Job Listing: Museum Director (SPIRITS Museum)

SPIRITS Museum Director Job Description

Job type: 1099 Contracted, part-time temporary with potential to extend contract

Estimated monthly hours: 50

Rate: $40.00/hourly, paid monthly

Location: Primarily remote with some on-site requirements, candidates based in the Charlottesville/Richmond/Hampton Roads regions preferred

Reports to: Board of directors, founder, grant board

How to Apply - Email resume/CV, cover letter, and 3 references to info@spiritsmuseum.org 

Position Summary

The Director provides overall leadership, administration, curatorial direction, program development, and public engagement for SPIRITS Museum, a museum dedicated to preserving, interpreting, and sharing the history and cultural significance of American spirits, distilling, drinking culture, and related material history. This is a grant-funded position and will entail managing the grant budget, reporting to the granting body, and executing all grant-related tasks.

This position serves as the primary operational and intellectual leader of the museum and is responsible for advancing the museum's mission, developing exhibitions and educational programs, managing grants and partnerships, coordinating events and public programming, overseeing communications, conducting and directing historical research, and developing the museum's collections and resources.

The Director is primarily an independently managed position and will require self-reporting on projects, with opportunities to work closely with the museum's founder, partners, donors, researchers, distillers, historians, cultural organizations, and other stakeholders to develop SPIRITS Museum as a nationally recognized resource for the study and interpretation of American spirits history, with particular emphasis on Virginia and the colonial era.

Primary Responsibilities

Museum Leadership & Operations

• Provide day-to-day leadership and strategic direction for SPIRITS Museum.
• Manage museum projects, priorities, schedules, communications, and external relationships.
• Oversee and supervise the Operations Manager, interns, research assistants, volunteers, and project staff/contractors.
• Delegate responsibilities, establish deadlines, and ensure projects are completed effectively.
• Serve as a primary representative of the museum to partners, institutions, scholars, distillers, donors, media, and the public.
• Formalize board of directors operations, schedule and present at bi-annual board meeting 

Curatorial, Research & Exhibitions [can be delegated to guest curators at director discretion]

• Develop and oversee the museum's curatorial vision, exhibitions, and historical interpretation.
• Conduct and direct research relating to Virginia spirits, distilling, drinking culture, agriculture, material culture, and related histories.
• Research, curate, and produce virtual exhibitions and educational content.
• Conduct oral history interviews and oversee the museum's ongoing oral history program.
• Work with outside scholars, guest curators, researchers, and subject-matter experts.
• Research and evaluate artifacts, documents, photographs, and other materials for the museum's collection and reference resources.

Collections & Museum Installations

• Oversee stewardship, research, documentation, and interpretation of the SPIRITS Museum collection.
• Pursue donated artifacts and archival materials from museums, historic institutions, distillers, farmers, families, and other sources to expand the collection.
• Conduct site visits and collection research throughout Virginia.
• Catalog and incorporate new acquisitions into the museum's virtual collection.
• Oversee the museum's physical collection installation at Virginia Distillery Co. in Lovingston, VA, including quarterly visits, collection maintenance and updates, development of new interpretive materials, and communication with tour guides and staff regarding the history and interpretation of the collection.
• Gather feedback from partner-site staff and visitors and use it to improve the installation and visitor experience.
• Develop and maintain resources documenting spirits-related objects held in other Virginia institutions.

Grant Management & Execution

• Serve as the primary project manager for the museum's Virginia Spirits Board Research & Education Grant.
• Ensure all grant activities, deliverables, deadlines, expenditures, documentation, and reporting requirements are completed in accordance with the approved proposal and grant requirements.
• Execute the grant's oral history, material culture preservation, research, and virtual exhibition initiatives.
• Coordinate the production of 20 professionally recorded oral history interviews, including outreach, scheduling, interviewing, documentation, and publication.
• Oversee research, cataloging, and digitization of donated objects and archival materials.
• Manage development and launch of the Virginia and the Whisky Rebellion and The First Still: Distilling at Martin's Hundred virtual exhibitions in 2027.
• Coordinate grant-related lectures, events, public programming, travel, and partner activities.
• Track project outcomes and prepare the final grant report and supporting documentation.
• Compile grant request for 2027-2028 to continue museum programming and pursue outside grant opportunities.

Programming & Events

• Develop and oversee lectures, educational programs, exhibitions, tastings, special events, and other public programming.
• Coordinate collaborative programs and exhibitions with institutional partners.
• Develop programming connected to the museum's exhibitions, research, podcast, and educational mission.

Fundraising & Development

• Identify and pursue funding opportunities, donors, sponsors, and institutional supporters.
• Assist with grant writing, donor communications, sponsorship development, and fundraising initiatives.
• Develop and manage museum merchandise and other mission-related products as fundraising tools, including identifying products, coordinating design and production, and overseeing promotion and sales.
• Develop fundraising opportunities connected to exhibitions, events, memberships, merchandise, and other museum activities.

Digital Museum, Communications & Marketing

• Oversee development and maintenance of the museum's virtual museum, digital exhibitions, website content, and online collections.
• Work with the Operations Manager and contractors on website implementation, interactive exhibitions, audiovisual projects, and digital accessibility.
• Manage the museum's general communications, inbox, social media, promotional materials, newsletters, and public announcements.
• Oversee marketing and digital advertising for exhibitions, programs, the podcast, events, and other museum initiatives.

Reference Library & Research Resources

• Develop and oversee the SPIRITS Museum Reference Library - based at Virago Spirits in Richmond, VA - as a resource for researchers and the public.
• Acquire, organize, and maintain relevant books, publications, archival materials, and research resources.
• Facilitate appropriate research access and institutional collaboration.

Qualifications

• Experience in museum leadership, curatorial work, public history, historical research, or a related field.
• Strong research, writing, organizational, and project-management skills.
• Experience developing exhibitions, educational programs, or public history projects.
• Ability to manage multiple projects, staff, interns, contractors, and institutional partners.
• Experience with grant writing and grant administration.
• Knowledge of Virginia history, distilling/spirits history, material culture, or related subjects preferred.

The Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is an independent, highly organized museum professional who can combine curatorial expertise with hands-on organizational leadership. They should be capable of taking projects from concept through research, funding, development, implementation, promotion, and completion while building sustainable systems that allow SPIRITS Museum to continue growing.

About Spirits Museum

SPIRITS Museum is dedicated to preserving, researching, and sharing the history of distilling and drinking culture, with a particular focus on Virginia as the birthplace of American spirits. Through virtual exhibitions, collections, oral histories, educational programs, events, partnerships, and A Spirited Podcast, the museum connects historical research and material culture with the people and places shaping Virginia's spirits industry today. SPIRITS Museum operates as a hybrid institution, bringing its collections and scholarship to audiences through its virtual museum and physical installations at partner distilleries.