The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at the University of California in Berkeley, California is seeking a new Executive Director and is extending its search internationally.
One of the largest and internationally most important collections of Jewish art and artifacts, the Magnes was the first Jewish museum established in the United States after World War II, founded in 1962 by Seymour and Rebecca Fromer. It was integrated into UC Berkeley in 2010.
The Magnes has continued to expand, receiving two of the four largest gifts of art in UC Berkeley history: the Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection and the Roman Vishniac Archive. It collaborates with the Center for Jewish Studies and the Berkeley
Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies to explore Jewish life throughout the Diaspora.
Since July 1, 2017, The Magnes has been part of the Division of Arts and Humanities, reporting to the Dean through the Center for Jewish Studies. In addition to the Director, The Magnes has a staff of six.
Applications and nominations are welcome and should be sent to the attention of Sarah James at Magnes@phillipsoppenheim.com
Please include as part of your application a brief (one– to two–paragraph) statement on your contributions to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in your professional experience. Advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion are fundamental to UC Berkeley’s Principles of Community, which states that “every member of the UC Berkeley community has a role in sustaining a safe, caring, and humane environment in which these values can thrive.”
THE POSITION
The Executive Director will collaborate with campus, regional, national, and international partners to connect the material culture of the Jewish diaspora to scholarship and community programming. In so doing, the person will integrate The Magnes into cultural life in the Bay Area and academic life of Berkeley. They will steward the collection – overseeing its care, development, digitization, and display while developing, empowering, and working closely with the staff to envision and implement short–term and long–range strategic plans for The Magnes’s institutional stability and growth, and proactively cultivating supporters and donors.
Working in partnership with University administrators, faculty, and students, as well as The Magnes staff, The Magnes Museum Foundation, and other stakeholders, the Executive Director will promote and advance The Magnes’s mission, embrace the demanding social schedule of a cultural leader, and cultivate partners at home and abroad to better leverage its incomparable assets.
The Executive Director is expected to become a familiar and active presence in the greater Bay Area community and on the University campus, as well as respected among international peers. The Executive Director will have the opportunity to explore the collections, develop innovative exhibitions, partnerships, and public programs, and play a key role in advancing the collections’ use and appreciation throughout the Bay Area and abroad.
IDEAL PROFILE
The Executive Director will embrace the mission and values of The Magnes and the University and will be or have the following experience and qualifications:
- An energetic, collaborative, and forward–looking institution builder possessingcompelling
leadership skills, a taste for challenge, and the strategic ability to take well–considered and
tenable risks to attain objectives; - Familiarity with museum best practices, especially as they pertain to collections, conservation, programming, and operations;
- An appetite for and experience in fundraising;
- Demonstrated effective managerial experience, preferably in a museum environment and with an appreciation of public universities, their missions, and their constraints;
- Ability to map and work with all members of a large and dynamic campus community;
- A practiced advocate and community–savvy ambassador who enjoys enlisting the public and the public’s investment in a shared mission; eager and able to connect to the Jewish experience in and beyond the Jewish community;
- Demonstrated understanding of and commitment to the values of diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and social justice with an ability to manifest these values in both exhibitions and operations;
- Expertise in one or more areas of the mission or collection of The Magnes; access to international networks; ability to identify and enlist partners; and the ability to select, evaluate, pursue, and program works in and relevant to The Magnes mission;
- Commitment to education at all levels and proficiency in working within and on behalf of an academic context; clear evidence of a collaborative working style;
- A multitasking self–starter who is able to lead, organize, delegate to, and recruit professional staff;
- Ability to serve as spokesperson and ambassador for the institution and its programs, with outstanding verbal and written communications skills; a practiced listener and communicator who conveys information readily and often in order to ensure broad investment;
- A sense of humor and an advanced degree are helpful and strongly preferred.
PRIORITIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Museum Program
- Promote The Magnes broadly and increase its visibility and relevance; make it an accessible, must–see discovery that visitors feel compelled to share.
- Advance The Magnes as a participant in and contributor to the University’s educational mission.
- Foster synergies and collaborations across campus; develop collaborative working relationships with the faculty, administration, and other key constituents in order to enhance broad–based support for The Magnes.
- Embrace and engage the campus and East Bay community around culturally–specific as well as universal themes of the Jewish experience; optimize The Magnes’s downtown location at the intersection of community and University to fulfill its mission.
- Support access to the collection through its ongoing registration, preservation, scholarship, publications, website, and other media; explore the potential that digitization affords scholars, students, and families to optimally realize The Magnes mission within a sustainable physical footprint.
- Support innovative curation for Magnes–originated shows and possible exhibitions that
originate elsewhere but fulfill The Magnes mission. - Exhibit and support a deep investment in alternative and marginalized perspectives that not only parallel the Jewish experience but traditionally have been excluded from the museum space.
- Advance diversity in The Magnes’s curatorial practice and in its collection, programs, audience, staff, and Board.
- Explore and develop relationships with other institutions in the Bay Area, including those that would benefit from short– or long–term loans and other collaborations
- Cultivate relationships with the international community invested in the excellence and scope of the collection to the enrichment of The Magnes and scholarship.
Administration
- Report to the Dean of Arts and Humanities and work closely with campus partners to advocate for The Magnes.
- Ensure transparent and regular communication between The Magnes and the University, The Magnes Museum Foundation, funders, and, internally, among staff.
- Actively develop, oversee, and manage a fiscally responsible budget; strive continuously for greater institutional stability and long–term sustainability.
- Identify and institute needed infrastructure to streamline efforts, attain goals, and support staff; manage direct reports as well as oversee, motivate, and further develop professional and student staff with a focus on professional development and collaboration.
- Evaluate and invest in systems, technology, and training where possible to ensure best practices and institutional success and to conserve the collection, as legally obligated.
- Align whenever possible The Magnes’s strategic objectives with those of the University.
- Serve on appropriate committees of the University and participate in administrative meetings.
- Explore the return to accreditation for The Magnes to facilitate future programmatic and
earned revenue opportunities.
Resource Development
- Assume responsibility for the financial health and growth of The Magnes by developing sustainable financial strategies to support ongoing and new initiatives.
- Develop, lead, and oversee an effective in–house development operation while also collaborating closely and transparently with the Division of Arts & Humanities.
- Serve as the external face of The Magnes to donors and prospects working in partnership with staff and the University’s institutional advancement staff; pursue support for operations and programs, new endowments, and capital needs and acquisitions when timely.
- Cultivate, recruit, steward, and solicit new and existing patrons of The Magnes; clearly communicate expectations and opportunities for patrons and hold them accountable to commitments on The Magnes’s behalf.
- Identify opportunities to raise awareness of and support for The Magnes.
- Conceive of new earned revenue and fundraising streams including partnerships, programming, boards, committees, and membership support.
Read full Magnes Position Description