Curator

Job Title: Curator

Reports to: Associate Director, Curatorial

Department: Curatorial

Supervises: Does not supervise others

Work Schedule: 40 hours per week, 5 days per week, hybrid work eligible. This role may require some evening and weekend work and travel.

Salary: $85,000 - $90,000 per year

Position Summary

The Curator develops and supports exhibitions, gallery-based initiatives, and interpretive experiences in support of MOPOP’s mission and exhibition program. Working collaboratively across departments, this role is responsible for the research, development, implementation, maintenance, and long-term continuity of assigned exhibitions and curatorial initiatives.

This position supports traveling, in-house, and rental exhibitions, media-integrated experiences, gallery refreshes, and exhibition continuity projects while contributing to engaging, visitor-centered storytelling grounded in pop culture.

Essential Job Duties (other duties as assigned)

• Develop and support assigned exhibitions and curatorial initiatives from concept through post-opening continuity
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams on exhibition layout, interpretive strategy, visitor engagement, media integration, graphic approach, and aesthetic direction
• Write and develop exhibition content including labels, didactic text, presentations, digital content, audio guides, interactives, and interpretive materials
• Generate exhibition concepts, themes, goals, and curatorial presentation materials for gallery and digital experiences
• Coordinate artifact rotations, gallery updates, media refreshes, and exhibition continuity initiatives in partnership with Curatorial, Collections, Design, Exhibits, and Exhibition Project Management teams
• Participate in exhibition installation, deinstallation, and gallery implementation activities as needed
Lead or support select pop-up exhibitions, gallery initiatives, and special projects annually

MOPOP Community

• Support our internal culture which inspires and empowers our staff to live our mission to its highest standards.
• Contribute to a consistent customer service standard across all departments.
Work to ensure customer service is ingrained at the core of the team and is reflected outward to our guests and other staff.

Preferred/Desired Qualifications

• Minimum of 5–8 years of curatorial, exhibition development, or related museum experience
• Demonstrated experience developing exhibitions, interpretive content, and visitor-centered storytelling initiatives
• Strong knowledge of exhibition development, interpretive planning, media integration, and museum standards
• Experience conducting research and developing scholarship related to popular culture and museum exhibitions
• Excellent writing, communication, presentation, collaboration, and organizational skills
• Ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines in a fast-paced collaborative environment
• Experience collaborating with artists, collectors, estates, community partners, venues, contractors, and cross-functional teams
• Commitment to accessibility, inclusion, and audience-centered engagement
• Experience with media-integrated exhibitions, digital storytelling, and interactive experiences
• Familiarity with collections management systems, exhibition development tools, and digital interpretation platforms
• Broad knowledge of popular culture including music, film, gaming, fashion, science fiction, fantasy, horror, fandom, and social movements
Master’s degree or PhD in Museum Studies, Curatorial Studies, Art History, History, Film Studies, Literature, Musicology, or a related field preferred

Benefits

This full-time position includes Medical/Vision insurance, Dental insurance, 3.08 hours of accrued Vacation per bi-weekly pay period, Seattle Sick/Safe, up to 8 Company Holidays paid throughout the year, EAP, 401k plan with vested match schedule once eligible, and subsidized transportation benefits for Orca Pass or parking.

Why MOPOP?

We’re really glad you’re thinking about joining the team at MOPOP! We believe pop culture is a universal language capable of building connections across a range of people, no matter our differences in race, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, ability, education, socio-economic status, ethnicity, country of origin, or any other characteristic that makes us who we are. For more than twenty years, we have been showcasing how music, film, fashion, video games, sports, and more spark those connections and create a lasting cultural impact.

MOPOP provides both a physical space and an emotional and intellectual opportunity for people from any background to explore, find and build community, and recognize their own creative potential. This applies not only to our guests, but also to our staff — be it in designing an educational program to engage the next generation of creators, trying to reach a new audience with a marketing initiative, preserving an artifact in our collection, or providing excellent customer service to a visitor. If this sounds like something you’d be into, we’d love to hear from you!

MOPOP’s Mission and Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

Our mission is to activate the world-shaping power of pop culture through participative experiences, discovery, and play. We believe pop culture connects us, and that it is powerful, complex, alive and who we are. MOPOP is actively committed to ongoing learning in the areas of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA). In partnership with our community, we hope to also develop safe spaces for their application. This includes taking steps to continue increasing our awareness of institutional “-isms,” as well as uncovering and undoing the ways they show up in museum culture. We recognize this is a process that requires intentionality, energy, and resources, and we are developing a DEIA framework that can cultivate a work environment and museum experience that is truly welcoming for all.

We are committed to creating an inclusive and equitable workplace, and we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We believe that having staff, interns, and volunteers with diverse backgrounds enables us to better meet our mission and encourage BIPOC, women, and LGBTQIA2S+ individuals to apply. We acknowledge that our work to build safe spaces and better systems for traditionally marginalized groups is ongoing and will require constant vigilance and expect all MOPOP employees to be part of our DEIA journey.

Please email ***email_hidden*** if you need reasonable accommodations during the application or hiring process.

Don't meet every single requirement?

Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At MOPOP, we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. If you are excited about a role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the candidate we are looking for!