Creative Director

Copy link

Arts Festival Curation and Production

• Work closely with the Associate Director for Creative Productions to produce a large-scale arts festival, including its flagship arts recognition program.
• Collaborate with senior creative and arts leadership as a thought partner on new creative programming, curation, and initiatives for the festival.
• Project manage the planning, marketing, hiring, logistics, implementation, and execution of the festival.
• Recruit, hire, train, and coordinate a team of 12–15 Student Producers.
• Organize 800–1,000+ student performers for the festival.
• Recruit and organize 60–100 volunteers, including students, faculty, staff, and community members, as well as a Volunteer Coordinator to supervise them.
• Schedule 10–12 venues, security, equipment, volunteers, and performances.
• Serve as the primary lead for the festival’s Performance Fair, collaborating with senior arts leadership on its curation.
• Develop new partnerships with schools, faculty, offices, and departments to incorporate their ideas into festival events.
• Establish and maintain timelines and workflows for festival committees and work groups.
• Track and organize logistical and publicity information.
• Ensure that planning stays on schedule and that vendors and staff have up-to-date information.
• Solicit applications for festival events from university partners and gather accurate publicity information on campus arts events and exhibitions occurring during the festival.
• Gather, enter, and manage the festival event database, files, and correspondence.
• Work with the Communications team to develop, manage, and execute strategy for marketing, communications, and outreach.
• Prepare content for event guides, signage, websites, social media, media inquiries, and general communications materials, working closely with senior colleagues.
• Track and update the festival budget, ensuring effective allocation of resources, and assist event producers with timely reconciliation of invoices.
• Prepare final documentation and post-production materials for the festival and maintain a digital and print archive.
• Organize an annual post-mortem with senior staff to discuss the festival and propose changes for the following year.
• Solicit, track, and prepare data and create a yearly festival report; contribute data and language for annual impact reports.

Special Event Strategy, Planning, and Project Management

• Support senior arts leadership in planning, project-managing, marketing, and producing visiting guest artist programs, special projects, and university events as assigned.
• Lead setup and breakdown, logistics, hospitality, and artist support for special events.
• Book hotels and travel and manage hospitality and logistics for visiting guest artists and residencies.
• Build itineraries and serve as the point person for visiting guest artists.
• Track and organize logistical and publicity information for special events.
• Negotiate and coordinate with vendors and internal departments to organize event services, including catering, audiovisual needs, signage, registration, logistics, parking, and security.
• Develop and maintain a schedule for event production meetings.
• Prepare detailed event plans and briefing documents to ensure smooth operational execution, including assigning, communicating, and training staff on roles and responsibilities.
• Track and update special event budgets in collaboration with senior arts leadership.
• Partner with program leadership to evaluate event processes by analyzing survey data and insights from cross-functional team debriefs to assess audience experiences.
• Support digital storytelling, social media, and event promotion as assigned.

Working Conditions

The work schedule and location will be set by the department at its discretion based upon operational needs and objectives and consistent with applicable organizational policy.

The position requires 5 days on-site in Cambridge, MA during term time, from the first day of classes through commencement, with the exception of student breaks.

When not working at an organizational or designated location, employees in hybrid positions must work in a registered state in compliance with applicable policies regarding employment outside of Massachusetts. Additional details about work location requirements will be discussed during the interview process.

Certain visa types and funding sources may limit work location. Individuals must meet applicable work location sponsorship requirements prior to employment.

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications

• Master’s degree required or equivalent work experience.
• 5+ years of work experience in event management, event project management, people management, or a similar role required.

Additional Qualifications and Skills

• Strong attention to detail.
• Experience producing live performance events.
• Experience providing outstanding customer service to internal and external constituents.
• Excellent communication, organizational, time management, and project management skills.
• Experience working closely with students in a support capacity.
• Significant experience leading event projects requiring collaboration across teams of diverse stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to work both independently and on a team.
• Deep understanding of project management and productivity tools, such as ClickUp.
• Knowledge of virtual and hybrid event platforms, such as Zoom Events.
• Understanding of AV technology and other event-related technology.
• Availability to work irregular hours, including evenings.
• Demonstrated commitment to education and community programming.
• Ability to manage large quantities of detailed information, problem-solve on the fly, remain calm and professional under changing circumstances, and combine creativity with solid production and people management skills.
• Stage management experience is a plus, as is experience working with multi-generational teams, including retirees and those under 18 years of age.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills.
• Familiarity with Adobe Creative Suite preferred.
• Familiarity with publishing content to websites and social media marketing.
• Command of digital collaboration tools such as Google Drive and Dropbox.
• Experience with project management software such as Trello is a plus.