Director of Curatorial Affairs and Chief Curator

Position Overview: The Director of Curatorial Affairs and Chief Curator is the Columbia Museum of Art’s senior curatorial leader and a key member of the Museum Leadership Team. Reporting directly to the Executive Director, the position provides vision, strategic direction, scholarship, and administrative leadership for the museum’s curatorial program and works in close partnership with the Executive Director to shape the artistic and intellectual direction of the CMA. The Director leads an ambitious and forward-looking program of exhibitions, permanent collection installations, acquisitions, commissions, loans, research, publications, and interpretation. The position ensures that the museum’s artistic program advances the CMA’s mission, strategic priorities, and commitment to access, inclusion, multiple perspectives, and meaningful engagement with broad audiences.

Position Responsibilities: This is both a senior leadership and practicing curatorial role. The Director is expected to maintain an active program of research, scholarship, acquisitions, exhibition development, writing, lecturing, and curatorial work while providing strong leadership and mentorship to the curatorial team as well as oversees collections management and art operations. These responsibilities are presented as a distinct section to clearly define this portfolio within the museum’s current organizational structure.

Strategic and Institutional Leadership

• Serve as a member of the Museum Leadership Team, contributing to institutional strategy, multiyear and annual planning, budgeting, policy development, and assessment.
• Establish and implement a cohesive curatorial vision that advances the CMA’s mission and strengthens its local, regional, national, and international relevance.
• Provide informed recommendations on exhibitions, acquisitions, deaccessions, collection priorities, scholarship, partnerships, and other matters affecting the museum’s artistic program.
• Establish departmental priorities, goals, work plans, and performance measures while fostering a culture of excellence, collaboration, accountability, intellectual curiosity, and creativity.
• Contribute curatorial expertise to museum policies, accreditation, professional ethics, risk management, and institutional best practices.
• Attend Board of Trustees and Executive Committee meetings when invited and provide presentations, reports, and recommendations as requested by the Executive Director.

Collections Management and Art Operations

• Provide executive oversight for registration, preparation, collection care, art handling, storage, conservation coordination, loans, exhibition logistics, installation and deinstallation, and related art operations.
• Ensure collections and loan activities meet professional standards, museum policies, lender and insurance requirements, legal and ethical obligations, and accepted standards of care.
• Establish priorities with appropriate staff for preventive conservation, treatment, storage, environmental monitoring, emergency preparedness, and long-term preservation.
• Contribute to capital and facility planning affecting galleries, collection storage, art movement, environmental conditions, security, and collections stewardship.
• Serve as a member of the Collections Committee and principal senior curatorial staff liaison, attending all committee meetings and ensuring timely follow-up.
• Present proposed acquisitions, deaccessions, conservation priorities, collection plans, and other matters requiring committee consideration, and support periodic review of the collections management policy and related policies.

Fundraising, Donor, and Collector Engagement

• Partner with the Executive Director and Director of Advancement to cultivate support for exhibitions, acquisitions, publications, conservation, collection initiatives, endowed funds, and other curatorial priorities.
• Participate in donor and collection visits, cultivation and stewardship activities, presentations, proposals, grant development, and appropriate travel.
• Provide compelling curatorial content, project narratives, budgets, and impact information for grants, sponsorships, donor communications, and other fundraising initiatives.

External Relations and Institutional Profile

• In tandem with the Executive Director, serve as a visible ambassador for the CMA and strengthen the museum’s profile within local, regional, national, and international arts communities.
• Build relationships with artists, scholars, curators, museums, universities, galleries, dealers, collectors, foundations, cultural organizations, community partners, and other leaders in the field.
• Represent the CMA through lectures, panels, conferences, media opportunities, professional associations, studio and collection visits, and other appropriate activities.
• Develop strategic partnerships that expand scholarship, audience engagement, exhibitions, loans, research, and institutional reach, while remaining current with developments in art scholarship and museum practice.

Budget and Administrative Responsibilities

• Develop and manage Curatorial Affairs operating and project budgets in coordination with the Executive Director and Finance, ensuring responsible stewardship of museum resources.
• Develop multiyear exhibition and collection forecasts and identify significant future resource requirements.
• Oversee exhibition budgets, curatorial contracts and agreements, project schedules, expenditures, forecasts, and deliverables, communicating material changes or risks promptly.
• Ensure departmental records, contracts, reports, and institutional documentation are accurate and maintained according to museum policies.

Minimum Qualifications

• Master’s degree in art history or a closely related field required; PhD preferred.
• Minimum of eight years of progressively responsible curatorial experience in an art museum or comparable institution, including at least three years of supervisory and departmental leadership responsibility.
• Demonstrated expertise in at least one of the CMA’s principal collecting areas — American, Asian, European, or Modern and Contemporary art — together with broad knowledge and intellectual curiosity across periods, cultures, and media.
• Distinguished record of conceiving, researching, organizing, and implementing exhibitions and collection installations, with evidence of original scholarship.
• Demonstrated knowledge of collection development, acquisitions, deaccessions, provenance research, conservation, collections stewardship, exhibition development, and current museum practices.
• Demonstrated success leading and developing teams and cultivating relationships with donors, collectors, artists, scholars, trustees, museum colleagues, and institutional partners.
• Experience supporting grants, fundraising, acquisition funding, or other external support for curatorial and collection priorities.
• Excellent written, verbal, interpersonal, presentation, organizational, and project-management skills.

Leadership Competencies and Professional Expectations

• Accomplished scholar and communicator able to make complex ideas meaningful and engaging for broad audiences.
• Commitment to access, inclusion, multiple perspectives, and meaningful museum experiences for the diverse communities of Greater Columbia, South Carolina, and beyond.
• Sound judgment and discretion, with the ability to balance long-range strategy, multiple projects, changing priorities, and operational responsibilities.
• Commitment to the highest standards of professional ethics, scholarship, collections stewardship, and museum practice.

Work Requirements

• Regular evening and weekend work in connection with exhibitions, installations, programs, donor events, and other museum activities.
• Occasional regional, national, and international travel for research, courier responsibilities, donor and collector visits, conferences, exhibitions, and institutional partnerships.
• Ability to work in galleries, collection storage, installation environments, and office settings and to participate appropriately in activities involving works of art and exhibition installations.
• Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals to perform the essential functions of the position.
• This position requires a criminal background check.

Job Type: Fulltime, 40 hours per week, exempt with supervisory experience.

Skills and Abilities: Be a positive employee and advocate for the museum, interacting courteously and respectfully with others, internally and externally. Should have passion for the job and the museum and is creative, innovative, agile, and flexible. A highly motivated team player who is enthusiastic and proactive, and who thrives in a fast-paced environment. Possesses a strong sense of urgency, priority, and follow-through. Can work independently, anticipate needs, and manage multiple tasks and assignments simultaneously. Ability to work collegially with other staff and partner across divisions to achieve common objectives. Discretion and sound judgment are required. Maintains the highest professional and ethical standards.

Compensation and Benefits: The salary range for this position is $115,000–$135,000 annually. Final compensation will be based on relevant experience, demonstrated fundraising success, qualifications, and other appropriate considerations. Benefits include Health, dental, life, and life and long-term disability plans, state retirement, paid PTO, holidays, and sick leave, and parking provided.

Application Process: The Columbia Museum of Art is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to diversity, accessibility, equity, and inclusion. Confidential inquiries, applications, and recommendations are welcome.

• Please email cover letter and resume to joinourteam@columbiamuseum.org with “Director of Curatorial Affairs and Chief Curator” in the subject line.
• Find more info on the job description at >>> https://www.columbiamuseum.org/visit/about-cma/work-cma