Associate Director, Curatorial Affairs

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

• 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

• 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

• 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.