Asian Art Education Assistant: Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College

Asian Art Education Assistant, The Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College

Job Summary: The Allen Memorial Art Museum (AMAM) at Oberlin College seeks a recent college graduate with a strong background in Asian art history and gallery teaching to fill the position of Asian Art Education Assistant. This is a non-continuing, full-time, 12-month Administrative and Professional Staff position with the potential for renewal up to one additional year. The position will report to the AMAM’s Eric & Jane Nord Family Curator of Education and has an anticipated start date in late September 2018.

Responsibilities: The incumbent will assist in all aspects of implementing a grant from the Freeman Foundation to deepen and expand K-12 and community engagement with the AMAM’s collection of East Asian art through public programs and educational outreach to area schools. Primary duties will include helping: create curricular materials for museum-based and school-based programming and the AMAM’s online resources; schedule, plan, and lead K-12 and public tours in the museum and in schools; research the AMAM Asian art collection; develop content for the museum’s social media platforms (Vimeo, Facebook and Tumblr); plan and implement grant activities including teacher workshops, community days, and artist residencies; create, distribute and analyze survey and evaluative data; and administer the grant.

Required qualifications:
· bachelor’s degree with a major in art history or Asian studies; or the successful completion of at least five art history classes at the college level primarily focused on Asian art;
· knowledge and practice of theories in gallery teaching and/or having taken the Practicum in Museum Education winter term course at Oberlin College or comparable equivalent;
· experience working with K-12 audiences;
· detail-oriented and highly organized;
· punctual and reliable;
· ability to follow written and oral instructions;
· motivated and capable of working both independently and as
part of a team;
· excellent research, writing and communication skills;
· strong public speaking skills and enjoys working with the public;
· ability to work some evenings and weekends;
· capable of lifting heavy items;
· valid driver’s license; and
· knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel and G Suite.

Desired qualifications:
· experience developing K-12 curricular materials;
· experience creating and editing videos;
· experience with social media;
· experience developing, administering, and analyzing surveys
and evaluations;
· experience planning activities and events.

Compensation: Annual salary $30,000 with an excellent benefits package.

Required application materials:

1. cover letter describing relevant experience and interest in the
positon;
2. résumé;
3. list of relevant coursework;
4. list of three references including: name, title, address, email and
phone number; and
5. Undergraduate transcript with GPA.

Applications due Monday, September 3, 2018. Applications received after the deadline may be considered. All application materials should be submitted via Oberlin College’s People Admin portal at http://jobs.oberlin.edu/postings/6739.

About the Allen Memorial Art Museum (AMAM): For more than a century, Oberlin College has been committed to promoting direct study of original works of art to foster visual literacy and a deeper understanding of the diversity of the world’s cultures. Today, the AMAM houses an encyclopedic collection of more than 15,000 objects selected to provide a comprehensive overview of the history of art and is recognized as one of the five best academic museums in the country. The AMAM serves a broad regional audience and operates on the premise that learning about art is important for everyone, a principle demonstrated by the free public admission, offered since its founding in 1917.

In the field of Asian art, the AMAM’s holdings are among the most extensive and important at an undergraduate institution. Early 20th-century donations, including a group of works from Charles Lang Freer, helped establish Oberlin’s reputation as a serious institutional repository of Asian art. The collection is strongest in the arts of East Asia and also includes important holdings of South Asian, Central Asian and Western Asian art, with superb examples of pre-modern and modern paintings, sculpture and decorative arts. The collection includes Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian works, as well as Islamic works and those from Ancient Near Eastern cultures. Chinese paintings are a particular strength, with works from the Ming dynasty to the present represented, including works by Xie Shichen, Lu Zhi, Zhang Hong, Gao Fenghan, Huang Binhong, Liu Haisu, Shen Jiawei and Wang Guangyi. The AMAM collection of more than 1,500 ukiyo-e prints from Japan is renowned both for its quality and for the variety of subjects depicted. Artists represented in the Japanese print collection include, among others, Okumura Masanobu, Suzuki Harunobu, Kitagawa Utamaro, Nakamura Hochu, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Utagawa Hiroshige, and Kawase Hasui.

The museum complex includes a 1917 building designed by Cass Gilbert. In the 1970s, Robert Venturi designed a gallery dedicated to the presentation of modern and contemporary art, the architect’s first museum commission. The AMAM also shares responsibility with Oberlin College for a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house, the first Usonian house in Ohio, located in Oberlin.

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