Executive Assistant

The Executive Assistant will play a vital support role for the Institute’s Chairman and senior staff who deliver training programs and consulting services for a portfolio of national and international clients.

This position is full-time and will be fully remote. Travel to Washington, D.C, and other locations around the country for events may be required on an infrequent basis.

This individual will be responsible for the following primary roles:

• Providing administrative, scheduling, travel, and expense reconciliation support for the Institute’s Chairman and senior staff
• Serving as the liaison to the Institute’s clients on behalf of the Chairman
• Assisting with bookkeeping record keeping processes
• Other professional duties as directed

Required aptitudes include:

• A genuine desire to pursue the Institute’s mission of supporting local, regional, national and international arts ecologies in alignment with the Institute’s Core Beliefs (see below)
• Professionalism, diplomacy, patience, kindness and client service orientation
• Sensitivity to and appreciation of cultural differences and commonality in the North American and global contexts
• Precise attention to detail, in both routine and higher-level activities
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office tools, including Outlook, Excel, Word, and PowerPoint
• Impeccable spoken and written English, both in person and via phone
• Confidentiality and discretion
• Ability to prioritize, problem solve, and adapt to changing needs in a fast-paced entrepreneurial environment
• Ability to multi-task, prioritize, and work under pressure with grace in a supportive but highly self-motivated, remote environment

Opportunities to Excel:

Dependent upon workload, this position will support the Institute’s research, analysis, and client service needs.

The Assistant may also support the Capacity Building Programs department through a range of logistical, administrative, and communications tasks, including event and travel coordination, registration management, participant communications, production of materials, data tracking, and marketing support.

This Assistant may also engage with other Institute activities including the development of evaluative reports for funders, data analysis, the creation of visual representation of data, and copy-editing.

Experience:

• Administrative support and/or office management
• Experience with records management and event planning support preferred
• Working knowledge of arts management practices preferred but not required

About the DeVos Institute of Arts and Nonprofit Management

The DeVos Institute of Arts and Nonprofit Management provides training, consultation, and implementation support for arts managers and their boards.

It operates on the premise that while much is spent to train artists, too little is spent to support the managers and boards who keep those artists at work.

The DeVos Institute has served more than 1,000 organizations from over 80 countries since 2001. While environments, objectives, and disciplines vary, each of our clients shares the desire to create, market, and sustain exemplary cultural programs.

The DeVos Institute has designed its services to assist a wide range of institutions, from traditional performing and presenting organizations, museums, galleries, art schools, and libraries, to botanical gardens, glass-making studios, public art trusts, and nonprofit cinemas, to name a few.

The Institute was founded in 2001 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. by President Michael M. Kaiser. In 2010, it received an unrestricted, multi-year commitment from the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation to support its pro bono consulting and teaching activities. In 2014, it transferred its operations to the University of Maryland, maintaining offices in Washington D.C. and partnering with the University on research, teaching, and fellowship initiatives serving thousands of students and practitioners worldwide.

Core Beliefs

At the DeVos Institute of Arts and Nonprofit Management, we believe that:

1. Creative practice is an essential expression of the dignity, aspirations, and achievements of individuals, communities, and societies.
2. The many valuable outcomes of creative practice include those that:
   • empower through education and self-realization;
   • inspire through beauty and awe;
   • confront injustice and advance social change;
   • encourage empathy for other perspectives and ways of life;
   • affirm and celebrate personal identity; and
   • affirm and celebrate collective humanity.
3. People of every class, race, geography, age, ability, gender and sexual orientation have an equal right to pursue these outcomes through creative practice. This right remains at threat and requires active defense.
4. Equitable access to, and distribution of, capital and training for creative practice is required for healthy societies to flourish.
5. Healthy arts ecologies require collaboration between, and investment from, individuals, institutions, and government.
6. Art – and the dialogue it provokes – is an instrument of peace. Pro-active support for creative practice as a platform for intercultural, and international, cooperation is required in a healthy global society.