Company description

The Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD) is New York City’s first museum with exhibits you can eat. As an educational nonprofit, our mission is to inspire curiosity about food, what it means, and how it connects with the world around us.

In 2015, we opened MOFAD Lab, a 5,000-square-foot experimental exhibition and events space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Over the years, we have produced numerous acclaimed exhibitions, including BOOM! The Puffing Gun and the Rise of Cereal, Flavor: Making It and Faking It, and Chow: Making the Chinese American Restaurant. Our next big project is African/American: Making the Nation’s Table, which will be the country’s first major exhibition to celebrate African American contributions to American cuisine. MOFAD Lab has been hailed as “New York’s Coolest New Museum” by Food & Wine and named one of the “Absolute Best Kids’ Museums in NYC” by New York Magazine.

We are proud to have reached hundreds of thousands of people with our experiential exhibitions, programming, digital content, and educational outreach. Learn more at mofad.org.

Job description MOFAD is seeking two individuals to assist with creating our next exhibition, African/American: Making the Nation’s Table. This will be the country’s first major exhibition to recognize how African Americans have laid the foundation for American food culture. It will celebrate the contributions of countless black chefs, farmers, and food and drink producers who have been written out of history — providing recognition that is long overdue.

These are temporary (seven-month) full-time salaried positions with benefits including subsidized individual health insurance, monthly MetroCard, and two-weeks paid vacation.

Curatorial Associates will:

• Provide research support
• Collect images and objects
• Draft exhibit copy
• Assist with coordinating exhibit design and fabrication
• Liaise with scholars, chefs, and diverse industry experts
• Attend and contribute to regular meetings with the Exhibitions and Design team
• Facilitate traveling aspect of exhibition
• Support arrangement of loans
• Other administrative and curatorial tasks as assigned

Applicants must be:

• Committed to MOFAD’s educational mission
• An enthusiastic writer who can create concise, flawless copy with a strong voice, on a tight schedule
• Fluent in food culture, history, science, production, commerce, and policy
• Experienced in doing academic ­level research, especially interdisciplinary research
• Extremely detail-oriented
• An avid museum­goer with a strong sense of what makes an exhibit successful
• Able to zoom out and assess issues from a macro­ perspective, but also enjoy doing deep dives into the nitty gritty minutiae
• Cool as a cucumber under pressure
• An excellent project manager who can prioritize and manage time effectively while simultaneously handling multiple tasks
• A tactful and thoughtful communicator who works well with others across departments
• A Swiss Army knife who can quickly shift gears as circumstances change
• Have proficiency in Google Suite and Microsoft Office
• Able to work in MOFAD’s office Monday through Friday

Preferred applicants will have:

• Previous experience working in a museum curatorial department
• Art handling experience (can include installation and de-installation work)
• An ability to track down hard-to-find information and objects
• Social media experience
• Educational programming experience
• Knowledge of image rights
• Experience with traveling exhibitions

Compensation this position is : salaried Application instructions DeadlineAugust 23, 2019