The Corporation of the Fine Arts Museums is offering a Curatorial Cataloguing Fellowship with the Contemporary Art and Programming department. This fellowship program aims to support the Museums’ strategic goal to significantly enhance the scope of information available about works of art in the Museums’ collection, and make this information digitally accessible to a wider public. The two-year paid Fellowship program, onsite in San Francisco from September 2025-August 2027, is designed to provide an important professional development opportunity for eight emerging art museum professionals. We strongly encourage applicants from backgrounds historically underrepresented in the art museum field. This fellowship will advance participants’ curatorial training through rigorous research and cataloguing experience.
Under the supervision of Curators, Curatorial Cataloguing Fellows will be responsible for cataloguing works of art from the Museums’ permanent collection, with particular focus on enhancing information about the artwork’s provenance, exhibition history, and bibliographic records. Guided by the FAMSF curatorial team, Fellows will analyze gaps in existing collections data, conduct collection research, and write textual entries for the Museums’ collection management database, The Museum System (TMS). Throughout the two-year program, Fellows will also have the opportunity to engage with visiting experts in the field of provenance, research, and collections data to strengthen their professional development.
A Fellow will be assigned to each of FAMSF’s eight curatorial departments: Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts (works on paper); Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas; American Art; Ancient Art; Contemporary Art; European Decorative Arts and Sculpture; European Paintings; and Textile Arts. Fellows will be matched based on areas of interest and experience and will work directly with department curators, who will serve as supervisors and offer mentorship throughout the fellowship. Applicants may apply to more than one department.
Contemporary Art
The Contemporary Art Fellow will be based at the de Young Museum and will work closely with the curatorial staff of the Contemporary Art and Programming department. Established in the fall of 2016, the department of Contemporary Art and Programming (CAP) is the youngest curatorial department of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Since the department’s founding, the curatorial team has focused on acquiring newly commissioned or recent artworks in conjunction with an innovative and dynamic program of exhibitions, installations, and interventions in dialogue with the Museums historical sites, architecture, and collections. As the only department not delineated by either medium or geography, we collect works in all media and across geographies to reflect the global reach and diversity of both the contemporary art landscape and the Museums’ collections.
Typical Duties And Responsibilities
- Work closely with curatorial staff to review and update department collection records through in-depth library and web-based research, primary and secondary source documents, consultation with outside scholars and institutions, and object file review.
- Review and enhance object records and organize records in physical and digital files.
- Research, compile and catalogue object provenance, exhibition history, bibliographic references, and geography; input data into the Museums’ collections database, TMS.
- Work closely with the Collections Information team to ensure proper documentation of the collection in TMS as per FAMSF cataloguing guidelines and protocols.
- Perform advanced searches, create packages, and analyze collection data in TMS.
- Perform data cleaning and data entry in the TMS database with close attention to detail for consistency, accuracy, and adherence to the FAMSF cataloguing guidelines.
- Participate in department and TMS project meetings on the implementation of cataloguing standards and guidelines.
- Regularly meet with supervisors to set goals, discuss progress and to track work.
- Performs other duties as assigned.
Minimum Qualifications
Education and Training: Completion of a BA degree or higher by Summer 2025 in Art History, Museum Studies, Anthropology or a related field. Coursework in an area relevant to this fellowship is a plus.
Skills And Abilities
- Self-motivated, highly organized, and deadline-driven.
- Excellent organizational, writing, and communication skills, and a work product that exhibits a high degree of detail and accuracy.
- Strong interpersonal skills and willingness to be part of a team.
- Familiarity with both conventional and contemporary methods of object-based research
- Ability to conduct directed independent research.
- Flexibility in meeting shifting demands and priorities.
- Ability to take initiative to independently complete tasks.
- Ability to achieve and sustain best curatorial practices.
- Strong computer skills
- Comfort sitting at a computer for an extended period of time.
- Ability to perform repetitive movements related to typing and computer work.
Additional
Schedule: This 2 year, fixed-term Union position from September 2025-August 2027. The workweek is Monday - Friday, 8 hours a day, 40 hours per week onsite at the de Young and Legion of Honor Museums in San Francisco, CA. This position may be eligible for hybrid work, based on departmental needs.
Benefits: This is a Union position with a benefits package including medical, dental, vision, 401(k) for retirement, and paid time off. Relocation support may be available for successful candidates who are outside the Bay Area.
Pay: Fellows begin on Step 1 of the union wage scale, which is $27.00 per hour.
Application deadline: Friday, February 14, 2025 (9pm PST). Final selection will be communicated in early May 2025.
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COFAM is the Corporation of Fine Arts Museums and is the privately funded non-profit corporation which supports the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, a department of the City and County of San Francisco.
COFAM is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and is committed to a policy of nondiscrimination in all phases of employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco are the city's largest public arts institutions and comprise the de Young and the Legion of Honor museums. The de Young, designed by Herzog & de Meuron and located in Golden Gate Park, showcases American art from the 17th through the 21st centuries, international contemporary art, textiles and costumes, and art from the Americas, the Pacific, and Africa. The Legion of Honor displays a collection of over 4,000 years of ancient and European art including Auguste Rodin's The Thinker and houses the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts in a Beaux-Arts style building overlooking Lincoln Park and the Golden Gate Bridge.
