The American Academy in Rome invites applications from artists, scholars, and institutional leaders for the position of its Rome-based Director, beginning in summer 2020, for an initial term of three years (2020-2023), with the potential for two one-year renewals. The candidate should have a distinguished record of achievement in one of the disciplines represented at the Academy as well as significant experience in management and administration.

The Director of the American Academy in Rome, who is based in Rome, works with the President in New York on intellectual and programmatic activities and provides managerial leadership for all Academy activities in Rome. The Director, working with the senior staff in Rome on operations and administrative matters, manages a diverse Italian and American staff of approximately 60. The Director is a residential member of the staff in Rome.

The Director shares in the task of forwarding the Academy’s mission, shaping and articulating its broad vision for the arts and humanities, and encouraging programs that move across and between scholarly and artistic disciplines. The Director, together with the arts and humanities directors, is responsible for helping to mentor, nurture, and advance the work of diverse Rome Prize Fellows across the Academy’s Fellowship fields in the humanities, which are Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance/Early Modern, and Modern Italian studies, and in the arts, which are architecture, design, historic preservation and conservation, landscape architecture, literature, musical composition, and visual art.

The successful Director will have an established reputation in one of the disciplines listed above, extensive experience in nonprofit arts administration or a related field, broad cultural interests, in particular in those fields of the arts and scholarship served by the Academy, and a genuine desire to interact with a variety of people and institutions. Fluency in spoken and written Italian is critical, and established contacts with Italian scholars, artists, and academic and arts organizations are highly desirable. In addition, the Director hosts numerous public events a month and therefore must enjoy entertaining and hosting others.

The Director reports to the President, and as a member of the Rome and New York senior management team, works in close collaboration with colleagues in New York, including the Vice President for Finance and Administration, the Vice President for Development, and the Director of Communications.

The Director leads the Rome program team and directly oversees the Drue Heinz Librarian, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities, the Andrew Heiskell Arts Director, the Director of Programs, and the Executive Assistant to the Director. The Director also oversees the Rome Director of Operations and Rome Finance Manager jointly with the Vice President for Finance and Administration in New York.