Deputy Director

Summary

The role offers an experienced leader the opportunity to bring strong organizational, development, and management skills to Counterpublic, a civic exhibition that weaves contemporary art into the daily life of St. Louis. As a key member of Counterpublic’s leadership team and a collaborative partner to the Executive + Artistic Director, the Deputy Director oversees the day-to-day operations of the organization and ensures Counterpublic has the staff, the resources, and systems needed to implement the organization’s mission, strategic plan, and vision. This position offers the chance for a dynamic professional to contribute to the strategic direction and implementation of ambitious civic initiatives for an impactful arts organization focused on connecting art with social and generational change.

About Counterpublic

Counterpublic is a civic exhibition that weaves contemporary art into the life of St. Louis in order to reimagine civic infrastructures toward generational change.

Working in public places, cultural institutions, historic houses, and community gathering spaces, Counterpublic commissions artists, collectives, and community organizers to realize new career and field-defining projects. The exhibition also includes active education, research, residencies, performances, publications, and public projects.

As one of the largest triennial exhibitions in North America, Counterpublic is a beacon of creative thinking and community engagement, serving as a model for an art platform that expands social, political, and civic horizons and uplifts its communities. Counterpublic’s unique model foregrounds new artistic and civic commissions by emerging and established artists, collectives and community organizers with an emphasis towards projects that support social change in St. Louis and beyond.

See more at www.counterpublic.org.

Compensation: Salary range of $90,000-$116,000, 401K plan with employer match, health and wellness stipend of $437.50 per month and three weeks PTO per year

Location: Candidates must be in or willing to relocate to St. Louis, MO. Relocation support is available.

Deputy Director Responsibilities

Organizational Leadership

• Represents Counterpublic as a leader in the larger local, national and international arts field, including engaging with community and civic leaders, funders, networks and peers.
• Leads strategic planning and evaluation of established goals and core values
• Assists in cultivating a diverse, dynamic work culture committed to collective growth within our team, responsiveness to our communities, leadership in our field, and transformational change within our focus areas.
• Cultivates internal work culture that foregrounds care, mutual support, and clarity and oversees policies that support the team through office and work policies, communications systems, professional development and public interfaces.
• Develops programs that reflect the organization’s core commitments to anti-racism, equity, inclusion and collective liberation within the organization and externally.

Fundraising and Partnerships

• Supports individual, corporate and event-based fundraising strategies and targets with direct responsibility for cultivating, soliciting, retaining and upgrading new and existing corporate and private donors and foundations.
• Creates development plans that expand donor base and implement development programs for smaller and mid-sized donors, as well as coordinating Special Events in an effort to provide regular sources of income.
• Oversees the team (volunteers and staff) in tracking fundraising goals, including corporate, foundation, and government support; events; individual, major donor, and board giving, and in-kind contributions.
• Assists with grant management and reporting.
• Manages relationships with civic, community and cultural partners, including cultivating new relationships and future partnerships.

Personnel Management/HR

• Develops and reviews staffing plan. Builds strong, collaborative relationships with staff and develops staff, ensures that talent is identified, coached, and made ready for leadership and opportunities.
• Hires, supervises, and mentors direct reports, prepares evaluations, conducts necessary disciplinary, terminations, and other personnel actions in accordance with personnel policies.
• Conducts staff meetings to enhance internal communication, leveraging collaborations among staff, and staff development.
• Lead Project Management, ensuring teams are in sync across all departments and tracking progress and timelines.
• Oversees benefits packages.
• Maintain a climate which attracts, keeps, and motivates a diverse staff.
• Manages volunteer and intern recruitment, training and retention throughout the exhibition cycle.
• Ensures that HR policies are updated, reviewed, and followed as appropriate. Ensures that legal HR requirements are followed including compliance and compensation, benefits administration.

Financial Management

• Be responsible for developing and maintaining sound financial practices.
• Ensures expenses are in line with revenue and reports regularly to the Board on the budget and cash flow.
• Coordinates with staff all vendor and contractor payments.
• Liaisons with Bookkeeper + Treasurer in coordination with the Executive Director.

Board of Directors

• Oversees a local and national Advisory Circle and serves as a liaison for the Board of Directors.
• Sees that official records and documents are maintained, and ensure compliance with federal, state, and local regulations.
• Connects with the Board on ongoing initiatives and supports efforts to cultivate and engage with Board members.

Communications

• Acts as an organizational spokesperson as needed, communicating the work and mission of the organization to the media, community, regional arts organizations, education institutions, businesses, foundations, government agencies, and other stakeholders including not-for-profit and corporate entities.
• Hires and manages documentation teams, including photo, video, podcasting, and other storytelling initiatives alongside Communications Coordinator.
• Supports marketing efforts alongside board, staff and contractors

Exhibition

• Creates and maintains tools that accurately monitor and interpret visitor experiences and evaluations activity with staff and contractors
• Manages and oversees contracts and agreements with all consultants, curators, artists, partners, and sites.
• Ensures proper insurance coverage for artists, artwork and venues.
• Cultivates and implements a plan for volunteers and contractors to engage the exhibition throughout the three month run.
• Supervises the Evaluation process with the evaluation team.

Qualifications and Skills

• Top candidates will have five years’ professional work experience in nonprofit administration, business leadership, economic development, development or comparable environment.
• Previous experience supervising and managing staff.
• Strong financial management skills, including budget preparation, analysis, decision making and reporting.
• An understanding of the fundraising process, including individual donor cultivation and grant management.
• Strong interpersonal skills and proven capability of working effectively with staff, committees, artists, community stakeholders and supporters, particularly in a non-profit organization.
• Proven leadership, organizational skills, attention to detail, and management capabilities, that should include budget experience and experience managing direct reports.
• An ability to extend the organization’s commitment to anti-racism, equity and inclusion, consistent with its determination to reflect and program for the diverse audience and stakeholder populations that we serve.
• The ability to confidently represent the organization and communicate its vision. This must include excellent oral and written communication skills.

All employees are expected to remain aware of the local, national, and global context for contemporary art; to participate in Counterpublic’s community-facing events; to support select fundraising activities through grant activities and identification of opportunities, and to occasionally represent the organization at national and community events as needed.

Counterpublic is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of an individual’s sex, age, race, color, creed, national origin, alienage, religion, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation or affectional preference, gender identity and expression, disability, genetic trait or predisposition, carrier status, citizenship, veteran or military status and other personal characteristics protected by law. All applications will receive consideration for employment without regard to legally protected characteristics.

To apply, please send a cover letter, CV, and at least two recommendations to james@counterpublic.org. Applications will be reviewed as received.