Head of Education

About the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy. The Museum lives in two iconic sites in New York City—The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters. Millions of people also take part in The Met experience online.

Since its founding in 1870, The Met has always aspired to be more than a treasury of rare and beautiful objects. We are committed to fostering a collaborative and respectful work environment with a staff as diverse as the audiences we engage. Our staff members are art lovers who are passionate about working toward a common goal: creating the most dynamic and inspiring art museum in the world.

At The Met, every staff member – from security officers to researchers to scientists and beyond – lives by our core values of respect, inclusivity, collaboration, excellence, and integrity. 

Respect: Engage one another with collegiality, empathy, and kindness, always.

Inclusivity: Ensure that all are and feel welcome and valued.

Collaboration: Reach across boundaries to exchange ideas and work together toward our shared mission.

Excellence: Lead the cultural world in quality and expertise—and inspire curiosity and creativity.

Integrity: Hold ourselves to the highest moral standards, admit when we fall short, and then evolve. 

BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW

The Met is, and sees itself as, an educational institution. The Education Department ensures that the scholarship and collection of the Museum are accessible and inviting for all audiences regardless of background, ability, age, or experience. As one of the few departments to interface across the entire institution and with the public directly, Education works daily to connect, inspire, collaborate, and innovate with its colleagues within The Met in order to better connect with and inspire its local, national, and international audience beyond it.

As the Head of Education, you will be responsible for overseeing over 25,000 programs a year for The Met Fifth and The Met Cloisters to a diverse local and global audience. The Department is a national and international leader in museum-based education and public programming, pushing boundaries through continuous innovation and experimentation. With over 50 education staff and over 400 volunteers, you will orchestrate various programs including: high school and college internships that promote career development and diversity; an award-winning fellowship program; pre-K to grade 12 educator programs that train teachers to integrate art into curricula across disciplines; lectures and symposia that feature preeminent artists, curators, and scholars; community engagement programs and partnerships; Cloisters' specific programming, daily tours in multiple languages; and so much more. In addition to the department’s robust programming, you will oversee all departmental activities, such as personnel management, prioritization and planning, budgeting, fundraising, and more.

The Department is organized into three main programmatic divisions, with support by an Administration and Operations arm:

• Teaching and Learning;
• Public Programs and Community Engagement;
• Academic and Research Programs, including The Met’s renowned Fellowship Program.

Reporting to the Deputy Director of Audience Engagement, who oversees a departmental group responsible for the Museum’s audience-facing content, programming, and promotions, you will work closely with partners within the Audience Engagement umbrella (Digital, Marketing, Publications, Imaging, Libraries, and Live Arts) and across the organization including Curatorial, Conservation, Science, Development, Diversity and Inclusion, Government Affairs, Membership, Special Events, Visitor Experience, Communications, Finance, and more, to support Audience Engagement’s vision to connect audiences to art, ideas, and one another to make the Museum relevant, welcoming, and accessible for all.

An ambassador for The Met, the Head is responsible for building and maintaining strong relationships with local, national, and international partners in education, government, philanthropy, peer institutions, trustees and donors, and the artists’ communities that are involved in any given offering.

GENERAL STATEMENT OF RESPONSIBILITIES & DUTIES

The Met seeks a visionary leader, collaborator, and fundraiser to closely partner with the Deputy Director of Audience Engagement to help realize the Museum’s mission and vision and ensure the successful implementation of education strategies across the Museum. They are a practiced and compelling advocate for public programming for the Museum to generate excitement and to attract new audiences nationally and internationally. They will drive innovation and new initiatives to connect broader audiences with The Met’s collection and their interpretation.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES & DUTIES

• Envision and execute a comprehensive strategy for education that uplifts the Museum’s core mission and vision, affirms The Met as a leader in the field, and broadens access to the Museum and its collections.
• Oversee, champion, and execute an innovative and cohesive suite of programs and initiatives that uplift the Museum’s commitment to learning, engagement, and access and draw on the Museum’s collections, exhibitions, scholarship, and assets.
• Attract, lead, and motivate a diverse team of staff, interns, fellows, and vendors. Provide professional training and opportunities for growth and advancement and promote trust and collaboration across teams.
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with donors, supporters, collectors, scholars, artists, and community partners and organizations. Fundraise, analyze, and optimize established revenue streams and identify departmental and Museum-wide opportunities for new ones.
• Expand and deepen The Met’s commitment to and engagement with local communities and partners, including other educational, philanthropic, and cultural institutions, as well as partnerships with public school systems across New York State including New York City’s – as the nation’s largest and most complex.
• Drive experimentation in developing and enhancing programs and learning experiences that actively encourage new and diverse audiences to explore art and the Museum, locally and globally.
• Oversee and direct budgets, staffing, deadlines, deliverables, and competing agendas. Organize, set priorities, create action plans, delegate, coordinate, and deliver results while navigating a hierarchical complex multisite organization, establish cross-functional relationships, and build consensus.
• Other related duties as assigned.

REQUIREMENTS & QUALIFICATIONS

• Advanced degree in education or art history preferred.
• 15 years experience of management in a museum or cultural institution. Adept at building and managing a high-performing staff and facilitating their ability to work collaboratively and deliver results as a team.
• 10 years demonstrated experience in articulating and driving a distinctive organizational, cultural, or educational vision and mobilizing internal and external support for programs to realize new levels of success.
• Strategic and collaborative by nature, self-confident and secure; unflappable; pragmatic, grounded, authoritative, decisive, and disciplined. An honest broker and a true collaborator about whom, all sides considered, possesses a strong sense of integrity and an unerring ethical compass in a dynamic cultural arena.
• Demonstrate deep knowledge of and passion for art, commitment to education and lifelong learning, intellectual inquiry, visitor engagement, and, specifically, The Met’s potential in each.
• Demonstrated track record in donor engagement, and experience engaging a board and/or multiple stakeholders including volunteers, donors, local government and public-school officials, and community leaders.
• Knowledge of NYC education systems, community partnerships, and program delivery models preferred to support the planning, implementation, and evaluation of education programs.
• Superlative communication, interpersonal, and negotiation skills grounded in excellent judgment; a diplomatic ambassador who can listen, hold a position, engage diverse partners, and drive complicated projects to closure.
• Digitally adept. Attuned to ways technology, education, and communications mutually support and improve each other’s objectives and the Museum’s overall.
• In-depth knowledge of current and emerging educational trends required.

COMPENSATION RANGE:

• Pay Range: $270,000.00 - $310,000.00 / Annually

The advertised pay scale reflects the good faith minimum and maximum salary range for this role. The advertised pay scale is not a promise of a particular wage for any specific employee. The specific compensation offered to a candidate may be dependent on a variety of factors including, but not limited to, the candidate’s experience, education, special licensing or qualifications, and other factors.

Location Requirements

At time of employment, employees are expected to be located within commuting distance of the Museum. “Commuting distance” means that they are located in one of following states: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, or Pennsylvania (the “Tri-state and PA” areas), and be able to commute to and from the Museum in a single day.

Benefits Offerings

The Museum provides competitive compensation, and generous benefits and perks for all eligible employees. Note: Benefits Offering may differ based on Employee Status.

• Medical, dental, vision and life insurance
• 403(b) basic retirement plan and optional matching retirement plan with an outstanding employer match
• Considerable paid time off, including annual leave, sick leave, and 13 Museum holidays
• Long-term disability coverage
• Flexible Spending Accounts & Health Savings Account (pre-tax income for eligible health care expenses)
• Commuter benefits (pre-tax income for parking or mass transit expenses)
• Free financial-planning services
• Financial assistance for relevant coursework, seminars, and training programs
• 25% discount for staff in Museum shops
• A subsidized staff cafeteria
• Access to the Museums Council pass, which grants free admission to various museums and cultural institutions

We recognize that it is highly unlikely that someone meets 100% of the desired attributes for a role. If much of this job description describes you, then please apply for this role.

The Met is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, The Met will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed in this process, please contact [email protected].  

The Metropolitan Museum of Art provides equal opportunity to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age, mental or physical disability, pregnancy, alienage or citizenship status, marital status or domestic partner status, genetic information, genetic predisposition or carrier status, gender identity, HIV status, military status and any other category protected by law in all employment decisions, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, compensation, training and apprenticeship, promotion, upgrading, demotion, downgrading, transfer, lay-off and termination, and all other terms and conditions of employment.