Job Opening Title:
Exhibition Content Specialist (3-Year full-time temporary position)
Name of Employer:
Atlanta History Center
Job Site Location (City, State) :
Atlanta, GA
Application Deadline:
October 15, 2023
Minimum Degree Requirement:
Masters
Years of experience required:
3
Salary Range:
$48,750
Job Opening URL:
https://recruiting.paylocity.com/Recruiting/Jobs/Details/1947269
Job Description (if URL to posting not available). Include instructions for how to apply.:
Job Type
Full-time, Temporary
Description
The Atlanta History Center is looking for a highly motivated and results-oriented professional to fill the full-time three(3)-year temporary role within the organization of Exhibition Content Manager. The Exhibition Content Manager will be responsible for compiling and organizing historical data, research, and visual components for a new exhibition on the causes, consequences, conduct, and historical relevance of the Civil War Era.
Project Overview:
This new signature exhibition will create a new national model for interpreting the Civil War Era and making it relevant to 21st-century audiences. The exhibition will focus on (but is not limited to) events from the 1840s through the 1880s. It will entail all new casework, design, and digital components and an array of newly acquired objects that speak to younger and more diverse audiences.
The exhibition will include honest, constructive, and evidence-based discussions of topics such as the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, changing definitions of race and freedom, the Constitution and political struggles over slavery, American economic, territorial, and technological expansion, conduct and campaigns of the Civil War (especially the Atlanta campaign), the destruction of slavery, the nation’s “second founding” (“Reconstruction”), the impacts of the war in global context, post-war narratives or myths, and the long reach of the Civil War Era into today’s world. This content will be delivered primarily in the 9,200-square-foot DuBose Gallery.
The exhibition will emphasize one of the largest and finest Civil War collections in the world, including approximately 500 long arms, 700 artillery projectiles, as well as swords, accoutrements, flags, and two significant collections of excavated artifacts. This content will be delivered primarily in the 6,200-square-foot Goldstein Gallery. Objects will be arranged and interpreted according to type or use, manufacturer, technology, and significance. It will engage visitors with quick, engaging, and easily understood explanations; it will also function as a sort of library for studying and comparing artifacts, especially for collectors and researchers.
Requirements
At the exhibition’s core will be stories of people as told through their own words and using actual documents and artifacts whenever possible. The incumbent will be responsible for identifying the stories that best represent the diversity of people, opinions, and personal outcomes of the Civil War Era. The incumbent will compile research, locate necessary resources, compile written summaries, and suggest creative ways of weaving these stories into the exhibition narrative. This work will require culling hundreds of quotations, identifying key images, primary documents, and relevant artifacts (not just from the AHC collections) as well as working with professional advisors, AHC staff members, volunteers, and community organizations.
The exhibition will also incorporate virtual or computer-driven components, some of which will be accessible at key points within the exhibition, and all of which will be accessible through the AHC webpage and/ or online applications. Of particular importance will be animated maps (e.g., military campaigns, cotton, and slave trade), charts or illustrations presenting statistical data (e.g., outcome of elections, casualties), and “closer look” summaries of key individuals, events, or evidence. The incumbent will be responsible for compiling, summarizing, and analyzing data and contextual information for these components and working with designers to determine the most engaging ways of presenting them. Some of this work will involve establishing partnerships with other institutions engaged in similar work (e.g. American Battlefields Trust; slavevoyages.org).
The incumbent must be able to work independently yet constructively in a team environment, establishing clear lines of communication with staff, designers, advisors, and others as needed. The successful incumbent will be able to write clearly and concisely with an eye toward dramatic storytelling for diverse audiences. Extensive use of first-hand accounts and quotations is anticipated.
In addition to the above, the incumbent is expected to:
Keep and organize copies and/ or notes of all primary and secondary sources consulted.
Request and arrange usage permissions from other archives or institutions.
Develop a working knowledge of Re: Discovery (AHC’s collections management software), and ReQlogic (AHC’s accounting and reporting software).
Write public-facing research summaries on selected topics as directed.
Write label copy and/ or scripts as directed.
Make public presentations as required.
Qualifications:
Master’s degree from an accredited college or university.
Minimum three (3) years experience in public history, history education in a university setting, or related experience.
Demonstrated effective oral/speaking skills, research, and writing skills. Writing skills are especially important.
Familiarity with archival research methods
Familiarity with WORD, EXCEL, and online research tools, including Fold3, Ancestry.com, and Newspapers.com.
Background Check Requirements:
Satisfactory criminal background check.
Satisfactory financial background check.
Excellent Benefits, including Medical, Dental, and Vision, Employer-provided Life Insurance (1x salary), Employer-provided Long Term Disability, Voluntary Life Insurance, and 403(b) Retirement Plans. Full annual Paid Time Off benefits awarded following 60-days of employment.
Application Deadline: October 15, 2023
Submit with Application:
Cover letter summarizing interest and qualifications.
Current resume, including list of relevant coursework and/ or previous related projects.
Two samples of previous professional writing relevant to this position.
At least three professional references.
Salary Description
$25 per hour
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