permanent collection and reflects the institution’s educational mission in a variety of ways. Some exhibitions engage with the art and artists represented in the Barnes collection, while others, to place those works in context, feature artists overlooked during Dr. Barnes’s time. Many honor Dr. Barnes’s commitment to racial equality and social justice, celebrating artists who are Black, Indigenous, people of color, and women.

Long restricted by the terms of Dr. Barnes’s initial gift of the collection, the Barnes has very recently been granted permission to lend paintings from its collection galleries on a limited basis to temporary exhibitions that advance the institution’s educational mission. The considered inclusion of paintings from such a renowned yet previously constrained collection – while carefully preserving the visitor experience – will significantly extend the reach and impact of the Barnes’s exhibition and educational programs and scholarship.

The Barnes has also recently entered into fiscal, administrative and programmatic partnerships with two important Philadelphia institutions: the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage and the new Calder Gardens.

Both of these partnerships will enable the Foundation to grow its artistic, educational and social service in the region and beyond.

The Barnes is nearing the conclusion of its Second Century Campaign to raise $100 million in endowment and multi-year operating support to increase and enhance the myriad services the Barnes provides to the people of Philadelphia and visitors from around the world. It will sustain the founding commitments to accessible education through the visual arts; to diversity, inclusion, and social justice; and to the conservation and stewardship of the unparalleled collection.

ROLE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT

The Vice President will work to define research, curatorial, and adult educational programs and will lead efforts to develop and implement comprehensive exhibition and academic programs that advance the institution’s visibility and reputation regionally, nationally, and internationally; the ability to include paintings from the collection will enhance the educational value of the institution’s special exhibitions, foster new scholarship, and increase awareness of and interest in the Barnes. Lending works from the collection to exhibitions at other museums will expand international research, introduce diverse perspectives on the collection and under-studied works in it, and ensure the story of Dr. Barnes as a collector and educator is more broadly understood in the historical record and contemporary discourse. The Vice President will possess the necessary knowledge, experience, and national and international networks to maximize the potential of this unequalled opportunity for the global art world and lead this exciting new endeavor for the institution and the field.

This position will direct and motivate a talented and dedicated team of 20 professionals who manage and oversee a broad range of mission-critical projects, programs, and activities. The Barnes has an entrepreneurial, high-performance culture that allows a relatively small team to be effective on a large and complex scale. The Barnes has a total annual operating budget of $32 million and the Vice President will oversee a budget of more than $7 million.

The primary responsibilities of this role include:

Evolving the strategic vision for research, collections and exhibitions, ensuring alignment with the institutional strategic plan;

Employing international networks to develop, diplomatically and effectively, a sustainable loan program;

Collaborating with senior leadership colleagues to advance the goals of the Barnes and leverage the depth and breadth of the collections and exhibitions;

Developing a dynamic programmatic vision that engages educationally and artistically with the local and global communities;

Cultivating stakeholder relationships to provide long-term financial sustainability and growth;

Enhancing the Barnes’s mission through expanding its regional, national, and international reach;

Leading and empowering a deeply dedicated, nimble team and enhancing a culture of collaboration.

QUALIFICATIONS AND CHARACTERISTICS

Candidates will be highly accomplished and experienced self-starters, deeply passionate about art with strong academic credentials and curatorial expertise, who bring executive leadership and team management. The ideal candidate is a creative and strategic thinker who contributes to innovative ideas, while possessing strong operational and project management abilities that ensure accountability, staff longevity, and reinforce professional pride. They will have led major institutional initiatives and be able to move fluidly between big-picture strategic thinking and pragmatic delivery with an understanding of best practices. Ideal professional experience and personal attributes will include:

A level of education and scholarly achievement appropriate to the position, preferably a Ph.D. in a relevant field;

Senior-level experience in leading curatorial initiatives within an art institution;

Respect among peers and scholars; well-connected and conversant in national and international arts circles;

Demonstrated success in donor cultivation and fundraising;

Experience working closely with a Board of Trustees;

The ability to communicate clearly and engender trust; be proactive and use independent judgment and initiative to achieve institutional objectives;

A commitment to collaboration and mutual kindness, generosity, and respect among colleagues; a team player;

A diplomatic and friendly demeanor, with a talent for engaging and connecting with a variety of stakeholders, including trustees, artists, art dealers, and professional colleagues worldwide;

A firm grasp of current trends, museum standards and best practices.

COMPENSATION

This is a permanent, full-time, on-site position with a salary range of $240,000 to $260,000.

APPLICATIONS, INQUIRIES, AND NOMINATIONS

Screening of complete applications will begin immediately and continue until the completion of the search process. Inquiries, nominations, referrals, and CVs with cover letters should be sent via the Isaacson, Miller website: http://www.imsearch.com/open-searches/barnes-foundation/vice-president-...

Sarah James, Ryan Leichenauer, Siobhan Hanley

Isaacson, Miller

The Barnes is a Drug-Free Workplace and Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, or genetic information. The Barnes is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, services, programs, and activities.

This document has been prepared based on the information provided by The Barnes Foundation. The material presented in this leadership profile should be relied on for informational purposes only. While every effort has been made to ensure data accuracy, the original source documents and information provided by The Barnes Foundation would supersede any conflicting information found within.