The Textile Museum Collection, founded in 1925 and now housed at The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum, is a world-renowned textile arts collection comprised of 21,000 objects drawn primarily from the Asian, African, and indigenous American cultures of the last five millennia. The Textile Museum’s mission is to expand public knowledge and appreciation—locally, nationally, and internationally—of the artistic merits and cultural importance of the world’s textiles. Through exhibitions, programs, and academic courses, the Museum integrates with diverse disciplines to enrich research, education, and cultural understanding of textile arts both across and beyond The George Washington University (GW). The museum also strengthens the established reputation of the University as a leader in training the next generation of museum professionals and textile scholars.
The purpose of The Textile Museum ( TM) Curatorial Fellowship is to support the quality, vitality, and diversity of research in textile studies and strengthen the curators’ intellectual care of the textile collection. This includes conducting independent collections research and interpretation of the textile collection for exhibitions, publications, and other ways of knowledge dissemination, alongside building academic and popular interest in textile studies. This fellowship is intended to provide full-time support for the department through the above activities and is not a completion fellowship for the purpose of finishing a dissertation or thesis.
TM Curatorial Fellow undertakes primary and secondary collections-based research at The Textile Museum Collection and is typically an advanced doctoral student or post-doctoral researcher who received their Ph.D. within the past two years, and whose research interest corresponds to The Textile Museum Collection and its current research goals.
Fellowship Expectations
TM Curatorial Fellow is expected to:
- Present one talk related to their research to a scholarly community and at least one public lecture based on their research to the museum community.
- Write a full-length article for The Textile Museum Journal based on their research findings in The Textile Museum Collection, no later than the year their appointment is completed.
- Bring up-to-date curatorial information for The Textile Museum objects in their research area.
- Participate in curatorial meetings, events, and seminars.
TM Curatorial Fellow is encouraged to:
- Contribute to the development of museum strategies for the dissemination of scholarly information, including electronic means to strengthen the institution’s scholarly role and visibility.
- Engage with the scholarly community and contribute to other museum-generated scholarly initiatives.
At the end of their appointment, the TM Curatorial Fellow must deliver a final report to the Director of The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum and the Chief Curator of The Textile Museum Collection detailing the work accomplished during the appointment.
The TM Curatorial Fellow appointment is a 1-year appointment with one renewal option and generally runs from September 1 to August 31. Individuals may hold an appointment for no more than two consecutive years.
Work will be equally divided between the Avenir Foundation Conservation and Collections Resource Center on the Virginia Science and Technology campus (Ashburn, VA) and at GW’s Foggy Bottom campus, where the Museum and resource libraries are located.
Performs other duties as assigned. The omission of specific duties does not preclude the supervisor from assigning duties that are logically related to the position.