Centre Pompidou-Metz is seeking to recruit a Director

Centre Pompidou-Metz opened in 2010. It is the first major cultural decentralization project in France of a national public museum, the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Centre Pompidou-Metz was founded with the support of the urban community Metz Métropole. Centre Pompidou-Metz legal form is that of a Public Cultural Co-operation Establishment (Établissement Public de Coopération Culturelle or EPCC) with an industrial and commercial status, whose initiating members are the French State, the Centre Pompidou, the Lorraine Region that has become the Great East Region, Metz Métropole and the City of Metz.

Centre Pompidou-Metz is an art center dedicated to modern and contemporary art. The institution presents temporary exhibitions, as well as a cultural program, including performing arts, live arts, cinema and lectures. Two spaces of Centre Pompidou-Metz, the Studio and the Auditorium Wendel, are entirely devoted to the latter.

Centre Pompidou-Metz is independent in its scientific and cultural choices and implements its own temporary exhibition program. It is able to draw from the public collections of the Centre Pompidou which counts over 120 000 artworks. Centre Pompidou-Metz does not make acquisitions nor does it own any permanent collection.

The cultural project respects the values of the Centre Pompidou in its generosity, openness to all publics and to all forms of current-day creation in visual arts. It is structured around three major fields of activities:

• Temporary exhibitions presenting visual arts, design, architecture, cinema and contemporary creations.
• A multidisciplinary cultural program following the exhibitions themes and presenting performing arts, live arts, projections, lectures.
• A dedicated and wide range of art educational programs with workshops and performances for children and teenagers.

Duties and responsibilities of the Director

The Director manages the establishment and therefore:

• Defines and implements the artistic, cultural and scientific project presented during the interview and validated by the commission and reports on the progress in the delivery of the project to the board of trustees of the establishment.
• Provides the overall curatorial guidelines of the artistic, cultural and scientific program.
• Acts as the authorizing officer of the revenues and the expenditure of the establishment according to French public sector accounting rules.
• Prepares the yearly budget of the establishment and any potential adjustments, and oversees the execution of the budget.
• Manages the staff of the establishment.
• Leads recruitment procedures and is responsible for the final selection of new staff.
• Signs all contracts, conventions and procurement documents within the delegation decided by the board of trustees.
• Sets the tariffs for commercial services.
• Represents the institution in any judiciary process and in the court of law.

The Director of Centre Pompidou-Metz supervises the implementation of the project within the financial and legal boundaries decided by the board of trustees. The term of office is five years, renewable for a period of three years.

Requirements

The Director of Centre Pompidou-Metz:

• Has a perfect knowledge of the cultural scene, the history of international modern art and contemporary art and its networks.
• Is a creative mind who knows how to reconcile originality, audacity and cares about welcoming a large audience.
• Demonstrates managerial capacity, a great sense of initiative and organization, and a high level of availability. He has an extensive legal, accounting and budgetary knowledge of the public sector.
• Is able to pursue a development strategy, taking into account the issues of cultural democratization and the influence of the establishment on the territory and its place at the heart of Europe.
• Has a great ability to liaise and work collaboratively with the Centre Pompidou, with the local governmental with all cultural and tourism partners of the Great East Region and neighboring countries.
• Pursues and nurtures the territorial anchoring, developing the connections with the local institutions.
• Is fluent in French and English; knowledge of a third language would be appreciated.
• When appointed, will reside in Metz urban area.

Application process and deadlines

A commission composed of members of the board of trustees representing the public partner institutions shall be established under the authority of the President of Centre Pompidou-Metz. The commission will examine the received applications, establish a first shortlist of candidates and interview them.

The members of the board of trustees representing the public partner institutions will prepare a revised shortlist of candidates; such list shall be established unanimously. The revised shortlist will be submitted to the full board of trustees. The full board of trustees shall select the final candidate and present the candidate’s name to the President of Centre Pompidou-Metz. The President will examine the proposal and shall either name the suggested candidate as Director of Centre Pompidou-Metz or decide to name another candidate from the revised shortlist.

The timeline of the recruitment process is as follows:
Application deadline: 30 September 2019 at 5pm
Selection and interviews of the shortlisted candidates: first half of October 2019

Candidates are invited to send their application (Curriculum Vitae and artistic and cultural draft guidelines) by post mail to the following address:

Monsieur le Président du Centre Pompidou-Metz
1 parvis des Droits de l’Homme
CS 90490
F – 57020 Metz Cedex 1
FRANCE