For more than 150 years, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) has been a leader in educating the world’s most influential artists, designers and scholars. Located in downtown Chicago with a fine arts graduate program consistently ranking among the top four graduate fine arts programs in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, SAIC provides an interdisciplinary approach to art and design as well as world-class resources, including the Art Institute of Chicago museum, on-campus galleries and state-of-the-art facilities. SAIC’s undergraduate, graduate and post-baccalaureate students have the freedom to take risks and create the bold ideas that transform Chicago and the world—as seen through notable alumni and faculty such as Michelle Grabner, David Sedaris, Elizabeth Murray, Richard Hunt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Cynthia Rowley, Nick Cave, and LeRoy Neiman.

The Program Coordinator works closely with the Director of the Visiting Artists Program to plan and execute public programs and accompanying student engagements by internationally recognized artists, designers, and scholars each academic year. Public events consist of evening lectures, conversations, and readings that are held in the auditoria of the Art Institute of Chicago and guests meet with students through group discussions, studio visits, and critiques. The Program Coordinator serves an integral role in supporting visits and events to ensure a smooth production that results in a positive experience for visiting artists, students, and attendees.

• Secure and manage venue and support services for each public event including Audio Visual Services, Security, Housekeeping, CART captioning, and Photography. Manage logistics for each event, including facilitating audience Q&A session with student staff, and liaise with program partners to ensure a smooth production. Track attendance for each event. Coordinate with museum and school Security teams for capacity events.

• Hire, train, and manage 3-5 student workers who serve as Program Assistants each season.

• Correspond with confirmed guests and their representatives to make flight and hotel arrangements, procure payment and permission forms, publicity materials, and presentation needs. Draft detailed itineraries for each guest and help address any needs they may have.

• Work closely with SAIC staff and faculty when coordinating guests’ visits and coordinate all forms of student engagement such as roundtable discussions, studio visits, and group critiques in consultation with the Director. Secure venue and work with faculty and Communications team to promote engagement opportunities. Obtain survey feedback from students after each event.

• Assist with publicity plans for each season in close coordination with the Director and Marketing & Communications team. Edit biographies, make updates to the VAP website, draft all email announcements, oversee VAP Facebook page and manage social media ads for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and review all print and electronic collateral materials for edits in tandem with the Director. Promote events via local calendar listings and distribute collateral materials. Ensure all VAP publicity complies with best practices along with guests’ requirements.

• Provide outreach to internal and external constituents to promote upcoming programs and the Visiting Artists Program as a community resource. Includes SAIC student groups, faculty/staff, relevant courses, and local organizations through mailings and personal one-on-one outreach.

• Manage media recordings from each event and works with AIC Audio Visual Services and SAIC Academic Multimedia Production teams, 3Play Media, and YouTube Studio for post-production needs and edits transcripts for accessible captions. Disseminate materials for curricular, scholarly, and community use. Maintains all program archive records.

• Develop Resource Guides on each guest for classroom use that consists of source material on their work such as interviews and articles. Work with the Flaxman Library and CRIT to ensure the Resource Guides are accessible to students and faculty for syllabi inclusion.

• Provide research, maintain administrative files, and assist Director with daily office functions, long term planning, and new initiatives as they relate to programmatic, institutional and curricular needs, student engagement, and the archive. Field inquiries from the community and manage reservations for classes, VIP’s, and special interest groups.

• ¿Attends all VAP Faculty Senate Advisory Committee meetings and records minutes.

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in art history, studio arts, or related field

• Experience assisting or facilitating public programs or other events required

• Excellent administrative and organizational skills, highly detail-oriented, and the ability to manage multiple projects and priorities at the same time

• Superior customer service skills

• Excellent interpersonal skills for interacting with visiting guests, their representatives, students, colleagues across the school and museum, and the general public

• Familiarity with social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter)

• Experience supervising student workers or equivalent

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

  
  

We offer a competitive, comprehensive benefits package:

• Generous paid time off
• Paid holidays (up to 14 days)
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Generous parental, caregiver, and medical leave benefits
• Competitive retirement plan (up to 9% matching contribution)
• Tuition remission and Tuition Exchange Program
• Great employee discounts
• Complimentary general admission to participating cultural institutions

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The Art Institute of Chicago requires all applicants to complete an online application to be considered for employment. 60 minutes are allotted for applicants to complete the employment application. The application will automatically time out after 60 minutes. If you are unable to submit the completed application at this time, please choose the "Save for Later" option to avoid losing the information you have entered so far.

The Art Institute of Chicago is an Equal Opportunity Employer that recruits, hires and promotes qualified individuals without regard to race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, ancestry, veteran status or citizenship. The Institute complies with federal and state disability laws and makes reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, please contact the Department of Human Resources at apply_help@artic.edu.

This position is part of a bargaining unit represented by AFSCME Council 31