Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator

The Whitney Museum of American Art seeks an intellectually curious, collaborative leader with deep art historical expertise and a forward-looking vision to serve as its next Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator. As the preeminent museum dedicated to American art, the Whitney presents, collects, and champions the art of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Through groundbreaking exhibitions, a world-renowned collection, and enduring partnerships with living artists, it advances creative inspiration, scholarship, and inclusive public engagement, and welcomes the curator who will help shape its next chapter.

Reporting to the Alice Pratt Brown Director (Director), the Chief Curator will join the Whitney at a pivotal moment for the institution and the field as a key member of its senior leadership team. In close collaboration with the Director and talented colleagues, they will help shape the Whitney's artistic vision and institutional priorities, oversee its Curatorial and Publications Departments, and ensure that an energizing, compelling, forward-looking vision informs exhibitions, collections, scholarship, and interpretation.

The Chief Curator will provide strategic leadership for the stewardship and interpretation of the Whitney's collection of more than 26,000 works and guide an ambitious program of exhibitions, acquisitions, and scholarship. Working closely with colleagues in conservation, education, digital, publications, registration, research, and administration, they will foster a dynamic, integrated approach to the Whitney's artistic and scholarly endeavors that distinguishes it from local and international peers and appeals to audiences and patrons alike.

The successful candidate will be an accomplished curator and cultural leader with a distinguished record of scholarship, exhibition-making, and engagement with artists. Combining intellectual rigor, aesthetic judgment, and a singular perspective, they will translate bold ideas into action and inspire others around a shared purpose. An effective mentor and skilled relationship builder, they will lead a large, diverse team and cultivate meaningful partnerships with artists, collectors, scholars, trustees, donors, and the broader cultural community.

The Whitney Museum of American Art has retained Isaacson, Miller, a national executive search firm, to assist in this recruitment. All inquiries, nominations, and applications should be submitted in confidence to the search firm as indicated below.

Sarah James is leading this search with Quizayra Gonzalez and Siobhan Hanley.

The Whitney Museum of American Art is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The Museum does not discriminate because of age, sex, religion, race, color, creed, national origin, alienage or citizenship, disability, marital status, pregnancy, partnership status, caregiver status, veteran status, gender (including gender identity), sexual orientation, genetic information, predisposition, or carrier status, arrest or conviction record to the extent required by applicable law, credit history, domestic violence, sexual violence, or stalking victim status, or any other factor prohibited by law. The Museum hires and promotes individuals solely on the basis of their qualifications for the job to be filled. The Museum encourages all qualified candidates to apply for vacant positions at all levels.