Associate Director, Curatorial Affairs & Collections - Library for the Performing Arts

United States·New YorkFull Timeexecutive

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Quick Summary

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Curatorial Leadership & Vision Establish and drive an overarching curatorial strategy for LPA that bridges the Dance, Music & Recorded Sound, and Theatre divisions,

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Note:
We kindly request that to apply for this role that you submit your materials to:
Diane Carlyle, DCX Search
LPACuratorialAffairs@dcxsearch.com

Overview
For more than 125 years, The New York Public Library (NYPL) has been an essential provider of books, information, ideas, and education. With collections numbering more than 56 million items and serving more than 16 million patrons in person each year and millions more online, NYPL’s reach is both local and global. Our mission is to inspire lifelong learning, advance knowledge, and strengthen our communities.

At our world-class research centers–including the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Library at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the Library for the Performing Arts, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture–expert staff facilitate the work of our diverse communities, offering inspiring reading rooms, exhibitions, fellowships, and a dynamic range of research services. Their work is supported by dedicated staff on the Collections and Research Services teams. We are proud to be the most public and widely used research library in the world.

Located at Lincoln Center, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts (LPA) houses one of the world's most extensive combinations of circulating, reference, and rare archival collections in its field. As a vital cultural anchor, LPA is dedicated to documenting, preserving and making accessible the histories of dance, theatre, music and recorded sound, while serving as a hub for artists, scholars, and the public.

The Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs & Collections is a key member of the LPA senior leadership team, providing high-level, strategic curatorial vision and overseeing the Curators of Dance, Music & Recorded Sound, and Theatre. This leader will be collaborative, building on the expertise of their team, and will ensure that all divisions are led equitably, resources are distributed strategically, and the Library’s collecting and programming activities align with the NYPL FY26–30 Strategy: Investing in Our Collective Potential. This leadership position will establish and execute a strategic and forward-thinking vision related to collecting priorities, scholarly and public outreach, exhibitions, programs, fundraising and publications, positioning NYPL as a global leader in collections-based public scholarship. While honoring the distinctiveness of each division, the Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs & Collections drives a unified approach to acquisitions, public engagement, fundraising, documenting diverse voices and histories, ensuring LPA remains a global leader in the performing arts. This position will play a pivotal role in shaping LPA’s digital strategy, expanding public access by collaborating closely with Collections and Research Services to prioritize collections for high-impact digitization, and overseeing workflows that share digitized performing arts materials with a global audience.

Some expectations for this role are that within:

1 month, this person will:

Meet with each curator and their teams to understand current collecting, exhibition, and fundraising activities and how priorities are set today
Gain understanding of the collections and formats represented in LPA’s curatorial divisions
Begin building relationships with LPA Staff and colleagues at the Schomburg Center, theStephen A Schwarzman building, and the Collections and Research Services (CRS) team
Begin working closely with the Director of Public Services and the Associate Director of Education to identify opportunities for partnership
Understand current and short-term exhibitions, public programs, fellowships and scholarly projects under development by curators

3 months, this person will:

Assess the staffing and workload of each curatorial team to ensure alignment between resources and departmental and organizational goals
Understand acquisition processes at NYPL and partner with Collection Development colleagues to identify opportunities for efficiency, advocacy, and alignment
Begin understanding NYPL practices and policies for budget management, HR, fundraising, and public service.
Partner with Collections and Research Services leadership to review existing digitization pipelines and identify high-priority performing arts collections across Dance, Music & Recorded Sound, and Theatre.

6 months and beyond, this person will:

Have built working relationships with leadership in Collection Management, Special Collections Processing, and Public Programs and Exhibition
Have developed priorities for conservation, digitization, and collection storage resources across LPA special collections, in partnership with curators and Collections and Research Services leadership, and aligned with NYPL’s strategic plan.
Create the LPA strategy to achieve the Library’s overall collections goals
Define expectations for scholarship, publications, partnerships, and conference presence that raise LPA’s profile in the field.
Present a plan to align curatorial staffing, resources, and expertise with established priorities relating to collections, exhibitions, programs, and scholarship.
Establish a shared multi-year digitization and digital sharing strategy in lockstep with Collections and Research Services, ensuring clear criteria for copyright vetting, metadata enrichment, and online public access.

Responsibilities:

Strategic Curatorial Leadership & Vision

Establish and drive an overarching curatorial strategy for LPA that bridges the Dance, Music & Recorded Sound, and Theatre divisions, ensuring a cohesive institutional narrative, while also understanding specific artistic communities, respecting Curatorial subject matter expertise and honoring the unique subjects, formats, and histories of the Library’s divisions in collaboration with the Executive Director and other curatorial and collections leaders
Collaborate with Curators to identify strategic acquisition priorities, focusing on diversifying the archive and documenting underrepresented histories in the performing arts, while adhering to the parameters of collection development outlined by the Mellon Director for Research.
Provide direct oversight and mentorship to the Curators of Dance, Music & Recorded Sound, and Theatre; ensure equitable distribution of resources, staffing, and institutional support across all divisions.
Serve in leadership positions on NYPL-wide working groups and committees.

Operations

Partner with Collection Development to streamline acquisition processes across special collections divisions, train curators on evolving processes, and oversee special collection acquisition budgets across multiple divisions and cost centers.
Partner with Preservation Services to streamline communications and collaboration related to the security, storage, and management of the Library’s special collections and align curatorial workflows related to collection movement, exhibition preparation, outgoing loans, internal curatorial collection requests, and short-term collections displays.
Partner with Collections and Research Services and Curators to establish joint priorities for digitization projects; ensure selected materials reflect diverse, underrepresented, and highly requested performing arts histories while balancing physical preservation needs.
Collaborate with Legal and Collections and Research Services teams to navigate complex performance-rights, copyright, and licensing restrictions, maximizing the volume of digitized items made safely accessible online to global researchers and the public.
Ensure curatorial teams work effectively with Special Collection Processing teams in prioritizing archival processing and rare materials cataloging queues

Exhibitions, Research & Public Impact

Partner with Curators and the Public Programs & Exhibitions department to collaboratively steward these and other interpretive projects through proposal, research and development and execution stages. Assure that interpretive projects are diverse and in line with LPA values, and that LPA is inviting guest curators to bring in different voices.
Oversee the overall vision for LPA Research Fellowships, which foster new and diverse scholarship utilizing the LPA's collections, driving the democratization of access to the collections.
Collaborate with the Associate Director of Education to integrate curatorial expertise into educational initiatives and K-12/post-secondary learning programs.
Partner with the Director of Public Service to integrate curatorial and subject-matter expertise into public services within the building.

Fundraising & Resource Development

With the Fleischman Executive Director and Development department, identify and pursue grant opportunities and philanthropic support, and oversee the successful completion and reporting of grant-funded projects.
Steward relationships with high-level individual donors and foundations.

External Relations and Communications

Serve as a spokesperson for LPA’s collections, representing the Library to the media, stakeholders, donors, the academic community, and the broader performing arts community.
Lead, manage, and evaluate strategic institutional partnerships with ongoing and new external organizations, including arts companies, academic institutions, cultural institutions, and foundations.
Collaborate closely with the NYPL Communications teams to leverage collection materials for public engagement, including developing content for social media and digital platforms to raise the profile of the archive.
Partner with Communications to proactively identify and pursue press opportunities related to major acquisitions, collection milestones, and institutional achievements, serving as a primary curatorial liaison for media inquiries.
Perform other related duties as assigned