Career Opportunities

Full-time Opportunities

 


Visitor Services Manager

SCOPE OF POSITION (General Description):
The Visitor Services Manager is responsible for leading the front desk staff in creating a welcoming and inviting experience for all the guests and members of the Contemporary Arts Center.  This position represents the first point of contact for the many people who call or walk in our front door and is instrumental in the visitors’ overall feeling of satisfaction with the institution.This positiondelivers on  the strategic vision for a comprehensive guest service program, upholding and protecting the brand integrity by delivering unparalleled guest service and guest experience in relationship to museum events  and programs, ticketing, and membership offerings.  The Visual Service Manager builds, trains, and maintains our visitor service team and the museum’s volunteer core.

VISITOR SERVICES MANAGER SPECIFIC DUTIES:

  • Ensure that all museum guests have a positive experience from arrival to departure.  Greet and orient guests to both the building, exhibitions and its programs by ensuring  the delivery of world-class guest service and providing visitors with memorable experiences they will want to share with others.
  • Work with internal departments to ensure the front desk has up to date exhibition, membership, performance, public and education program information. 
  • Serve as an advocate for the visitor while also promoting the welfare of the CAC.   Communicate with a variety of visitors with diverse interest and abilities.  Resolve visitor concerns and complaints to their satisfaction and the CAC’s.  Ensure a clean, safe, engaging, family-friendly environment
  • Build, train, and maintain a group of reliable guest focused volunteers who help staff the front desk including recruiting, retaining, and rewarding volunteers.  This includes finding new volunteer recruiting opportunities, providing museum information and training to volunteers, maintaining the volunteer incentive program, and satisfying requests for volunteer assistance. (tie this into management side)
  • Work collaboratively with the merchandise team to deliver a high-quality retail experience that is profitable.
  • Process visitor admissions, memberships, and store purchases.  Ensure cash is handled accurately and the daily register is balanced.
  • Develop, implement and maintain procedures for exhibition admission ticketing system.  Work with Finance and IT to ensure reliable operation to satisfy ticketing and reporting needs.   Generate monthly visitor attendance reports in a timely manner by working with other staff to obtain information and using sales software.  Provide information to grant writer as requested.
  • Hire, schedule, train, supervise, and evaluate front desk staff in partnership with the Store Manager.
  • Support CAC programs by coordinating sale of tickets (including on-line purchasing), maintaining the box office, and providing appropriate front desk staffing for performances and programs.
  • Make sure adequate staffing is in place at all times, filling in, as required, if scheduled part time staff becomes unavailable.  Promote teamwork atmosphere and coordination with other departments as needed.
  • Promote the CAC’s membership program.  Work with the CAC’s Development Department to support efforts to attract and retain members.
  • Answer the CAC’s main telephone line promptly, respond to inquiries courteously, and direct callers to appropriate staff as needed.  Check the CAC’s general email account daily, responding to inquiries and forwarding other messages to appropriate staff members. Network with other museum visitor service and volunteer managers and applicable local organizations to stay informed of industry trends.
  • Work with Security to safeguard the visitor and the art.  Respond to emergency needs by working with security staff and taking steps to reduce or eliminate personal risk to visitors.  Report all emergency situations to appropriate staff or authorities.
  • Perform other duties as assigned.

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS:
Works closely with all departments.  Attends CAC staff meetings and at times may be requested to attend CAC Board Meetings.  The Visitor Services Manager values teamwork and cooperation without hierarchy to ensure that  all Visitor Service duties are achieved satisfactorily.

ALL OF THESE DUTIES ARE TO BE DONE WITH OVERALL CAC BUSINESS IN MIND.  THE PERSON IN THIS POSITION WILL BE CONCIOUS OF OTHER CAC PROGRAMS, EXHIBITION NEEDS AND CAC POLICY AND PROCEDURES.

REQUIREMENTS:

  • Bachelor’s degree with course work in business or arts administration preferred.  Three years of related customer service work experience including at least two years of supervisory experience, or an equivalent combination of education, training and experience.
  • Solid computer skills; knowledge of retail and ticketing point of sales systems and Excel highly desirable.  Knowledge of visitor service principles, practices and procedures preferred.
  • Interest in contemporary art. Enjoy working with the public.  Ability to develop and implement effective initiatives and strategies to ensure consistent excellent customer service.  Knowledge of and demonstrated experience with guest service skills and best practices to deliver world-class customer service.
  • Ability to take ownership of problematic situations using proper judgment to find possible solutions or alternatives while maintain relationships.
  • Excellent verbal and time management skills.
  • Ability to communicate and train others to communicate the CAC’s mission, activities, services and programs.  Provide solutions and initiatives to refine policies and systems.
  • Ability to train, direct, supervise, evaluate, and motivate staff and volunteers, maintaining appropriate staffing at all times. (combine these two)
  • Ability to handle stressful situations and deadlines.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
  • Ability to foster effective working relationships with staff and volunteers.
  • Work schedule is Monday and Wednesday through Saturday.  Will be required to work Monday evenings and occasionally other evenings and some holidays to accommodate museum’s opening hours and special events.

APPLICATION PROCESS:

Please send cover letter and resume by May 31, 2013 to:

Contemporary Arts Center

Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art

44 East 6th Street

Cincinnati, OH 45202

Attn: Human Resources

 

Also, application materials can be emailed to hc@contemporaryartscenter.org.  No phone calls accepted, nor returned.

 

The Contemporary Arts Center is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

 

 

 

 

Part-time Opportunities

There are no part-time openings at this time.

 

Internships

We are accepting resumes for internship opportunities in:

  • Development
  • Communications (Marketing and PR)
  • Education
  • Curatorial

If you have enthusiasm, a strong work ethic, flexibility and a love for contemporary art...we offer an outstanding learning experience in a diverse and dynamic environment.

Please send:

  1. Cover letter detailing field of interest, experience and the desired goal of the internship.
  2. Resume detailing experience and educational back ground.
  3. Three writing samples (primarily for Curatorial, Education, Marketing and PR departments).

Any inquiries that do not follow this format will be rejected automatically.

Please mail and email applications to:
Attn: Internships
Contemporary Arts Center
Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art
44 East 6th Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202
intern@contemporaryartscenter.org

Please, no phone calls.
The Contemporary Arts Center is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

 

Development Internship

This internship is awarded to outstanding students interested in exploring a museum/arts administration career with a focus on development and membership.

Purpose: To gain greater experience with the development needs, duties, and opportunities associated with the museum profession.  The Contemporary Arts Center’s Development Department will supervise the intern.

Duties: Work closely with the Development Department to implement membership initiatives, special event, and travel programs. Duties may include support of membership direct mail and acquisition campaigns, membership processing and fulfillment, coordinating event activities, assisting with registration, collecting information, database administration, and surveying visitors.  Intern may also be involved in assisting with travel programs by coordinating arrangements, conducting internet research and contacting agencies to support travel.  Additional opportunities related to grants, foundations, research, cultivation, special event fundraisers and travel will be assigned with supervision by appropriate staff.  Intern should be proficient with Word, Excel, and Powerpoint as well as internet and other research resources.  The ideal candidate will be organized with keen attention to detail, have prior database experience (preferred but not mandatory), and be able to maintain standards of confidentiality.

Available positions: One

Education Internship

Purpose: To introduce an exceptional Fine Art major to the educational and administrative duties of the museum profession. The Contemporary Arts Center’s Curator of Education will supervise the interns.

Duties:  Work closely with education department staff in varying capacities that include but are not limited to:

  • Assist with setting up public programming for upcoming exhibitions, including assisting with administrative and office responsibilities associated with creating and promoting an education program.
  • Work closely with docents and tour groups and assist with the administrative duties associated with tour registration. Prepare for and lead gallery talks for certain segments of the audience (a least one tour per semester).
  • Assist with writing interpretative texts and other educational material.
  • Creating lesson plans, PowerPoints about the exhibitions and family projects with assistance from Education Staff that will be published on the Website or used in the UnMuseum.

Who is eligible: Upcoming Seniors (Art Education, Art History, Studio, and other majors from relevant disciplines preferred) and Graduate Students who are interested in learning about the aspects of an educational career.

Available positions: Two

Curatorial Internship

This internship is awarded to outstanding students who are interested in exploring the potential of a curatorial career.

Purpose: To introduce an exceptional Fine Art, Art History, Art Administration, or other related fields major to the curatorial and administrative duties of the center’s profession. The Contemporary Arts Center’s curatorial department will supervise the intern.
 
Duties: Work closely with the curator in implementing the exhibition program. 50% of the intern's duties will be directed toward one project for which s/he will have substantial responsibility and 50% of the time will be spent on routine daily curatorial duties. The curator will assign a specific project based upon the needs of the center and the particular interests of the intern. Training may include: research on exhibitions; developing interpretive materials for exhibitions; reviewing unsolicited visual materials by artists. 
 
Available Positions: One

Performances Internship

Purpose: This internship is ideal for someone who is interested in the administrative and logistical “behind-the-scenes” of the Performance Program at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC), one of the region’s premiere institutions for contemporary, experimental and interdisciplinary arts. The intern will gain an overview of how a multi-disciplinary art center manages its own presenting series.

Duties: Working closely with the Performance Curator, the intern will support our multi-disciplinary presentations, which will involve productions in both our in-house black box performance space, and outside institutions with which we co-present. Under the direction of the Performance Curator, the intern will gain hands-on experience with a variety of administrative and logistical aspects arts presenting and production. There will also be opportunities to interact and engage with the other programs at the CAC, such as Visual Arts, Public Programs, and Community Engagement. Expectations include:

• Assist department with inter-departmental communications and scheduling, marketing and ticketing, and back-of-house (artist hospitality) and front-of-house activities, etc.

• Assist department with outreach and community engagement efforts for the CAC Performance Program

• Assist department with maintaining electronic archives and program files.

• Other research and duties as assigned.

Available Positions:One 

 

Artist Assistant Internship

Hours: Two weeks in a row during installation periods at the Contemporary Arts Center. Final paper: installation diary and creation of work of art based on the experience.

Duties: Work closely with an artist invited to create a work on site or site-related. Students will be involved in the conceptualization, and installation of a work. They will be involved in the process of creation and execution. Students will also be documenting the development of the work and create their own work based on their experience of the internship.

  • Assist an artist with installing his/her work. This might include tasks as diverse as gathering material together with the artist to creating the work under the supervision of the artist in residence.
  • Receive introductory instruction from the chief preparator about using the museum workshop
  • Write a documentary diary of the installation process and take digital photographs. This will lead to a document available for museum visitors to learn about the different steps taken by the artist and students.
  • If feasible interns will give a gallery talk to share their experience.
  • Create a work of their own based on and informed by the experience of the internship

Available positions: One

Registrar Internship

Duties:  Work closely with the Registrar managing the Contemporary Arts Center’s exhibitions and facilitating the exhibition program.  A mid-semester partial draft and a final paper will be done for the end of the year. You will set your schedule for the year with a CAC supervisor in accordance with your coursework. Expectations include:

  • Assist the Registrar with the management of the ongoing Exhibition Inventory.
  • Assist the Registrar with condition reports for incoming and outgoing loans
  • Support the Registrar and Installation Crew in the galleries during installation and deinstallation. Responsibilities will include general art handling and gallery preparation.
  • Work closely with the Registrar to manage the image archive database and catalog library.

Available positions: One

 Center Preparator Internship

Purpose: To introduce knowledge and application of skills involved in installing exhibitions.
 
Duties: The intern will work under close supervision of the Chief Preparator and Assistant Preparator in an apprenticeship manner.  Techniques, such as painting and patching of walls, ensuring proper hanging hardware and handling of works, the installation and de-installation of works, planning and building strategies, the acquisition of materials and supplies, and general exhibition maintenance, will be employed accordingly toward the rotating exhibitions.  Other duties may involve assistance in lighting and technical equipment.

Available positions: One