Jobs In the Arts

A new director has been appointed for Tate Britain in London.

From the Guardian:

Penelope Curtis, currently curator of the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, has been appointed director of Tate Britain.

(…)

What will her challenges be?

Well, since the bifurcation of the Tate Gallery into Tates Modern and Britain, the former has increasingly become the hip one with the massive visitor numbers, while Tate Britain has been emptier and less obviously fashionable. The contrast is set to become more extreme if and when Tate Modern gets its huge new extension. Curtis will have to work out how to make Tate Britain not look like a poor relation. There is, perhaps, also an intellectual argument to work through – what does it mean to have a national museum of British art? Is it limiting or reductive to see visual art in national terms? What does “national” mean in a post-devolution age? How should Tate Britain relate to the National Gallery?

The Turner prize is regularly the annual exhibition that pulls in the publicity and the crowds to Tate Britain – but there are noises about its moving around the country to the new “cultural capitals” that Andy Burnham and Ben Bradshaw, as successive culture secretaries, have been trying to instigate. Does that weaken the hand of Tate Britain to an unacceptable degree?

Curtis will assume her new role at a difficult time for all major museums. The recession, the decline in value of the pound, the spike on utilities costs, the difficulties of finding sponsorship and of fundraising, and political uncertainty, with public-spending cuts in the offing, could mean Curtis having to make tough and unpleasant decisions early into her stint as director.

Finally, for any director of a Tate museum, there is the relationship with the overlord, Sir Nicholas Serota, to negotiate. Curtis will never be wholly autonomous.

One reason to celebrate – Tate has finally appointed a woman to a directorship. While Susan Daniel-McElroy was director of Tate St Ives from 2000-2007, and Andrea Nixon is currently in charge of operations as executive director of Tate Liverpool, Tate’s most senior personnel have been too long male dominated – notwthstanding the talents of such senior curators in the ranks as Frances Morris and Sheena Wagstaff.

Not that the Tate has been any worse than anyone else. The National Museums Directors Conference has 28 members, only six of whom are women. Though the middle ranks of museums are often dominated by talented women, there are few who make it right to the top…

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When preparing for a career in the arts – especially if you have a specific profession or position in mind – job listings can be used as a sort of road map to guide your pursuit.

For example, let’s say your dream is to be the chief curator of a museum, collection, or art institution. The American Association of Museums provides a Job HQ service for it’s members, but the listings may be searched by anyone online.

If you enter “curator”  in the keyword search on their site, a list of all relevant positions will appear. When I searched, one of the the available positions for a chief curator listed the following requirements:

The qualified candidate will have at least 5 years experience as a curator or senior curator with strong national and international relationships in the field. He/She should have previous museum experience organizing international exhibitions, travelling and scheduling exhibitions, and building collections as well as managing corresponding publications.  The candidate must have experience working directly with artists on new works and specific projects.  He/She will have previous experience managing a department and working with a diverse staff, Trustees donors, collectors and governance structures.  The ideal candidate must possess strong public speaking and interpersonal skills and a passion for educating and engaging a growing audience, including the ability to communicate well with lay audiences as well as artists, curators, trustees, and funders.  And the Chief Curator must bring an artistic curiosity and vision for the role of art, artists and museums in contemporary society.

This is, of course, just one example. I suggest reading various job descriptions every few months or so. You can be as specific as you want in your searches, but the more you know the better you’ll understand what is expected and you can prepare accordingly!

This month, The Art Newspaper published a detailed report on the impact of the current US economy on museum directors and the salaries they receive.

From The Art Newspaper:

A survey of more than 60 major art museums in the US shows that the directors of more than one third have recently taken pay cuts, many of them substantial, and senior staff at most of those institutions have also had their compensation trimmed. The cuts range from salary reductions and forfeiture of bonuses to unpaid leave.

Even where there have not been massive layoffs, hiring freezes leave posts vacant and incentives induce early retirement. In the past year, New York’s Museum of Modern Art has cut its staff from around 850 to 741 through a hiring freeze and natural attrition.

Pay cuts extend to curators and administrators who have had their salaries frozen, their hours reduced, or their employer contributions to insurance and retirement plans cut. But directors of large institutions are still among the highest paid in the culture sector, with packages ranging from low six figures to more than $1m per year.

Among the directors who have taken the largest cuts are those earning the biggest paycheques at the richest institutions. MoMA director Glenn Lowry, the highest paid chief executive of a US art museum, had his salary reduced 15% last year, but his total compensation still topped $1.32m, and will remain above $1m this year even after another 10% cut. Peter Marzio, the director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, took a voluntary compensation reduction “in excess of 20%”…

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When choosing a career path, you can gain invaluable information from professionals who work or have worked in your field of interest. By asking questions and, most importantly, listening they can provide insight to help you make a decision about pursuing a particular career…or not.

Keep in mind, there is always a chance that what they tell you will not be what you want to hear. It could be that their experience in the field has not been positive, or it might be a red flag that this profession is not well-suited for you. Either way, it is a good idea to talk to more than one person.

Having said that, an article on salary.com presents the perspective of an art dealer, who owns an art gallery in New York City, about his career and the art dealing profession.

The Eye of the Beholder from salary.com:

As long as he can remember, David wanted to work with paintings and drawings. He earned a Ph.D. in art history, but notes that degrees count for little. “The keys to art dealing are quality, rarity, and value. You can only recognize those if you have looked at a lot of things.”

And Ph.D. or not, you start low. “Many people in this field have an independent income and will do anything to get in the door,” he said. “If you are not willing to volunteer, pick another line of work.”

David began as a museum intern and then moved within the museum to answering phones, working in storage, and doing research. The experience convinced him he’d prefer the world of the art dealer, where the first emphasis is on aesthetics, not on historical importance – and where an owner, not a board of trustees, makes acquisition decisions. “A gallery can move much faster because it’s so small. Five full-time employees is a big operation,” he said…

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As the Fall season of art shows has started up with a fever, I’ve been thinking about the daily lives of artists, gallerists, assistants, preparators, registrars, critics, etc. and how very different things are than just a month ago.  Every Fall I get very excited about the shows happening all over the world, but I must say I am very appreciative of all of the hard work that goes into this crazy art world we love so much.  It’s not like art makes itself (well, not always), or it magically gets installed by little elves, or articles and press releases get written at the snap of a finger… these things take time, and they also take money.  So, hats off to the entire art world for another beautiful Fall season of shows, despite the miserable state of all of our finances.  The shows look beautiful, and here’s hoping that next year we’ll be back on our feet!

The field of fine art conservation and restoration is rapidly growing, partly due to awareness, and partly due to the unstable materials modern and contemporary artists are using more and more.  It is important to note the difference between conservation and restoration.  According to ConservArt Associates, “Many people are confused about the difference between an art conservator and a restorer.  To the layperson there is seemingly no difference and the terms are used interchangeably.  However, this is very much not the case and the gulf between “restoration” and “conservation” is rapidly widening.  Art conservators are generally academically trained to at least the level of a Master’s degree (M.A.C. – Master’s of Art Conservation – see FAQ on Where do I get conservation training?).  They have training in the scientific, art historical and artistic aspects and requirements of works of art.  Fine art conservation is relatively new (only the last 50-60 years, since WWII) whereas restoration has arguably existed since the beginning of the creation of art when artists restored their own or others’ works.  Restorers tend to have been trained as artisans (often apprenticed to artists) or have learned by experience.  This type of learning is a necessary but not sufficient condition to treat works of art in a manner that will reliably ensure their survival.”

Salaries for these jobs tend to start on the low end (but hey, what art-related job doesn’t?), especially during the apprentice or intern time, but there is a lot of room for growth, especially in this ever-expanding field.