Director of Education and Engagement

GFS seeks to be inclusive, reflective, and responsive to the dynamic world we live in. Grounds For Sculpture, Inc. adheres to a policy that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, citizenship status, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected class. 

 

Grounds For Sculpture is seeking a full-time Director of Education and Engagement to join our education team. This person will report to the Chief Audience Officer and utilizing current research and best practices, the Director of Education & Engagement will move the institution forward with a mixture of educational, wellness, teambuilding, performance and community engagement and more. The position represents an opportunity to grow our educational philosophy while engaging current and new audiences building off Grounds For Sculpture’s (GFS) core values, founder's vision, and institutional identity. GFS is committed to growing our initiatives, positioning GFS as a museum leader in the arts, horticulture, wellness and team building. A wide variety of experiences with program creation, implementation, audience and revenue growth, evaluation, alongside team and program management are required. This leader will manage a team of professionals in growing and enriching a suite of programs reflecting the racial and economic diversity of our communities while nurturing learners of all ages.

The Director has a proven record of leadership and serves as an effective advocate for innovative approaches in learning, participating, and exploring ideas across a broad field of engagement. They will be passionate about building relationships through off-site engagement, advisory council engagement and oversite of a series of annual, temporary exhibitions within the Education Gallery.  These exhibitions build on key relationships with external and internal stakeholders including community organizations, GFS membership and staff.

The Director will write and collaborate on grant applications, monitor grant deliverables and produce funder reports, as well as oversee education department participation in these activities. They will actively support funder visits and opportunities to prepare proposals.  The Director has experience tracking departmental growth and maintaining or projecting revenue goals. Strong written and verbal communication skills are a must.

The Director leads a department of full-time professionals, which in turn manage part-time educators, and a pool of artists/educators and volunteers. The ideal candidate will be a self-starter with a commitment to a diverse and expansive range of community-based, school program and artist engagement. They will support exhibition interpretation, grow teambuilding, and nurture internships. The candidate will thrive in collaborative-based working while providing the education and engagement team with a clear strategic framework for building and deepening GFS's program and public initiatives. They will work across all GFS departments to cultivate and deepen new and existing partnerships with other peer organizations.

Duties and Responsibilities

 

• Manage the department team with a collaborative approach to strengthen the team dynamic and foster a creative working environment.
• Management of relationships with school, patron, volunteer, and other community groups and arts organizations in the area
• Serve as an advocate for GFS internally and externally, assuring that the interests of the organization are advanced and fully understood
• Visioning forward to ensure thoughtful leadership which aligns with our strategic initiatives
• Budget creation and growth are created to ensure success
• Support staff on streamlining systems and strengthening solution-based inquiry
• Design, develop, and implement strategies for evaluating the impact of learning, participatory and mastery programs, including gathering and analyzing qualitative and quantitative statistics.
• Active partner with the Development team to grow individual donors, support grant application creation, implementation and reporting
• Act as point of contact for member events and artist engagements on site.
• Collaborate with Marketing department to maximize attendance and ticket sales for programs
• Board and/or Advisory council engagement or leadership
• Collaborate with the curatorial team to ensure exhibition interpretation or engagement opportunities with living artists or audience.
• Collaborate with Membership Director on programmatic elements designed to engage and grow member engagement
• All other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• 2+ years of related experience required; background in the Management of program and/or education leadership responsibility in art organizations, gardens or community organizations
• A proven commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion
• Experience with ADA, Senior engagement, Social Prescription and Wellness programs 
• Proven experience with program and/or education research, evaluation and design with clear and compelling results
• Track record of community building experience
• Strong organizational and budgeting skills
• Proven track record of working with community leaders, artists, curators, educators, donors, business leaders and board members
• Must have superior knowledge of a variety of software packages including Outlook, MS Teams, Zoom, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

GFS is stronger for the diverse ideas, lived experiences, passions and skill sets of our staff. To that end, we offer equal employment opportunities to all persons without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, marital status, physical or mental disability, parental status, housing status, source of income or military status, in accordance with applicable federal, state and local EEO laws.

 

The work of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance is made possible through the generous support of committed individuals and institutions.