Visitor Experience Associate

The Weisman is looking to add a Visitor Experience Associate to our tight-knit Operations team. The ideal person for this part-time role is someone who takes a 360-approach to helping ensure a warm, inclusive experience at the museum, for both visitors and student staff. That means touching base with our custodial crew to ensure the spaces are orderly and clean, and helping to lead student staff in assisting visitors — with wayfinding, information about the spaces and things to do and experience on any given day — so folks feel comfortable and informed during their museum visit.

The Visitor Experience Associate is responsible for supporting Front of House (FOH) and Events teams, assisting with gallery-related tasks and visitor experience duties across departments, including custodial and building operations tasks as assigned.

They serve as an enthusiastic, welcoming, and approachable presence throughout the museum to support wayfinding, access to resources, promote public programs and events, provide general information about the collections and special exhibitions, help keep the art safe from damage, assist in ensuring the safety of museum visitors, and share information that provides the best possible experience at the museum for all audiences.

A successful candidate must have previous experience working in a hands-on, task driven environment. We are looking for a confident and enthusiastic individual to work in a fast-paced environment with competing demands.

Job Responsibilities

Support student gallery staff (50%)

• Assist Visitor Experience Coordinator with student gallery attendant management
• Monitor gallery to ensure adequate guard coverage and proper security of the art
• Demonstrate high levels of customer service, remaining professional, personable, and engaging to all museum visitors
• Become knowledgeable on the collections, the facilities, our programming and events, and our place within the University of Minnesota community
• Act as a communications hub between visitors, gallery guards, staff and event guests by utilizing the phone, computer systems, and radios
• Protect the artwork by continuously observing visitors’ behavior while circulating in specific areas or galleries, including monitoring for restricted items and touching of art
• Ensure that visitors follow museum policies regarding food or drink in the galleries, and photography of artwork
• Communicate visitor comments, compliments, and concerns through appropriate channels
• Follow opening and closing procedures to ensure building security and that AV components are functioning properly in the galleries
• Monitor scheduled student staff to facilitate breaks, rotations, and ensure proper coverage in gallery spaces
• Promptly respond and direct calls and emails received at the front desk
• Assist in regular departmental training sessions
• Demonstrate social sensitivity and best practices for student Gallery Attendants to model while on the gallery floor
• Additional duties as assigned

Perform maintenance duties (25%)

• Perform routine housekeeping and custodial duties in museum facilities
• Perform security walkthrough, open/close and disarm/arm the museum
• Follow and enforce WAM's policies and procedures to ensure the safety of museum collections, property, and visitors, engaging with security personnel as necessary
• Perform scheduled building maintenance tasks
• Track inventory in storage spaces to organize and replenish as needed
• Additional duties as assigned

Establish and work to continually improve museum visitor and staff experience (25%)

• Ensure appropriate security, supervision, coaching, and modeling of behaviors that are consistent with exceptional hospitality in the museum gallery level
• Demonstrate leadership in fostering an organizational culture that values innovation, promotes inclusion, and inspires excellence in the work environment
• Observe and synthesize recurring pain points in the visitor experience to communicate with the relevant department, and offer improvements
• Assist in cross-departmental projects as needed

Required Qualifications

• BA/BS degree or a combination of related education and work experience to equal at least four years
• Must be able to work mornings, evenings & weekends
• Must be able to lift up to 50 pounds
• Must be able to use stairs daily
• Ability to understand and follow standard operating procedures
• Ability to read, understand, and complete written and verbal requests and work assignments in English
• Ability to stand for long periods of time—up to four hours at a time
• Dependability, flexibility, and adaptability in a dynamic event-driven environment
• Customer service experience

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in a museum environment