PVD Commemoration Lab Director

This is a full-time, temporary (18-month grant-funded), salaried position.

The Commemoration Lab Director (CLD) is the lead project manager for the Providence Commemoration Lab project, funded by the Mellon Foundation. Administratively this individual will be an employee of the Rhode Island Historical Society; in terms of the project’s goals and deliverables, this individual will take direction from the Deputy Director of the City’s Department of Art, Culture and Tourism (ACT).

The CLD, under the direction of and in collaboration with ACT and the RIHS, will administer the Providence Commemoration Lab, which will site and stage new, temporary projects on public property that invite unexpected ways of understanding commemoration as a communal process of historical redress and spatial reclamation. Working with local artists, scholars, community stakeholders and neighborhood champions, the CLD will commission creative practitioners to interrogate the ways that Providence residents construct and share memory and culture at three beautifully complex under-resourced sites: Columbus Square, Roger Williams Park, and Public Street; these sites pose critical questions about the practical and philosophical realities of commemoration in the City.

Annual salary of $65,000-$70,000; Health care insurance starting the 1st of the month following date of hire. Life and Disability insurance, paid sick and vacation time, 15 paid holidays.

The CLD will be the lead project manager for the three Commemoration Lab sites, liaising between the team at the City’s Department of Art, Culture, and Tourism and RIHS. Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

1. Co-creating job descriptions for project consultants and managing consultant contracting
2. Organizing calls for participation for lead artists and lab participants
3. Managing subcontractor timelines for project tasks
4. Overseeing consultant payroll for contract employees with RIHS
5. Working with all selected lab artists and stakeholders to invite participation in, and coordinate, on-site programming.

The successful candidate will be an experienced project manager who understands the intersection of public art and humanities, and how symbols are connected to systems of power and public memory. They will have experience managing multi-year project timelines to ensure adherence to deliverable-based schedules, and will have demonstrated experience working across nonprofit, government and informal community contexts.

Applications submitted before 11:59pm on Friday, September 1, 2023 will receive priority consideration.