Our Services:

We at Museum Search & Reference recognize the multifaceted attributes museums look for in their leaders. We can help you identify professionals who want to work at your museum and who have experience with a broad range of activities: managing people and budgets, raising money, overseeing construction and renovation projects, building strong relationships with stakeholders, and inspiring audiences and staff while keeping your museum’s mission central.

We work for you to recruit top-notch, diverse talent, and we identify both experienced and up-and-coming museum leaders for their expertise and fit. Whether current directors or senior professionals, we understand the importance of finding the best candidates to match your museum’s needs.

In addition to placing dozens of museum directors, we have also placed chief curators, curators, deputy directors, directors of education, and other museum leadership, trained and experienced in content-specific areas. We have helped our clients recruit curators of American art, East Asian and South Asian art, contemporary art, European art, Islamic art, Latin American art, fashion, and decorative art, as well as museum education and engagement specialists and museum librarians.

We do not conduct searches for Development or Advancement professionals, but we can refer you to other firms who do.

We work nationally and internationally from our office in the greater Boston area and our search consultants are located in Washington, DC, Providence, RI, Meridian, MS, San Francisco, CA, and Maine.

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Executive Searches

From drafting the job description and placing ads to recruiting exceptional candidates and writing the employment contract, we provide a full range of search services.
Managing Transition

We recognize that managing transition goes hand-in-hand with changes in leadership and we assist clients in developing a well-managed path forward.
Process

We work side-by-side with you from start to finish. With your designated trustees or senior manager, we together establish the scope of services and, if desired, offer advice on forming a Search Committee. We guide you step-by-step to a successful hire. We do the advertising, recruiting and reference checks for desirable candidates through our extensive networks, and we prepare you to interview candidates and ultimately hire a finalist. We actively stay in touch throughout the process and solicit your ongoing feedback. In addition to taking care of the details of the search process, we can help your Search Committee plan and manage transition tasks that may result with the new hire.
Fees

Our museum-only business focus insures you have our undivided attention for a more reasonable fee than other firms. We always use a fixed fee and never a percentage of salary, and we work with you to determine the scope and fee before the project begins. Except in unusual conditions, we offer a warranty for all of our hires.

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Why Museum Search & Reference

Museum Search & Reference is devoted to the long-term success of American museums. Our own careers as directors in the museum and non-profit world give us an insider’s leg up from which to recruit the leadership you seek. We are hands-on and deeply networked, and our decades of experience placing talent in museums of all sizes and character, across North America, has led to a distinguished track record.

Our clients retain us for repeat business.

We have conducted multiple searches for a number of museums, including the Peabody Essex Museum, the Denver Art Museum, the Chrysler Museum of Art, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada.
Our database contains over 4,000 museum and art professionals.

We have direct access to current directors, chief curators, curators, education directors, and other high-level talent. Our insider contacts in the field ensure that we recruit the highest caliber people who are “happy where they are” but are open to the right opportunity match at the right time.
We know where the talent is.

Candidates and nominators return our calls, and are candid with us because we are former museum professionals. Our clients often say our detailed vetting and analysis of candidates surpasses that of other firms. Moreover, our experience and insight as former museum directors insures the best talent available matches institutional needs.
We have personal relationships with hundreds of museum directors, senior-level museum leaders, and other museum colleagues.

Museum industry relationships ensure an experienced candidate pool thoroughly vetted by Museum Search & Reference’s team. Because we are uniquely connected to the museum world, we get immediate responses of nominations and inquiries targeted to the client’s needs.
We recruit nationwide and internationally.

We are online, in-person, wireless and connected utilizing the latest digital tools, social media, and other resources to insure a deep dive into candidate research.
Clients say that our detailed screening and analysis of candidates surpasses that of other firms.

We do extensive reference-checking early on, ensuring clients fewer surprises during interviews and on the job once hired.
We have experience with searches throughout the United States.

Museum Search & Reference has presented candidates from California and Alaska to New York and Florida, and internationally including Canada, Europe and the Middle East.
We have met the demands of recruiting to challenging locations.

Great communities exist everywhere. Places where we have conducted successful searches include Vermillion, SD; Lincoln, NE; St. Johnsbury, VT; and Grand Rapids and Holland, MI. We have worldwide contacts, but we also discover which candidates prefer smaller cities or large metropolitan areas.

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Our Team

Our team of former museum and non-profit directors know the museum field inside out, know the nuts and bolts of executive leadership, and know the challenges of today’s job market. We are here to help.

Finding new leadership for museums is one part of the challenge. Finding the right leaders with vision to match the goals and aspirations of those museums is what distinguishes Museum Search & Reference.

Marilyn Hoffman

Marilyn Hoffman has been successfully placing professionals at museums and nonprofits since 2004. Her extensive national networks have grown rapidly, along with her firm. Hoffman had a 25-year museum career, capped by 18 years as a successful and respected museum director.

At age 27, she became Director of the Fuller Museum in Brockton, MA, and then took the helm of one of the top 100 art museums in North America, The Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH. She previously held two curator posts and educator positions at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and the RISD Museum in Providence, RI. Hoffman serves on many boards and advisory committees, and often presents at NEMA. She holds a B.A. and M.A. in Art History from Brown University

Connie Rosemont

Connie Rosemont joined the firm in 2014 as a consultant for museum searches and has recruited with the firm for both director and curator searches. Previously, she was the co-founder and Executive Director of an independent movie theater and has significant business start-up and audience engagement experience. She was the 2011 winner of the New Hampshire Governor’s Arts Leadership award, and she brings a strong executive-director and fundraising background to bear on leadership searches. She has served on several cultural and economic development boards, has a background in Chinese art history and literature, and speaks Mandarin. Connie holds a B.A. and M.A. from Johns Hopkins University and is based in Washington, DC.

Ida Tomlin

Suzanne Tan

Ida Tomlin has 3 decades of museum and nonprofit leadership experience. She retired in May 2021 as Director of Operations and HR for the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience (the “MAX”), where she recruited much of the staff for the newly opened $40M facility. Tomlin has served as Chief Operating Officer at the Detroit Zoo, Vice President & Chief Operating Officer at the Detroit (now Michigan) Science Center, and Assistant Director and Head of Public Programs at Cranbrook Institute of Science, Bloomfield Hills, MI. She has deep experience in talent recruiting, HR, DEAI, and working with unions. She has served on the boards of the Michigan Museums Association and the Association of Midwest Museums, from which she received a Distinguished Service Award in 2009. She is a peer reviewer for AAM’s MAP and Accreditation programs. Ida has a Master of Public Administration from the University of Michigan, Dearborn.

Suzanne Tan joined MS&R in September 2022. Based in the San Francisco Bay area, she brings more than 25 years of experience working with nonprofit organizations, with an emphasis on museums, culturally specific institutions, and community art centers. As a senior consultant with Marcum’s Nonprofit & Social Sector Leadership Transition and Planning group, Suzanne conducted searches and consulted for nonprofit organizations nationally. Suzanne has also served as a professional interim executive director. She began her career at SFMOMA and has served in senior leadership and director level positions at several museums and arts organizations across California. A previous national Co-Chair of the Executive Transition Leadership Continuity practice group of the Alliance for Nonprofit Management, Suzanne was also a long-time MAP consultant for AAM. She holds an M.A. in Museum Studies from the John F. Kennedy University and a B.A. from the University of Colorado.

Dan Yaeger

Lora Urbanelli

Dan Yaeger joined Museum Search & Reference January 2023. For the past 12 years he has been the executive director of the New England Museum Association, a professional community of 3,000 members, where he focused on connecting boards and executives with new ideas and best practices through conferences, workshops, writing, and podcasting, giving him exceptional contacts with museum leaders. He has a 20-year history with museums, most recently as Director of the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation in Waltham, MA. Dan previously served as a marketing communications consultant to institutions including the Cleveland Museum of Art, Peabody Essex Museum, Museum of Fine Arts/Boston, Portland Museum of Art, Currier Museum of Art, Mariner’s Museum of Virginia, Old Sturbridge Village, John F. Kennedy Library, and Plimoth Plantation. He holds a B.A. from Gettysburg College and a master’s degree from Harvard University.

Lora Urbanelli joined the firm in 2020 after nearly 40 years of museum experience, most recently as Director of the Montclair Art Museum (MAM). Her focus and interests have centered on broadening access and providing audience-centered exhibitions and activities of the highest level. At MAM she completed a successful $12m campaign, oversaw expansions of public spaces, diversified collections, and created a process for examining diversity, equity and inclusion. She also previously served as Director of the Farnsworth Art Museum and Wyeth Center in Rockland, ME, and Interim Director, Assistant Director, and Curator at the Museum of Art, RISD and Yale University Art Gallery. Lora holds an M.F.A. degree in Museum Studies and Art History from Syracuse University, NY, and a B.A. from Rutgers University, NJ.

Gabriela Case

Office Assistant

Diane Covell

Office Manager

Gabriela Case provides administrative and office logistics support including database, research, candidate tracking and bookkeeping, as well as consultant support. She has 13 years of experience working in membership and office administration at the Currier Museum of Art and the New Hampshire Historical Society. Gabriela is bilingual in English and Spanish.

MaryAnn Delgado

Office Assistant

Diane Covell brings over 30 years of office management, project management and development expertise including over 20 years with the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and the Concord Community Music School. She oversees office management, search project logistics, scheduling, technology, document preparation and social media.

Laurie Pasteryak

Business Development Manager

Laurie Pasteryak joined the firm in January 2023 to enhance our capacity for searches and marketing, after consulting with us in 2022 on technology. She brings 20 years of museum experience and a strong network as a former executive director and serving in leadership roles as an educator and curator at organizations like the Fairfield Museum and History Center, the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, and the USS Constitution Museum. In addition her experience includes corporate marketing, recruitment and business development at a national-level agency. She has served on both museum and association boards and holds an M.A. in Museum Education from Tufts University and a B.A. in History & Anthropology from UConn.

MaryAnn Delgado joined the firm in 2023. She assists with administrative and office tasks, such as database management, document preparation, placing job ads, and consultant support. She has over 30 years of experience working in office administration, retail, and real estate.

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

+ We’ve never used a Search Firm before. How does it work?

We can submit a proposal describing our approach, process and scope of work, based on your search needs. You provide the Search Committee or Team. Once familiar with your goals, we partner with you step-by-step to draft a job/candidate profile and to determine how best to advertise the position. After that, we do the pro-active recruiting and candidate vetting, including reference checks. We submit a vetted pool of candidates to your search committee, so you can chose whom to interview. We work with the search committee all the way through to the hire, helping you to design interviews (and often attending them) and offering counsel when it is time to make an offer. After the offer is accepted, we can help you announce the position and set up onboarding steps – everything you need to ensure a successful and lasting hire.

+ How long does a search generally take?

Searches can vary depending on many factors. However, generally speaking, searches take six months from the time of engaging our firm to candidate hiring and relocation. Once we have agreed to a timeline, we are known for keeping the search on track.

+ How are candidates presented to the search committee?

We present a pool of candidates, each with their own dossier, to the Search Committee for an agreed-upon deadline. Active, qualified candidates are thoroughly vetted beforehand, and their dossiers will include a CV, cover letter, and detailed analytical profile from us including overview narrative, career history, salary requirement, strengths and weaknesses, reference feedback, fit and interest, and the intangibles that help make the case for the candidate. These profiles are used by the search committee for comparative analysis, to select semifinalists and conduct interviews. Clients tell us our presentations and reports surpass those of other firms.

+ How deep are your networks for recruiting nationally and internationally, and for diversity?

Our team of consultants has uniquely deep ties in the museum industry and beyond into the nonprofit, university and trustee worlds. We network regularly through AAM, AAMD, AASLH and regional organizations, and we actively recruit for diversity. We recruit nationwide and internationally and have placed international candidates.

+ What is your record of successful placements?

We offer a warranty with all our searches, and our track record of successful searches is top-notch, and one of the best in the industry. Success comes from listening well to our clients, properly scoping the nature of the job and the goals of the museum, and recruiting and vetting candidates for the best match possible.

+ Who in the firm would actually lead our search?

While growing, our firm remains small enough to provide exceptional service to our clients. Principal Marilyn Hoffman oversees and participates in all searches, usually attending “scoping interviews” at the start and facilitating search-committee meetings and interviews. A Senior Search Consultant who is the best fit to your needs will partner with you as well, bringing additional strength to the recruiting and vetting process. Our entire consultant team and staff contribute to exceeding your expectations for availability and service.

+ How do you follow the ethics of the executive-transition and search professions?

We belong to the national organization of Executive Transition Management Consultants, and follow their professional ethics and practices, as well as those of the museum profession. We avoid “parallel processing,” that is, accepting searches that could result in a conflict of interest. Beyond just following the rules, we are mission-driven. Our work is not just a business. Helping your museum to thrive is paramount.

+ How are your fees established?

We always charge a fixed fee for our search services – never a percentage of negotiated salary – to avoid a conflict of interest and to ensure you can control costs. Our fees vary depending on position level, organizational scale, and scope of services needed. Contact us if you’d like an estimate of fees, including estimated expenses.

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Land Acknowledgment

We acknowledge the contributions of the Penacook, the First Peoples on the land where our office is located. We acknowledge their land stewardship, contributions, and continuing presence today, along with other Indigenous peoples in the region we now call New Hampshire.

Our office is located in a colonial Scots Irish farmhouse begun in 1728 on land that was then called Massachusetts and is now called Londonderry, NH.

We intend this Land Acknowledgment to be a launch for further discussions and work toward proactive actions for diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) in our work. It is only a first step toward the DEIJ work that we are committed to pursuing in our search work and with our clients.

Our Services:

LEARN MORE

Executive Searches

Managing Transition

Process

Fees