City of Seattle Hiring Program Manager for Public Art
Position Description
The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS) seeks a visionary advocate to serve as our Program Manager for Public Art who can lead the City’s program to inspire, provoke and enhance the experience of living and working in Seattle. The Program Manager for Public Art oversees the City’s investments in generative artmaking in the public realm and serves as a local and national advocate and spokesperson for the field. The nearly 50-year-old program invests an approximately $3.5M budget in 40+ temporary, permanent and experiential artworks and installations annually throughout the City, and oversees several rotating galleries, 400 permanent artworks and 4,000 rotating portable works with a strong programmatic focus on racial equity and social justice. Along with program and budget oversight, this role provides leadership to a team of ten including collections management and conservation, project managers and gallery programming, and should be passionate about compassionately supporting people.
ARTS manages the Seattle’s public art program, grants for arts and cultural organizations, the Creative Advantage program, the Cultural Space program, and cultural facilities such as the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute and ARTS at King Street Station to foster connections, amplify stories and build community and social cohesion. ARTS works to ensure access to programs and services, promote the values of the arts and culture in Seattle, and raise the visibility of the public benefit provided by the department. In alignment with the City’s Race and Social Justice Initiative, we work to eliminate institutional racism in our programs, policies and practices and commit to anti-racist work practices that center on the creativity and leadership of people of color to move forward systems that benefits all.
Job Responsibilities
The Program Manager for Public Art is responsible for the management, development, and direction of the Public Art Program and team. The selected candidate will join a nationally recognized arts office with programs focusing on public art, grant-making, arts education, cultural space, and racial equity.
Here is more of what you will be doing:
- Lead the Public Art team within the Office of Arts and Culture, which is responsible for project managing new artworks in collaboration with other City capital departments, maintaining the existing collection, and programming the ARTS at King Street Station Gallery and City Hall Gallery.
- Operationalize and expand programmatic structures that actualize ARTS’ commitment to racial equity.
- Manage the program budget management with its complex revenue sources and requirements.
- Serve as staff liaison to the Seattle Art Commission’s Public Art Advisory Committee (PAAC), who reviews public art projects.
- Partner with City departments, and colleagues in the field, to promote a shared vision of how public art contributes to a vibrant and healthy City.
- Supports the Office’s goals around expanding the public’s access to cultural experiences and broadening and diversifying the field of public art.
Your effectiveness in this role will depend on your ability to:
- Develop authentic relationships with community partners, nonprofit organizations, City departments, particularly with people from different cultures, experience, and backgrounds.
- Effectively manage projects, including the ability to produce, track and manage multiple deliverables with overlapping deadlines in a creative environment.
- Develop, grow, and mentor individuals and teams.
- Coordinate, in a time-sensitive manner, efforts to solve problems through collaborative action
- Work successfully within a political environment while building strong relationships with investing departments
- Think creatively, spur innovation and be proactive in mitigating conflict and addressing problems
- Thrive in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment as leader of a cross-functional team
- Implement actions that support an anti-racist culture with mindfulness of the history and impact of racism
- Believe that collaborative action results in positive change
You will be prepared for this role if you have the following knowledge and skills:
- Knowledge of Architectural, Art, and Design trends and issues, architecture and art theory, principals, historical precedents involving artists and architects and the community-based collaborative process.
- Robust knowledge of public policy approaches to cultural and art programs, and current public art issues and initiatives on a local, regional, and national level
- Knowledge of and ability to interpret and apply federal, state, City and agency requirements regulating the application and placement of public artworks, contracting with artists and consultants, laws, codes and regulations governing public agency and financial operations and record keeping, and other related policies and practices.
- A commitment to listening, creating space for diverse perspectives, and the pursuit of inclusive and just outcomes
- Ability to communicate at all levels effectively and tactfully, create trusted partnerships and demonstrate strong interpersonal skills.
Qualifications
A successful applicant will have a professional career that reflects a commitment to public service and community engagement and has:
- Championed equity by valuing the strengths and benefits of full participation of BIPOC communities in the creative economy.
- A portfolio in public art program administration that includes: project management; coordination of artist selection processes (artist call, selection panels, commissioning process); contracting, construction and installation processes.
- Worked in progressively responsible roles in public art programs with experience developing, monitoring, and managing budgets, with various revenue sources and fiduciary requirements.
- Demonstrated ability to build and maintain relationships with staff, community leaders, artists, contractors, developers, consultants, and the public.
- A track record of leading and supervising successful teams that draw their strength from collaboration and inclusion.
- Delivered meaningful outcomes by working with a diverse range of partners.
- A passion for issues relating to ending systemic racism and contributing meaningfully through public service.
The work requires being comfortable working in a politically sensitive environment with multiple priorities and tight deadlines which will require work outside of regular business hours.
