Curator of Education

Classification Title: Curator of Education

Location: 11909 125th Street North, Largo, FL 33774

Re-living the history of Pinellas County at Heritage Village is like a going back in a time-machine through the last century. Currently we are seeking a Curator of Education to continue bringing our indoor/outdoor museum to life for children and adults of all ages. The Curator will develop coordinate, implement and evaluate educational programs and activities for our 21-acre living history museum.

Museum link: http://www.pinellascounty.org/Heritage/

WHAT SETS US APART?

• Health, vision, prescription, dental, life insurance, and a flexible spending account (FSA) option. Click here for more benefits details.

• 9-11 paid County holidays; 2 floating holidays and 2 personal days (pro-rated); annual leave (accrue 15 days in first year)
• Florida Retirement System , Employees contribute 3% and the county contributes 5.96% for regular status employees. See contribution breakdown on FRS.
• 457 Deferred Compensation Plan
• Tuition Reimbursement

Essential Tasks

• Collaborate with museum staff to develop, implement, and evaluate educational materials and activities for permanent and temporary exhibits.
• Develop, implement, and evaluate educational programs for families, the public and youth audiences, including K-12.
• Track and evaluate visitor attendance and other performance metrics for educational offerings onsite
• Manage the Heritage Village virtual application by producing, adding, and editing content
• Train and evaluate docents and volunteers serving the public to lead tours of galleries, structures, and demonstrations.
• Develop docent training materials and workshops.
• Coordinate the activities of volunteers as needed for educational programs and activities.
• Performs other related job duties as assigned.

Position Specific Requirements

• 5 years of professional work in museum history, anthropology, folk life studies or related field that includes creating educational programs for K-12 and adult audiences; or
• Associate’s degree in history, education, anthropology, or folk life studies and 2 years of professional work in museum history, anthropology folk life studies or related field that includes creating educational programs for K-12 and adult audiences; or
• Bachelor's degree in history, education, anthropology, or folk life studies plus 1 year historian experience that includes creating educational programs for K-12 and adult audiences; or
• Master’s degree in history, education, anthropology, folk life studies plus some historian experience that includes creating educational programs for K-12 and adult audiences; or
• An equivalent combination of education, training and/or experience.

• Assignment to work a variety of work schedules including compulsory work periods in special, emergency, and/or disaster situations.
• Ability to work special events, including some weeknight and weekends to coordinate programs.

Highly Desirable

• Keen passion for making the history of Pinellas County accessible to the public through innovative and interactive educational programs and exhibitions.
• Enthusiasm for educational initiatives that deepen the role of museums as places of informal learning.
• Demonstrated experience teaching a variety of age groups and communities.
• Experience developing, designing and coordinating museum programs.
• Experience recruiting and coordinating tour guides and managing tours, internships, and volunteer programs.
• Proven competence managing budgetary allowances and restrictions.
• Proven competence collaborating with peers and colleagues.
• Team-player mentality to work cooperatively and positively with colleagues and the public.
• Proficiency working with Microsoft Office suite; social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram; Adobe design and graphic software; and databases, email and the web.
• Multi-media experience including the aptitude to document events (via audio, video and photography) post on social media platforms and the web a plus.
• Understanding of the digital exhibition space and experience managing tour guide applications
• Versatility and ability to manage many projects and priorities simultaneously.
• Strong interpersonal, verbal and written communication skills.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Knowledge of principles, practices and standards for design of educational programs
• Knowledge of purpose, use and benefits of museums & cultural program activities.
• Knowledge of guidelines and practices of the American Association of Museums.

Physical Demands

The work is light work which requires exerting up to 20 pounds of force occasionally, and/or up to 10 pounds of force to move objects. Additionally, the following physical abilities are required:

• Balancing: Maintaining body equilibrium to prevent falling while walking, standing or crouching on narrow, slippery, or erratically moving surfaces. The amount of balancing exceeds that needed for ordinary locomotion and maintenance of body equilibrium.
• Climbing: Ascending or descending ladders, stairs, scaffolding, ramps, poles and the like, using feet and legs and/or hands and arms. Body agility is emphasized.
• Crawling: Moving about on hands and knees or hands and feet.
• Crouching: Bending the body downward and forward by bending leg and spine.
• Feeling: Perceiving attributes of objects, such as size, shape, temperature or texture by touching with skin, particularly that of fingertips.
• Fingering: Picking, pinching, typing, or otherwise working, primarily with fingers rather than with the whole hand as in handling.
• Grasping: Applying pressure to an object with the fingers and palm.
• Handling: Picking, holding, or otherwise working, primarily with the whole hand.
• Hearing: Perceiving the nature of sounds at normal speaking levels with or without correction. Ability to receive detailed information through oral communication, and to make the discrimination in sound.
• Kneeling: Bending legs at knee to come to a rest on knee or knees.
• Lifting: Raising objects from a lower to a higher position or moving objects horizontally from position-to-position. Occurs to a considerable degree and requires substantial use of upper extremities and back muscles.
• Mental acuity: Ability to make rational decisions through sound logic and deductive processes.
• Pulling: Using upper extremities to exert force in order to draw, haul or tug objects in a sustained motion.
• Pushing: Using upper extremities to press against something with steady force in order to thrust forward, downward or outward.
• Reaching: Extending hand(s) and arm(s) in any direction.
• Repetitive motion: Substantial movements (motions) of the wrist, hands, and/or fingers.
• Speaking: Expressing or exchanging ideas by means of the spoken word including the ability to convey detailed or important spoken instructions to other workers accurately and concisely.
• Standing: Particularly for sustained periods of time.
• Stooping: Bending body downward and forward by bending spine at the waist. Occurs to a considerable degree and requires full motion of the lower extremities and back muscles.
• Talking: Expressing or exchanging ideas by means of the spoken word including those activities in which they must convey detailed or important spoken instructions to other workers accurately, loudly, or quickly.
• Visual acuity: Have close visual acuity such as color differentiation, depth perception, and adequate field vision.
• Walking: Moving about on foot to accomplish tasks, particularly for long distances or moving from one work site to another.

Working Conditions

• Work is performed in a relatively safe, secure, and stable work environment.