Current Opportunities

Search for the Campus Curator

Cambridge, Massachusetts

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) at Harvard University seeks a visionary, dynamic, and collaborative arts and culture leader to fill the new position of Campus Curator. The Campus Curator will have primary programmatic oversight of visual culture and signage across FAS, working to rebalance historical narratives, create opportunities for more expansive representation, and enable Harvard and its broader community to learn and reflect on the past through the ongoing work in the present.

The Campus Curator will be responsible for working collaboratively across units in the FAS and in partnership with key University stakeholders throughout the campus to curate visual culture and signage in a way that informs, educates, and inspires the current and future Harvard community. Visual culture and signage across Harvard are multifaceted and varied and include: landscaping and architecture; gates and sculptures; interior design; moldings and doors; pilasters and reading chairs; pictures and paintings on the walls; and busts on plinths. All of these features share messages about what the institution values, who it celebrates, and what kind of community it aims to foster. The Campus Curator will not only curate but disseminate visual culture and signage in order to transform spaces with an intentional openness to dynamism, rather than the sedimentary collection of images and objects over time.

This is an opportunity to revitalize Harvard’s visual culture in order to acknowledge the past while celebrating the diversity of the present and promoting the vitality of the future. In concert with the newly formed FAS Advisory Committee on Visual Culture & Signage, the Campus Curator will also develop processes and procedures to inspire and guide faculty, staff, and students to be empowered and involved in the transformation process. The Campus Curator will provide leadership and expertise in interpreting the recommendations of the Task Force on Visual Culture and Signage while providing the vision needed to actualize priorities and goals. Reporting to the Dean for Administration and Finance for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Campus Curator will work with a broad array of constituents from the Harvard Art Museums and facilities, local Historical Societies, and the Office of Physical Resources and Planning.

Harvard University has retained Isaacson, Miller to assist with this important search. Inquiries, nominations, and applications should be directed in confidence to: www.imsearch.com/8611.

Harvard University provides equal opportunity in employment for all qualified persons and prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age, veteran status, disability unrelated to job requirements or other protected status.