Organizer Information
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) is a nonprofit, encyclopedic art museum founded in 1941 and dedicated to collecting, preserving, and exhibiting works of art from a variety of cultures and historical periods. Its mission is to integrate art into the lives of people, and it aims to use the power of art to ignite imagination, stimulate thought, and generate personally rewarding experiences. The museum's holdings comprise 25,000 works of art, an art museum of a magnitude and quality more commonly found in cities many times the size of Santa Barbara, and the collection includes classical antiquities rivaled in the West only by a small number of institutions. The museum houses the only intact mural in the United States by David Alfaro Siqueiros, Portrait of Mexico Today (1932), a centerpiece of its distinguished Latin American art collection, and serves a diverse audience of roughly 150,000 visitors annually through a wide range of educational and interpretive programs. As stated in the source, the museum's photography holdings today comprise 8,000 works within its broader 26,000-object permanent collection.
Title & Description
Curator of Photography and Contemporary Art
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art is seeking an internationally recognized curator with expertise in 20th- and 21st-century art and a focused specialization in photography. The museum frames this as a pivotal moment for the institution, with a renewed emphasis on community outreach, significant exhibitions, and raising its national and regional visibility — the posting describes the role as an opportunity to build a program and help shape the institution during a period of growth and change.
The incoming curator is expected to bring comprehensive knowledge of 20th- and 21st-century art, with photography as a core area of concentration; knowledge of the museum's other collection strengths, including 19th-century and Latin American art, is also welcomed. The role calls for a creative approach to programming drawn from the permanent collection, an active curatorial profile shown through exhibitions, publications, and public speaking, and a demonstrated record of collaboration within and beyond the curator's home institution — including with artists, collectors, community members, other curators, and non-profit partners.
The Role Overview
- Position Type: Full-time, exempt
- Salary: $95,000–$115,000 annually, commensurate with experience
- Reports To: Chief Curator
- Department / Programme: Curatorial (Photography and Contemporary Art)
- Remote Status: Non-remote position
Position & Tasks
- Curate an annual roster of exhibitions, including both loan exhibitions and permanent-collection presentations
- Publish scholarship and exhibition-related material
- Build and maintain relationships with collectors and supporters to benefit the museum
- Regularly acquire artworks for the collection
- Manage a curatorial support group
- Actively support fundraising efforts from individuals, foundations, and corporate sponsors
- Draw on the permanent collection to develop creative curatorial projects
Categories
- Curatorial Practice
- Photography
- Contemporary Art
- Museum Studies
- Collection Management
- Arts Administration
Eligibility
- M.A. in Art History or a related field required
- Minimum of 5 to 10 years of full-time curatorial experience in a museum, commercial gallery, or equivalent setting
- 3–5 years of experience overseeing and leading projects, exhibitions, and/or staff
- Comprehensive knowledge of 20th- and 21st-century art with a concentration in photography
- Knowledge of 19th-century and/or Latin American art welcomed, though not stated as mandatory
- Active curatorial profile demonstrated through exhibitions, publications, and public speaking
- Track record of collaboration, exhibitions, acquisitions, and publications
- Superior oral and written communication skills
- Ability to consistently meet deadlines and manage budgets
- Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously
- Must pass a successful background check
- Must hold proper ID and be able to reliably commute to offsite locations, both public and private, locally, domestically, and/or internationally
Program Benefits
- Salary: $95,000–$115,000 annually
- 3 weeks of vacation
- 8 days of paid sick leave
- 13 paid holidays (14 in Federal Election years)
- Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance
- Pretax savings options
- 403(b) retirement plan eligibility, with 100% matching up to 5% of earnings after one year of service
Application Fee
None
How to Apply?
Send application, CV, cover letter, and names of three references by email to: hr@sbma.net
Key Dates
- Application Deadline: 15 August 2026
Location
Santa Barbara, California, United States
Additional Details
- Santa Barbara is described in the source as roughly 90 minutes from downtown Los Angeles, situated between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, with a vibrant, walkable downtown and multiple institutions of higher education, including the University of California, Santa Barbara
- The Santa Barbara Museum of Art is an Equal Opportunity Employer and states a commitment to diversity