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Manton Curator Prints, Drawings & Photographs
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
Williamstown, MA
Background
In 1950 Sterling and Francine Clark chartered the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute as a home for their extensive art collection. Opened to public in 1955, the Institute has built upon this extraordinary legacy to become one of the most beloved and respected art museums in the world, known for its intimate galleries and stunning natural environment. The Clark is one of the few institutions in the United States that combines a public art museum with a center for research and graduate study in the history of art. With its renowned library, visiting fellows, and program of symposia and conferences, the Clark is a leading international center for research and debate on the nature of art and art history. The Clark has recently unveiled its master plan for the twenty-first century, which enhances its commitment to its research and museum programs while maintaining the unique character of its beautiful rural setting.
Sterling Clark settled in Paris in 1910 and began collecting works of art, an interest he inherited from his parents. When he married Francine Clary in 1919, she joined him in what became a shared passion. Together they created a remarkable collection of paintings, silver, sculpture, porcelain, drawings, and prints with complete reliance on their own judgments and tastes. While Sterling and Francine Clark had collected art strictly for pleasure, they were interested in establishing a public art gallery for their collection. Sterling considered founding a museum in Cooperstown, New York, near his family’s home, or bequeathing everything to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but by 1946 had decided to create a museum on property he purchased at the corner of Park Avenue and Seventy-second Street in Manhattan. Shortly thereafter, however, the Clarks resolved to build their museum outside of New York, and were drawn to the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts.
The Clarks had a strong familial tie to Williams College, where Sterling ’s grandfather had served as a trustee between 1878 and 1882 and his father was a trustee from 1882 to 1886. Encouraged by a series of conversations with the leaders of Williams College and its art museum, Sterling and Francine Clark first visited Williamstown in the early autumn of 1949. This visit was followed by a warm and friendly correspondence between the leaders at Williams and the Clarks, who resolved to situate their museum within walking distance of the college. A charter for the new Institute was signed on March 14, 1950, just six short months after the Clarks first visited Williamstown.
The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute is distinguished among the museums of the world by the quality of its collections, the depth of its public and academic programs, and the natural beauty of its pastoral setting. Since opening in 1955, the Clark has remained committed to its dual mission as a public art museum and a center for research and higher education.
In support of this dual mission, the Clark is working with Pritzker Prize–winning architect Tadao Ando and landscape architects Reed Hilderbrand Associates to design a campus plan that enhances the Institute's setting, expands the facilities for its public and academic programs, and reconfigures its galleries to broaden the ways in which visitors experience works of art. The expansion plan brings new unity to the campus, fully integrating the Clark 's buildings with Stone Hill and the surrounding landscape.
Phase I, Stone Hill Center, opened on June 22, 2008, and features a 32,000-square-foot facility that houses new, intimately scaled galleries, a meeting and studio art classroom, and the Williamstown Art Conservation Center, the largest regional conservation center in the country. Located on a wooded hillside that affords magnificent views, Stone Hill Center reinforces the Clark 's unique standing as one of the only major art museums in the world located in a dramatic rural setting. The new galleries present exhibitions highlighting the Clark's collection as well as works representing periods and cultures not currently shown at the Clark. A new network of scenic trails and walking paths integrates the building into the landscape.
Phase II of the Clark 's expansion, also designed by Tadao Ando, includes a new Exhibition, Visitor, and Conference Center, which will house new special exhibition galleries and provide much-needed additional space for conferences and symposia as well as public amenities. Phase II also includes the renovation by Selldorf Architects of the original museum that houses the permanent collection.In addition, the Manton Research Center that currently serves as the main visitor entrance will be renovated to provide more space for the Clark’s library and its collection of works on paper, including a new study and exhibition center for prints, drawings, and photographs.
While the scope and character of the collections continue to represent the taste and interests of Sterling and Francine Clark, the collections have expanded greatly since the opening of the Clark in 1955. Thus the collections focus almost exclusively on European and American painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative art from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century. The Institute's greatest strengths lie in nineteenth-century European and American paintings, especially the French Impressionists and Salon paintings; English silver; nineteenth-century sculpture, master drawings and prints. In recent years, the Clark has initiated the collecting of early photography.
The Clark has a collection of approximately five thousand drawings, prints and photographs spanning the history of the graphic arts from the fifteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth century. The collection includes significant concentrations of works by Albrecht Dürer, Claude Lorrain, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, and Winslow Homer. The Clark 's small but important group of pastels by Degas, Camille Pissarro, Mary Cassatt, and Jean-François Millet are also housed in the department. The collections have been greatly enhanced by the 2007 gift of the Sir Edwin and Lady Manton Collection of British Art, which is rich in drawings and watercolors by John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, Thomas Rowlandson, and Thomas Gainsborough.
http://www.clarkart.edu/
Position Summary:
The Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs is responsible for the care, exhibition, acquisition, research, and interpretation of the museum’s collection of works on paper including prints, drawings, and photographs. The curator develops and maintains contact with the general public, donors, lenders, students, and professional colleagues to expand the audience for the Institute’s collections, programs, and publications.
Essential Functions:
- Oversee the care and conservation of the collection of prints, drawings, and photographs in accordance with generally accepted museum standards.
- Manage the organization of the collection of works on paper and its records ensuring accessibility and accountability.
- Develop an exhibition program of works on paper, including exhibitions and installations drawn from the permanent collection as well as loan exhibitions organized with other institutions. Organize, install, and interpret exhibitions meeting the highest degree of aesthetic and interpretive standards.
- Identify and propose acquisitions, both purchases and gifts, of the highest quality to meet the Institute’s collecting goals.
- Develop relationships and cultivate current and potential donors to expand object and monetary donations.
- Facilitate access to the collection by the local academic population and general public as well as visiting scholars through the print study room and online cataloguing.
- Perform scholarly research on the collections, promoting their reputation through teaching, lecturing, and publishing for both the scholarly and general public.
- Supervise and train work-study students, teach seminars in the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art, and advise other students interested in prints, drawings, and photographs.
- Stay abreast of developments in the field and participate in professional organizations and meetings to understand and, as appropriate, incorporate trends and new approaches to exhibits, signage, etc.
- Oversee the development and programming of the new Manton Study Center for Works on Paper.
Qualifications
The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute seeks a highly motivated and team-oriented professional to serve as the Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs. The Manton Curator is a key member of the Clark ’s curatorial staff, involved with all aspects of the museum program.
Specific qualifications include:
- An advanced degree (PhD preferred) in art history or related field.
- Knowledge of drawings, with a specialty in nineteenth century European works on paper.
- At least five years museum curatorial experience.
- Track record of exhibitions and publications.
- Proven research and writing skills.
- Ability to work in a collaborative environment.
- Experience and interest in teaching a plus.
- Proficiency in one or more foreign languages.
In addition, the Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs must be a passionate and energetic person with the ability to manage, research, position, exhibit and develop an important collection. S/he must have the demonstrated interest and ability to share the collection with diverse audiences and to build a positive image and lasting relationships for the Clark. S/he must be an innovative thinker and a great communicator with the ability to present the collection and the Clark to all internal and external constituencies and must have a reputation for the highest level of integrity and credibility.
The Manton Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs must have an enthusiastic commitment to participation in the world of prints, drawings and photographs, both regionally and internationally.
Salary
Highly competitive and commensurate with experience.
Start Date
The position is open and will be filled at the earliest possible date.
Procedure for Application
Applicants should submit resumes and a one-page narrative describing their interest in the position and the experience that relates to the responsibilities described above as well as the names of three references. All applications will be reviewed by Management Consultants for the Arts, an executive search firm working with the Museum's director and senior curator. Send applications or suggestions of candidates to: |
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