Reporting to: The Melvin & Bren Simon Director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields

Direct Reports: Project Manager sand other employees as assigned

Location: Indianapolis, IN

Newfields

In 1883, a group of Indianapolis citizens, led by educator and activist May Wright Sewall, formed the Art Association of Indianapolis with the goal “to cultivate and advance Art in all its branches.” Over the past 140 years, the organization has evolved from the Art Association of Indianapolis to the Indianapolis Museum of Art, in 1969, to Newfields, in 2017. The institution has moved locations, increased educational programming, and expanded its art and horticultural collections. At the heart of these changes is the organization’s commitment to May Wright Sewall’s legacy of forward thinking around education, equality, social reform, and art and culture.

Thanks to the generosity of philanthropists like the Lilly family, Newfields today stands as one of the largest and most renowned centers for nature and the arts in the country, far surpassing anything the Art Association’s founders could have imagined. With a $35M annual budget, $90M in buildings and land assets, over $350M in endowment assets, an art collection consisting of 43,000 works, and over 300 skilled employees, interns, and fellows across various areas including advancement, conservation, education, natural resources, and public programming, Newfields proudly serves over 650,000 people each year. Specific components of its 152-acre campus include:

The Indianapolis Museum of Art (“IMA”): IMA is Indianapolis’ premier art museum and is among the ten largest and longest operating art museums in the nation with a world class collection of 43,000 works of art. The IMA collection traces the history of art around the globe, from antiquity to the present day. In addition to its permanent collection, the IMA boasts a premier program of special art exhibitions. In 2021, IMA opened its award-winning, 30,000-sq-ft, an immersive gallery for digital projections of art: The Lume.

The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park: Situated in the heart of Indianapolis, Fairbanks Park is 100 acres of

managed natural land. This rural oasis features a living sculpture park focused on experimentation, public interaction, and community engagement. It also includes a 35-acre lake, woodlands, wetlands, and the largest native pollinator meadow in Indianapolis. Last year, Newfields announced a new series of outdoor public art installations where guests can immerse themselves in art and nature in the newly-endowed Hawryluk Sculpture Green in the heart of the park.

The Garden: The Garden features 52 acres of contemporary and historic gardens, including the National Historic

Landmark Oldfields, Lilly House and Gardens, complete with a working greenhouse and an orchard. Visitors can enjoy the seasons as they transition, and discover multiple gardens made up of living collections and seasonal displays. Lilly House is an exemplary example of a 20th century, French-inspired country estate. The Lilly family donated the 56 acres to the Art Association of Indianapolis in 1967 to build an art museum and become what is known as Newfields today.

The Miller House and Garden in Columbus, IN: Miller House and Garden extends outside of Indianapolis, as one of the nation’s most highly regarded examples of mid-century Modernist architecture and landscape. In 2000, the Miller House became the first National Historic Landmark to receive its designation while one of its designers, Dan Kiley, was still living, and while still occupied by its original owners. The house showcases the work of leading 20th-century architects and designers Eero Saarinen, Alexander Girard, and Dan Kiley.

Newfields believes that art and nature play a pivotal role in shaping the collective future of humanity. To that end,

Newfields engages, educates, and empowers the public to participate in enriching experiences in art and nature. It undertakes scholarly research, develops educational initiatives, creates museum exhibitions, and hosts public

programming to advance new perspectives on invention and innovation and to foster interactions between the public and artists, scholars, and thought leaders. Newfields' leadership plans to develop the organization as a hub for testing bold new ideas and for reaching beyond traditional boundaries. With a Director of Exhibitions, Newfields will expand and enhance its reach and relevance, speaking to the issues of the day and the needs of the community, and ultimately changing lives for the better.

Scope and Responsibilities

The Director of Exhibitions (“Director”) will be at the heart of creating a comprehensive, multi-year exhibition vision that advances the IMA’s guest-focused and educational mission by developing a leading exhibition calendar that reflects the values of accessibility, engagement, innovation, and learning. As a key partner to the IMA Director, they will lead the strategic planning and project management of exhibitions, ensuring each aligns with the museum’s broader goals of educational and community outreach and visitor-centered experiences. Serving as a key voice in exhibition planning, the Exhibitions Director will represent exhibition goals and initiatives to both museum leadership and the public, ensuring alignment with the institution's strategic vision and strengthening community engagement. They will collaborate closely with the IMA Director, supporting major initiatives like gallery master planning, evaluating and refining guest engagement, and fostering cross-cultural, multidisciplinary methods of presentation.

Through collaborative partnerships with curatorial, interpretation, education, collections support, and other Newfields departments, the Director will work to communicate a cohesive vision for exhibition programming that fosters alignment, shared understanding, and innovation. By cultivating an environment that prioritizes visitor connection, this role ensures exhibitions inspire learning, invite curiosity, and resonate with diverse audiences, creating meaningful and lasting experiences. The Director will be instrumental in positioning the museum as a thought leader and cultural hub, building lasting relationships with community stakeholders and enhancing the organization’s role in the cultural landscape.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Strategic Vision and Planning

In close collaboration with the IMA Director and curatorial team:

• Apply strategic vision to conceptualizing, planning and execution of innovative, impactful, and inspiring exhibitions, integrating bold concepts and storytelling to create a compelling visitor experience that engages diverse audiences and increases visitor participation.
• Develop inclusive, interdisciplinary exhibition schedules that resonate widely, contribute to audience growth, and is informed by data to enhance accessibility and community impact;
• Guide long-term strategic initiatives, including a multi-year gallery revisioning project.
• Develop a multi-year traveling exhibition strategy. Direct, manage, and assess the coordination of the museum’s traveling exhibition strategy.
• Inspire experimentation across IMA departments, working collaboratively to explore cutting-edge approaches to display, interpretation and audience engagement.

Exhibition Administration

• Unify and oversee a stellar exhibition calendar (approximately 12-15 exhibitions annually), the Bret Waller Community Gallery program, collection gallery reinstallations, and gallery rotations.
• Serve as a key partner in the museum multi-year master planning process.
• Support Newfields’ long-range vision for outdoor art; coordinate commissions and installation of art-based projects in Fairbanks Park.
• Collaborate with Newfields teams for the Art-in-Bloom festival.
• Ensure cross-departmental processes and procedures for planning exhibitions are implemented and refined.
• Review all legal contracts and letters of agreement for approved exhibitions, and assure with the Newfields team implementation and compliance with the terms and conditions of all contracts/agreements including shared costs, image use, marketing materials, and exhibition credit lines

Project Management

• Manage resources needed to support the exhibition’s team, including project managers and, at times, guest curators and contractors, ensuring timely budget-conscious project completion.
• Lead exhibition project development from proposal to completion, ensuring alignment with institutional strategies and priorities.
• Create and Manage an Exhibition Dashboard to track progress and develop data-driven approaches for measuring deliverables and communicating progress.
• Develop and update project schedules and milestones for each exhibition. Works with the curatorial staff on checklist development ensuring that the exhibition remains within the approved project budget and scope.
• Facilitate regular project-specific meetings to share information, track milestones, and address issues proactively.
• Ensures that the staff is kept updated on the Museum’s exhibition program and that information on current and upcoming exhibitions is disseminated and easily accessed.

Budgeting and Procurement

• Develop and manage detailed multi-year operational budgets for exhibitions.
• Implement transparent and disciplined budgetary practices, ensuring alignment with institutional priorities and cost benefit analyses.
• Oversee departmental expenditures, resolve variances, and track shared costs for partnership exhibitions.
• Manage certain procurement processes for exhibition-related services, including artist fabrication and special arrangements.
• Draft and negotiate artist, guest curator, and any other necessary professional service agreements, contracts, or MOUs. Oversee all exhibition contract related payments and invoices to individuals and institutions.
• Report regularly on budgetary and planning progress to IMA Director.

Digital Engagement and Audience Reach

• Champion digital engagement strategies to expand the museum’s reach and bring collections to global audiences.
• With design, interpretation teams, explore leading, innovative approaches to digital displays and interpretation, and online audience engagement.

Internal and External Liaison

• Serve as the primary liaison for internal communication and external partnerships to ensure cohesive exhibition development and to ensure smart, unique, and bold positioning of institutional efforts.
• Schedule and lead museum-wide exhibition meetings and stakeholder check-ins.
• Schedule all museum-wide Exhibition meetings as well as regular check-ins related to the implementation of specific projects and update the Museum calendar accordingly.
• Represent the museum as a leader and participant at conferences, national and international dialogues on exhibition trends and best practices.
• Act as a spokesperson for exhibitions, engaging with donors, partners, and committees.
• Manage relationships with partners and venues for confirmed exhibitions.
• Ensures that the staff is kept updated on the Museum’s exhibition program and that information on current and upcoming exhibitions is disseminated and easily accessed

Department Leadership

• Direct the Scheduling Advisory Team (SAT) for the annual exhibition and experience proposal reviews.
• Participate in institutional long-range planning and goal-setting processes.
• Supervise departmental staff, assigning tasks and responsibilities to ensure effective operations.
• Approve employment-related activities, including performance evaluations, hiring, and disciplinary actions.
• Oversee professional development, continuing education, national and international network development.
• Embrace and model institutional mission, vision, and values. Provide leadership of Newfields’ inclusion, accessibility, and community engagement.
• Other duties as assigned.

Job Requirements

Key Selection Criteria

The ideal candidate must possess a unique combination of superior leadership skills, content expertise, and technical proficiency to successfully manage a robust exhibitions portfolio for a museum of Newfields’ size and stature. This person must be strategic, prioritizing institutional values of access, relevance, and impact while balancing constraints of time, space, and budgets. This person will also ideally be a visionary, providing forward-thinking concepts and inspiring others to imagine and achieve beyond what has been done before. Other ideal qualifications include:

• Twelve or more years in exhibition management and arts administration with progressively increased levels of responsibility.
• A track record of achieving outstanding outcomes from art exhibitions.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills. Able to work well and collaborate effectively with a wide range of audiences including artists, staff, volunteers, educators, funders, sponsors, members, general public and other constituencies.
• Solid knowledge of contemporary and historic fields of visual art and design along with best practices in collection management;
• Proven experience managing large teams, fostering alignment, and inspiring collaboration across departments;
• Ability to work from the office 5 days per week on site; the position is not hybrid.
• Master’s degree in Art History, Arts Administration, Museum Studies or related field, along with sound knowledge of art history, museum teaching, and object interpretation strategies preferred.

Personal / Professional Attributes

• Exhibits genuine commitment to Newfields’ mission, vision, and values;
• Superlative organizational skills and attention to detail; excellent manager of people, schedules, and budgets;
• Loves putting order to chaos; understands complex processes and how they all relate to one another;
• Strives for excellence and holds self and others to high standards;
• Innovative and entrepreneurial, constantly seeks creative and cutting-edge ideas and approaches;
• Business savvy with a demonstrated ability to build and optimize revenue streams;
• Sunny disposition with unrelenting enthusiasm;
• Proactive in problem-solving, presents practical solutions to potential problems; designs and explores systems and procedures to fit current and long-term needs; anticipates and acts on events which may create opportunities;
• Collegial and collaborative, holds the mission and goals of the institution above any personal agenda;
• Comfortable with ambiguity; can pivot and adapt when needed;
• Exceptional cultural competence and high emotional intelligence;
• Unwavering personal integrity with ethics beyond reproach.

Physical Demands of Work Environment

The physical demands and work environment characteristics described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Physical demands: While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel objects, tools or controls; reach with hands and arms; climb stairs; balance; stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl; talk or hear; taste or smell. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.
• Work environment: The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of the position. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate. The office layout is a combination of private offices and cubicles, with windows along the outer walls.

Application Instructions

To apply, please submit a resume to Emma Kemper at NewfieldsExhibitionsDirector@dhrglobal.com.