Title: Education Director

Available Immediately.
Organization: Bronx River Art Center, Inc.
Job Address: 2064 Boston Rd., Bronx, NY 10460
Website: www.bronxriverart.org
Application Deadline: February 13, 2012, 5:00pm
Submit cover letter, résumé, names, and contact info of three references, along with salary requirements to jobs@bronxriverart.org. No calls, please.

Organization Background:

Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) is a 25-year-old, culturally diverse, multi-arts, non-profit organization that provides a forum for community, artists, and youth to transform creativity into vision. Our Education, Exhibitions, Artist Studios, and Presenting programs cultivate leadership in an urban environment and stewardship of our natural resource - the Bronx River.

BRAC is currently located in a historic building on Boston Rd. at 179th St, one block north of the East Tremont/West Farms Rd. subway station of the 2 and 5 trains and two blocks south of the Bronx Zoo while our primary residence - a four-story building at 1087 East Tremont Avenue, adjacent to the Bronx River - undergoes a 2+ year renovation. During this time, BRAC is producing our education, exhibition, and performance programs off-site at locations such as schools, other community-based organizations (CBO's), exhibition venues, and public spaces throughout the Bronx. Upon return to our building in 2014, our center will be a cultural mecca in the heart of the Bronx and a major gateway to the new Bronx Greenway. Our site is also easily reached by the 9, 21, 36, 40, 42, and Q 44 bus lines and three major highways.

Job Summary:

Our organization seeks a seasoned Education Director to work closely with the Gallery Director to manage a synergistic interdisciplinary arts and environmental studies approach to out-of-school-time education, incorporating the contemporary arts in the context of community revitalization. This cross-platform approach to community-based cultural services maximizes our programs' activities while accommodating the transition period as our facility undergoes construction. Since 2010, BRAC has been producing a substantial percentage of our programs in partnership with schools and CBOs within the borough; thus, a basis for successful off-site programming has already been established.

The selected candidate will supervise a team of part-time staff, interns, and volunteers, as well as experienced teaching artists, to capitalize on this foundation and see BRAC through its transition period while preparing to return to our 16,000 sq. ft. facility. The Education Director will report to the Executive Director and will be responsible for planning, implementing, and maintaining a long-term strategy for this important arts-education program.

Responsibilities:

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT:

• Manage an interdisciplinary visual arts and environmental studies out-of-school-time program for youth ages 7-18, as well as classes for adults, and coordinate this program with our gallery presenting programs.
• Build interdisciplinary curriculum initiatives, program expansion, and long-term goals, including planning for our return to our facility, as well as continuing off-site (schools, CBOs, and public housing facilities) partnerships.
• Recruit artist instructors, interns, and volunteers, and oversee teacher performances.
• Train teaching artists to implement environmentally-based projects using BRAC's Art and Environmental Studies Teachers' Handbook.
• Identify education staff professional development needs and organize professional development activities.
• Oversee outreach and registration process, including preparing all program announcements, correspondence, and press releases; prepare copy for and direct graphic designers, printer, and mail-house in the production and distribution of quarterly course brochures.
• Oversee the maintenance of student tracking data/systems (digital and hard-copy), including mailing lists, attendance records, pre- and post-student evaluations, documentation of artworks produced, and academic records obtained from schools and/or parents.
• Prepare and maintain program records for monthly, quarterly, or annual reporting to multiple funding agencies.
• Document and maintain photographs and digital files of student art, classroom practice, and special events.

OUTREACH:

• Actively search for, recruit, and form partnerships with schools, CBOs, and other organizations to provide programming at their sites.
• Serve as liaison to local politicians and the media, through representation at community meetings, one-on-one contact with community organizers, and the press.
• Maintain updates to education section of BRAC's website and generate quarterly newsletters.
• Design and produce BRAC students' participation in community events, including street and/or river festivals, etc.
• Manage bookings of workshops and gallery tours for school groups and CBOs and prepare educational materials for these events.
• Coordinate three student exhibitions annually in our gallery, including design and distribution of exhibition announcements, overseeing installation, organizing reception and awards celebration, and photographic documentation of events.

FUNDRAISING AND GRANT PROPOSAL PREPARATION:

• Work with Executive Director, other staff, and development consultants on research and grant writing, including application narratives and budgets.
• Research new sources of funding for arts and environmental studies.
• Assist with planning and implementation of fundraising events.
• Attend trainings and meetings hosted by funding agencies.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Master's degree in Arts Management/Arts Education/Fine Arts or related subject preferred. Bachelor's degree required.
• Minimum five years of post-graduate, upper-level Museum or CBO Management experience in education.
• This position requires a high level of technological savvy and experience using web-based social media and communication applications (Twitter, Facebook, Flicker, Four Square, Constant Contact, etc), as well as creative software (Adobe Creative Suite, Final Cut Pro, etc) on a Mac platform. Familiarity with NYC School System and Education Agencies (DoE, DYCD, etc) strongly preferred.
• Excellent written, communication, and social skills.
• Strong familiarity with the borough of the Bronx.
• Bilingual (Spanish/English) preferred.

WORK SCHEDULE & OTHER INFO:

• This is a non-hourly, full-time salaried position exempt from overtime. Salary is competitive dependent on qualifications and includes health benefits, vacation, sick-time, and paid holidays.
• Willingness to work evenings and weekends as needed.
• There is alternate side-street parking (no meters) throughout the area, and a public parking deck next door at $5.00 per day.
• Our workplace culture is friendly and intensely committed to the value of arts and cultural education and environmental justice for under-served communities.