Description

The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, seeks a dynamic, experienced, collaborative, and highly creative Director of Marketing and Communications to join the senior leadership team led by The Susan E. Lynch Executive Director & CEO. The DMC is a strategist, content creator, leader and manager of the full range of the Museum’s communications, and a close thought partner to the ED & CEO. The role brings clarity and focus to work streams critical to the Museum’s success and works alongside peer department leaders to carry it forward.  

The Bruce is at an important juncture. With the 2023 completion of a $68 million transformational expansion that tripled gallery space, the Museum is building an integrated art and science identity across its public voice and its visitor experience. Leading that work, the DMC will set strategy for the Museum's brand, grow its audiences, and strengthen attendance, membership, and earned revenue. The DMC also holds a standing seat on the Exhibition Strategy Team and the Programming Strategy Team, ensuring the audience has a voice in decisions about what the Museum presents and when.

Position Overview: 

The Director of Marketing and Communications leads the Museum’s institutional marketing and communications. The position sets brand and audience strategy, builds the plans that carry it across every platform and visitor touchpoint, and grows audience, membership, and earned revenue. The Director thinks about the full visitor journey, from the first time someone hears of the Bruce, to the decision to come, to the visit itself, to the reason they return and become a member.

Reporting to the ED & CEO and serving as a member of the senior leadership team, the DMC leads the internal marketing team and directs the Museum’s external communications partner in a unified strategy. The role works across the Museum’s departments to align programming, exhibitions, development, and visitor experience around a coherent institutional voice. The role partners with senior leadership to build the Museum’s reputation with visitors, members, donors, the press, schools, and the wider cultural community regionally and nationally. 

The position has two direct reports, including a Marketing Associate and a Digital Media Associate. The position also directs the Museum's external communications consultants.

Key Responsibilities: 

• Brand and Audience Strategy: Set the Museum’s brand positioning and audience strategy, and translate institutional priorities into an institutional marketing plan that advances them. Shape the Bruce’s art and science identity narrative and build recognition across the region and nation.  
• Audience Growth: Own the strategy for growing attendance and converting visitors into members. Set annual audience targets in partnership with the ED & CEO and the COO, build the acquisition and conversion approach behind them, and report performance against them. Earned revenue is a shared institutional goal; marketing owns the path from awareness to attendance to membership that drives it.
• Institutional Strategy: Serve on the Exhibition Strategy Team and the Programming Strategy Team, bringing audience evidence into exhibition planning, scheduling, and program design.
• Integrated Marketing: Oversee institutional, exhibition, programmatic, and fundraising marketing plans across advertising, digital, email, social media, and print. Partner with Audience Engagement, Development, and Curatorial Affairs to craft compelling campaigns and maintain brand consistency across all platforms and visitor touchpoints.
• Digital Platforms: Own strategy and performance for the Museum's website, email, and social platforms, and ensure they work together to move people from awareness to attendance to membership.
• Audience Research and Analytics: Lead audience research and use data to guide decisions. Track performance and test new approaches. Know who is coming to the Museum, who is not, and what would change that. 
• Public Relations: Lead the Museum’s regional and national media strategy, working in partnership with the Museum’s external communications agency. Build relationships with press covering art, science, and culture. Manage the Museum’s reputation, anticipate issues before they surface, and direct crisis communications, establishing messaging and approval pathways so the Museum can respond quickly and clearly.
• Team and Budget Leadership: Lead and develop the marketing team. Build and manage the marketing and communications budget with the Chief Operating Officer and other peers, aligning budget with institutional priorities. Oversee the Museum’s agencies and vendors and direct spending where it can most effectively drive audience and revenue.

Requirements

Required Qualifications: 

• Five or more years of experience leading marketing for an institution or mission-driven enterprise, with a trajectory and results that demonstrate readiness for this scope. While Museum experience is not required, fluency with art, science, and ideas is essential.
• Bachelor’s degree. Background in the arts, humanities, education, or related field is welcome. 
• An exceptional storyteller and editor. Able to write clearly, shape a narrative, and serve as a public voice for the Museum. 
• Track record of growing audience, revenue, and engagement through strategy and disciplined execution, with the analytical rigor to turn awareness into attendance and attendance into membership. Able to set targets, test approaches, and measure results.
• Experience leading a team and directing agency and consultant partners towards a cohesive strategy.  
• Strong command of digital marketing, CRM systems, and audience analytics. Able to use data to understand visitors, identify new audiences, and guide decisions. 
•  Skilled at positioning an organization with media, civic and business leaders, cultural peers, and the general public.  Familiarity with a wide range of media channels appropriate for disseminating news about the Museum.
• A strategist and a builder. This is a small team; the DMC sets direction and also does the work.

  Preferred:

• Experience supporting fundraising and campaign communications, including messaging for major gifts.
• Understanding of image copyright and usage.

Competencies and Characteristics:

We are looking for a strategic thinker who will roll up their sleeves, a good listener who is collaborative and able to make timely decisions, and a partner who brings energy, judgment, and high ethical standards to an ambitious and fast-moving institution. The DMC is willing to take risks, test new ideas, and experiment while having strong project management discipline, able to course correct and rebalance resources across complex programs.