This just in from Amanda Higgins of KHS:
Growth opportunity for well-prepared, creative Curator for Museum and Outreach
Full-time Curator for Museum and Outreach
Competitive salary and benefits, opportunity for professional development
Starting date: as soon as late-Spring, 2018
Sisters of Loretto Heritage Center, rural Marion County, Kentucky
Loretto Heritage Center Archives and Museum seeks a professionally trained Curator with
well-honed skills including artifact preservation and management, museum management, and
public outreach programming. Beginning as Curator under the Heritage Center Director, the
successful candidate will have opportunity and encouragement to transition to full
responsibility for the Museum and Outreach by successfully meeting a wide range of
challenges.
The Loretto Heritage Center, located in central Kentucky’s historic Catholic “Holy Land,”
preserves and exhibits the legacy of the Sisters of Loretto, a pioneering community of
American Catholic sisters unique among American religious traditions. The Loretto
collections date from 1812, when three frontier women established a school and then a
religious community among the first generation of Maryland settlers in Kentucky. Since the
1890s the collections have been under the careful management of sister-archivists at the
Loretto Motherhouse on an 800-acre farm in rural Marion County, Kentucky.
The Loretto Heritage Center’s documentary and artifact holdings chronicle Loretto’s
commitment to meet the needs of the times in diverse circumstances around the world. The
Curator will have major responsibility for managing the physical artifacts, art works, and
possibly audio-visual media which span Loretto’s 200-year history of education and social
justice advocacy.
In 2012 the Loretto Heritage Center moved into a newly designed space, including new
document stacks and a professionally designed, award-winning museum exhibiting many of
the artifacts. The Curator will have major responsibility for the Museum facility and programs.
S/he will coordinate a volunteer docent program and will share docent duties with the rest of
the Heritage Center staff and volunteers, including some weekend duties. An important
aspect of the Curator’s work will be to facilitate the use of archival holdings in the continuing
development of exhibits and public programming for the region.
The Curator will establish an active educational and public outreach program to engage
visitors in the Loretto story, including collaborating with neighborhood and regional groups
and tailoring museum visits and presentations for specific audiences. In conjunction with the
Loretto Communications Team, the Curator will also make contributions to the Loretto social
media presence on behalf of the Heritage Center.
The Loretto Community’s paper documents and artifacts are organized in record groups
which represent both the institutional and the personal lives of the Sisters of Loretto. Since
2012 archival staff, interns and volunteers have begun to describe and catalogue the
document and artifact collections into a new digital catalogue designed by the current Director. The Curator will assume responsibility for the digital description and cataloguing of
artifacts, art works and possibly A-V media. With the Director, the Curator will train and
supervise interns to assist with the digital cataloguing.
Basic education and experience requirements:
- Masters degree or equivalent in Public History, Archival Studies, Library Science, Museum
Curation; - Internships in relevant areas of museum curation and public history programming or
employment experiences in these areas; minimum of two years relevant experience with strong professional supervision required.
Also required:
- Understanding of events and issues of the 19th and 20th centuries sufficient to contribute
appropriate historical perspective and intellectual leadership to the artifact curation and
museum programs of the Heritage Center; - Excellent oral and written communication; experience and proven skill in creating and
presenting history programs for adults and children; - Full command of Microsoft Office and computer graphics applications like Adobe Creative
Suite; experience and/or ability to rapidly acquire functional skill using Apple computers,
databases created with Filemaker Pro, and proven ability to edit photos and create brochures; - Current knowledge and ability to initiate and manage artifact preservation, storage, and
museum exhibit development; - Ability to comfortably interact with people from all kinds of backgrounds; ability to receive
supervision, to work collaboratively with others, and to contribute to a positive work culture; - Ability to regularly lift 40 lb. boxes; to climb and stand on ladders;
- Occasional travel is expected; one, sometimes two weekends per month staffing the
museum is required, with appropriate comp time off.
The Curator will report to the current Director and through her to the elected leaders of the
Loretto Community.
For consideration and for further position details, please send cover letter addressing
experience and interest, detailed resume and contact information for three references to
Loretto Heritage Center Director, Sister Eleanor Craig, ecraig@lorettocommunity.org
Applications will be considered beginning April 2018 and will continue until a suitable
candidate is found. Availability of the best candidate will determine start date, but it is hoped
this can be by late-Spring, 2018.
Kentucky Association of Teachers of History 