Exploring the Arts (ETA) believes in the transformative power of the arts. Founded by Tony Bennett and Susan Benedetto in 1999, our mission is to transform the lives of young people through arts education. By collaborating with Title 1 public schools, teaching artists, and arts and cultural organizational partners, ETA strives to achieve creative equity for today’s youth by working within an ecosystem of creative, nurturing adults to provide equitable access to high quality, sequential arts programs and opportunities to middle and high school students and alumni in New York City and LA County.

ETA intentionally seeks out school communities in both cities where there is an opportunity to support growth in their arts offerings, and where there is vision and commitment to the arts even in the face of historic under-resourcing. Student programs forge college and career pathways for youth who have traditionally faced structural barriers to opportunities in the arts. 

Using a holistic approach, ETA aims to help schools attain their vision for sustainable, rigorous, and sequential in-school arts programs while offering critical out-of-school-time arts opportunities for select students that build their social emotional competencies through the arts. Through the entry-point program, our 4-Year Plan, ETA staff coaches school leadership to create an individualized road map to build, refine or enhance their arts programs. Students at each Partner High School are eligible to apply for the Arts Internship Program, providing 1:1 mentorship opportunities in all art forms and, in New York City, the Lang Arts Scholars Program, which provides three years of arts training, college preparedness, and career readiness to talented students who demonstrate need. ETA is the local program partner of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Turnaround Arts initiative. Through this partnership, TA: NYC, ETA works with four Bronx middle schools to strengthen their music programs, establish sustainable arts integration initiatives, and build a viable pipeline to arts-focused high schools throughout the City, with special focus on neighboring ETA Partner High Schools.

For more information about ETA please visit www.exploringthearts.org

In 2018, ETA developed a partnership with Turnaround Arts, a national program of the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. that was founded in 2011 under the leadership of former First Lady Michelle Obama. Like ETA, Turnaround Arts makes multi-year commitments to high-need elementary and middle schools; the program is based on the premise that high-quality and integrated arts education can strengthen school reform efforts, boost student engagement and academic achievement, and support schools’ culture in meaningful ways. You can find more information on Turnaround Arts at turnaroundarts.kennedy-center.org.

Through this partnership, ETA has established a cohort of 4 middle schools in the Bronx for a four-year commitment. The cohort began in the 2019-20 school year; paused during the 2020-21 school year; and is beginning their third year this school year (2022-23). The cohort’s schools each focus on two concurrent goals:

1. Develop school-wide initiative(s) that center the arts in building school culture to support outcomes like student engagement and achievement; teacher collaboration; family and community engagement.
2. Build or strengthen a music program during the regular school day to provide students with high-quality music education and prepare them for continuing their music education at the high school level, should they choose.

The PROGRAM MANAGER is the primary person responsible for all aspects of the Turnaround Arts: NYC program, including both the portfolio of 4 active middle schools as well as the relationship and compliance with Turnaround: National.

Primary duties include:

• Build and manage strong relationships with school leadership teams, teachers, and external arts partners to ensure partner schools’ success: visit classrooms, attend school performances, facilitate meetings with school leadership teams and partners, and maintain regular remote communications (phone and email).
• Conscientious stewardship of the ETA / TA: National relationship, including narrative and financial reporting and participating in programming for the National network (incl. bimonthly virtual network meetings, in-person conferences and convenings in the DC area twice a year, and in Spring 2024, supporting TA: NYC schools’ participation in a network-wide Student Talent Show in DC).
• Support and negotiate the alignment of schools’ strategic work with the strategies, compliance expectations and best practices of Turnaround Arts. This includes detailed attention to an annual calendar of partnership deliverables, encouraging and supporting schools’ participation in select Turnaround Arts: National programming, and assisting the planning and execution of visits from Turnaround Arts: National staff and/or VIPs.
• Actively participate as a partner and sounding board with each school in the portfolio: provide timely feedback, course-correction and technical support; closely manage annual budgets for funded work; troubleshoot obstacles; monitor timelines and benchmarks to help keep activities on track; and serve as a respectful matchmaker to potential vendors, service providers, and colleague schools.   
• Implement program evaluation tools to ensure timely, accurate collection of data and reporting for use in grant writing and reporting, as well as internal program assessment and course-correction.
• Maintain accurate, real-time data in Salesforce, ETA’s cloud-based database, with a respect for an internally rigorous administrative standard. 
• Develop a robust program culture where the Bronx arts leadership teams develop a strong cohort affinity; see each other, ETA and Turnaround as valuable resources; and participate in ETA Network-wide programming. 
• Support teacher leaders at each Bronx school who can serve as stipended school-based instructional coaches and peer leaders for the arts integration work.
• Coordinate with and support Development staff at Exploring the Arts and the Kennedy Center in our collective efforts around fundraising, grant writing and reporting as it pertains to the portfolio of schools.
• Provide information and photos/videos to support social media efforts.
• Participate in staff-wide strategy discussions on all ETA programs, with real emphasis on creative thinking, responsiveness to on-the-ground needs, and willingness to pilot new ideas.
• Support Network programming in particular, with a focus on encouraging Turnaround: NYC schools’ participation. 

Important: Candidates should have reasonable flexibility in their schedules during the school year (September-June). While the majority of job duties are conducted during the standard work day, occasional site visits and program activities will take place in the evenings or on weekends, including supporting other ETA programs’ events. Exempt staff may use flex/discretionary time during standard business hours, to balance these extra hours worked in the evening and/or on weekends. 

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree preferred or equivalent work experience. 
• Minimum 3 years of prior professional experience in the field of music education, arts integration, teaching (classroom or teaching artist), or arts administration. 
• Prior professional experience working with teachers, school or district leaders, or in middle school environments preferred. Experience as an artist or arts practitioner a plus but not required.
• Familiarity with the New York City arts education landscape and the NYC Department of Education. NYC resident preferred.
• Familiarity with the concepts and practice of anti-racism and the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion as they apply to classroom and school settings.
• Understands, values, and reciprocates effective, clear, and timely communication.
• Excellent strategic planning, project and budget management, and administrative skills. 
• Demonstrated effectiveness at working collaboratively with educators and cultural institution leaders and managers, and building strong partnerships.
• Skilled with managing competing demands, calendars, and determining priorities. Highest attention to detail.
• Fluent in Microsoft Word & Excel; familiarity with Salesforce and/or Form Assembly a plus but not required.
• ETA requires all employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 unless a medical or religious exemption is approved. Being fully vaccinated means that an individual is at least two weeks past their final dose of an FDA or WHO authorized COVID-19 vaccine regimen. As a condition of employment, newly hired employees will be required to provide proof of their COVID-19 vaccination. 

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS

• Belief that high quality arts instruction should be an integral part of every student’s high school education, and that all students deserve equitable access to college and conservatory.
• Desire to hold oneself accountable for results and be transparent about successes and challenges. 
• Humility and respect for the hard work of school professionals, artists, partners, parents and students. Respectfully managing relationships, communication and deadlines in a way that reflects an understanding that both parties’ time, priorities and needs are important.
• Highest integrity. Sense of responsibility and stewardship for all funds provided to operate Exploring the Arts. 
• Eagerness to pitch in and help beyond one’s immediate responsibilities on an as-needed basis.  

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

The Program Manager: Turnaround Arts role is supported through June 2024. In Spring 2024, the Program Manager, Director of Programs and Executive Director will discuss what opportunity there might be to transition into an expanded role at ETA.  

Compensation for ETA Managers is in the range of $58,500 – $79,500/year. The candidate’s starting salary will be within this range and is commensurate with their experience.

ETA’s benefits package includes:

• Generous PTO: ten vacation days (which increases with longevity at the organization), six sick days per year and four additional floating days for personal use. In addition, ETA observes 12 national holidays, closes between Christmas and New Year’s Day, and observes summer Fridays.
• Comprehensive Coverage: Employer-paid health and dental insurance, long-term disability plan, life insurance, subsidized transportation, and an employee-contributory 401k savings plan.
• Work-Life Balance: ETA is currently a hybrid work-place. The NYC Programs team currently reports to the office in Astoria once each week (Tuesdays) and attends in-person school and partner visits as needed.

Send resume and cover letter to careers@exploringthearts.org with the subject line “Program Manager, Turnaround Arts: New York City”; No phone calls, please.