Work in one of the most beautiful places in Nashville, Tennessee! Formerly the family home of Mabel and Leslie Cheek, Cheekwood now serves the public as a botanical garden, arboretum, and museum with period rooms and art galleries. Cheekwood’s mission is to stimulate the mind and nurture the spirit, for not only our visitors, but our staff as well. 

Basic Function: Responsible for the education garden and all garden education related programs

Essential Functions & Responsibilities:

Gardens:

• Maintain the education garden, storage areas, compost, greenhouse, and keep all related equipment organized.
• Ensure that the garden is prepared for programming.
• Carry out daily visits to the garden and greenhouse to maintain plants, oversee compost and irrigation, and stay current with pest management.
• Record a detailed plan to ensure plants are planted and harvested at the right time throughout seasons, including ordering seeds, starting seeds in the greenhouse, and transplanting to the garden.
• Keep an up-to-date garden log to record how the garden and specific plants are doing.

Programming:

• Develop hands-on garden curriculum and activities for program participants pre-k through elementary school for Cheekwood GROWS and additional school groups alongside the Director of School and Youth Programs and the School & Outreach Programs Manager.
• Run garden-based lessons in the education garden with the ability to adapt to weather.
• Prepare for lessons by organizing materials and communicating with partner schools, including the break down and cleanup of materials after the program, and post-visit follow up with schools.
• Coordinate with School Programs Manager and Education Outreach Coordinator when scheduling programs in the education garden.
• Teach garden programs for Summer Camp and the Tots drop-in program.
• Assist in developing and leading garden related teacher professional development programs.
• Keep an accurate and up to date calendar with all programs using the GROWS garden.
• Assist with booking school group field trips.
• Lead garden-based lessons for STEAM Passport schools.

Other:

• Responsible for managing the budget and ordering supplies needed to maintain the garden and run programs.
• Create volunteer opportunities for maintaining the GROWS garden.
• Assist with departmental activities, programs, and special events.

• Bachelor’s Degree in Education or Science, Environmental Education, or similar; or equivalent years of education and experience.

• Experience in either environmental education or horticulture.
• Experience working and teaching in classroom or outdoor settings.
• Experience maintaining a garden preferred.
• Experience working with elementary aged students preferred.

Cheekwood follows the CDC’s Covid-19 recommendations and has a voluntary vaccine policy. 

Cheekwood offers a comprehensive array of valuable benefits to full-time team members to protect health, family and way of life including Health Insurance with an HRA (Cheekwood pays 90% of the cost of one of the employee-only plans), Dental (Cheekwood pays a portion of the premium), Vision, Life Insurance (100% paid by Cheekwood), Long Term Disability Insurance (100% paid by Cheekwood), Voluntary Life Insurance, Short Term Disability Insurance, 403b (with a generous employer match offered), Employee Assistance Program, Paid Time Off and 11 Paid Holidays. Aflac products are also available. 

Cheekwood is an equal opportunity employer.