Plains Art Museum seeks a dynamic and energetic arts leader to become its next Director and CEO. The Director/CEO leads the Museum’s artistic and programmatic vision in collaboration with its professional staff and with guidance from its Board of Directors in order to implement the organizational mission to “connect art, artists, and audiences to foster creative, resilient, and welcoming communities.” The Museum is seeking candidates with strong commitments to community engagement, new audience development, and participatory approaches to exhibitions and education programs.

The Museum organizes and presents about 15 exhibitions each year and a large roster of adult and youth programs, school visits, classes, and workshops. Exhibitions aim to engage diverse audiences of all ages and backgrounds with art, artists, and ideas in contemporary art practice and life. The permanent collection holds nearly 4,000 objects, with strength in regional artists of the Upper Midwest from 1970 to the present as well as national and international artists in all media.

Plains Art Museum has launched ongoing initiatives in community engagement, social practice, and public art to more fully involve and respond to audiences, making art and artists vital to the life of our cities and region. The newly-opened Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center for Creativity positions the Museum in a leading position in museum education. The 24,000 sq. ft. addition to the Museum building, linked by a skyway, opened in September 2012. The Center offers studio classes to adults and K-12 students as the main art studio space in Fargo-Moorhead that is open to the community. With the Robert Kurkowski Ceramics Wing in the Center, Plains Art Museum is moving into an era as an important center for the ceramics in the region. The Hannaher Print Studio is a working print studio in the Museum that is involved with demonstrations, workshops, classes, and special projects.

The Museum Director and CEO manages the staff leadership team that develops museum goals, objectives, and programs. The Museum has 24 full-time and 10 part-time staff and numerous volunteers and interns.

Candidates are required to have minimum of a master’s degree in art history, art, or related field, or business/non-profit management with concentration in art history or liberal arts.  Strong knowledge of the museum field and contemporary art, particularly American art is preferred.  A minimum of five years work experience in art museums or art centers is required. Candidates should have a track record of successful fundraising and effective fiscal management. Excellent verbal skills in both spoken and written forms is required; desire to connect with broad public audiences, including business leaders, donors, members, artists, and other arts professionals. Ability to work collaboratively with staff, board, and other Museum stakeholders.

Organization

Located in Fargo, North Dakota, Plains Art Museum is a flagship arts organization in the Upper Midwest with a growing national reputation. The Museum was accredited by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) in 2003. In 2014, the Museum and its Director/CEO were elected to the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD). In recent years, the Museum has earned major grants from Kresge Foundation, Bush Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Artplace America, the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation, and NEA.

Plains Art Museum is committed to engaging a wide audience in its community, region, and nation in thought-provoking, original exhibitions and programs that catalyze discussion, foster creative thinking, and advance the public’s knowledge and estimation of art and artists.  Founded in 1975, the Museum has grown steadily in collections, staff, budget, and facility. Originally located in Moorhead, Minnesota, Plains Art Museum moved into a renovated 1904 historic building in downtown Fargo, North Dakota, just across the Red River from Moorhead, in 1997. In 2012, the Museum completed a capital and endowment campaign to expand educational services in the Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center for Creativity, which has greatly expanded its audience and educational impact, reaching 62,000 people in FY14. The two main buildings include 84,000 sq. ft. with about 12,000 square feet of exhibition galleries, a lecture and classroom space; a print studio, a studio arts classroom, an arts lounge and resource center, meeting and event spaces, a museum café and store, and art storage areas.  The Center for Creativity includes 4 studio classrooms and a ceramics wing. A major mural commission by James Rosenquist, another component of the campaign, was installed in the Museum’s Atrium in 2010.

While national in scope, the Museum’s permanent collection of about 4,000 objects focuses strongly on regional artists. It includes work by James Rosenquist, Robert Rauschenberg, Helen Frankenthaler, Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, T.L. Solien, Judy Onofrio, Luis Jimenez, Frank Big Bear, George Morrison, Mark Dion, Walter Piehl, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Fritz Scholder, among many others.

The Museum has an annual budget of $2 million with diversified revenue streams that includes grants and sponsorships, business partnerships, membership, individual giving, major gifts, endowment, and earned income (including museum store, events rental, museum café, and charitable gaming).

Community

With a population of 215,000, Fargo-Moorhead is one of the fastest growing small metro areas in the nation. It boasts a vibrant and diverse economy that includes technology, health care, agriculture, manufacturing, banking, and a dynamic education sector, anchored by North Dakota State University, Minnesota State University Moorhead, and Concordia College. A growing and youthful entrepreneurial community has brought new vibrancy and convening activity to the area with Tedx Fargo, One Million Cups, Misfit Con, and CoCo, a collaborative co-working environment in downtown Fargo. The metro is home to dozens of art organizations, including the FM Symphony, FM Opera, the Historic Fargo Theater, and Bluestem Center for the Arts, in addition to art, theatre, and design departments and performing arts series at the institutions of higher education. Fargo-Moorhead has a demographic population of increasing diversity, with 11 per cent of the populace of Native American, Latino, African, Middle Eastern, and Asian heritages. With Fargo as the globally known city name, due to the Coen Brothers’ movie of that title, the metro has a sense of humor about that notoriety, with the FM Convention and Visitors Bureau recently adopting the new slogan: “Fargo—North of Normal”

Fargo-Moorhead is a bustling, active metropolitan area in the midst of rich, fertile farmland, a 3 ½-hour drive on I-94 to the Twin Cities. The area is consistently ranked high by national publications and groups for quality of life, cultural opportunities, cost of doing business, cost of living, job and income growth, migration trends, and educational attainment. It boasts excellent K-12 education in its school districts It is one of the 10 best affordable places to live and work, according to online assessments. Fargo-Moorhead’s unemployment is among the lowest in the country at 2.8 per cent, and its central location is turning the city into a leading air-cargo hub. The community and surrounding area are served by Hector International Airport, making travel convenient and efficient. Downtown Fargo is classic mid-America with a mix of modern buildings and many well-preserved brick structures.  Downtown Fargo was featured in a list of ten “Downtown Turnarounds” in Urban Land magazine. Since the inception of the Renaissance Zone in 1999, millions of dollars have been invested in downtown Fargo, rehabilitating storefronts, converting vacant buildings for commercial and residential use, and sprucing up streets, bringing residents, offices and nightlife to downtown. The air and water are clean, the economy is good, crime and unemployment rates are some of the lowest in the nation and the people are among the friendliest in the world.  The Fargo-Moorhead area has "Quality of Life" that is enviable.

To apply:

Applications will begin being reviewed on July 27, 2015 and will be accepted until the position is filled.  Please email applications to the address below. Candidates should submit a cover letter, curriculum vita, and names and contact information for three references. Applicants must also complete the employee application, accessed at www.plainsart.org/employment, and include the completed form in their application packet (send as a pdf, if emailing application to Museum).

Send applications to:
Tasha Kubesh, Executive Assistant

Tkubesh@plainsart.org

Director/CEO Search Committee

Plains Art Museum

704 First Ave. N.

PO Box 2338

Fargo, ND 58108-2338

For questions, contact Mark Henze, CFO:

701-551-6130 or

mhenze@plainsart.org