The Eli Whitney Museum & Workshop Seeking Its Next Director

In 1798, Eli Whitney was already a gifted mechanic and inventor. His cotton gin was famed and notorious. That year, he acquired a site on the Mill River two miles north of the New Haven Green, with the goal of producing American muskets for foreign and domestic military customers. Whitney had little experience with gunsmithing, a craft that takes decades to master. Experienced gunsmiths were scarce so Whitney used experimental methods, advancing manufacturing through new tools and through the division of labor. His workers learned through doing. This innovative style of workshop learning powered the American Industrial Revolution.

The EWM&W is located on this historic site and in the remaining buildings of Whitney’s 1798 workshop and musket factory. Today, on this bucolic riverfront site, EWM&W interprets the core artifact of Whitney’s legacy--the practice of learning by experiment--in a modern context. The site’s five buildings include 12,000 square feet of workshop space. Some tools, like the drill presses, Whitney would recognize, while others--the CNC routers, laser cutters, and 3D printers--he could only have dreamt of.

For 30 years, the EWM&W’s educators have designed, produced, and taught experimental building projects that complement elementary and middle school STEM and cultural curricula. In 2019alone, nearly 30,000 children participated in our in person school programs and an additional 4,000 people constructed projects during weekends and school vacations. Summer workshops, a staple for children around the region, engaged over 1,700 children ages 6-14 in 70 distinct week-long camps, with offerings ranging from the playful to the artistic to the technical, from designing dragons on wheels to building and launching boats in the water lab or the Mill River to programming Arduino-controlled pinball games.

The EWM&W, like most organizations today, continues to evolve and adapt to challenges presented by the pandemic but is in sound fiscal condition with substantial financial reserves, grant support, and revenue stream from school programs and licensed intellectual property.

Apprenticeship: a Distinctive Commitment

Just as Eli Whitney had cadres of apprentices who matured to become participants in the innovation ecosystem, the Workshop at the EWM&W has grown over the past 30+ years through its commitment to apprenticeship. Each of 80 apprentices, ages 13-18, commit an average of nearly 400 hours per year. They have been instrumental in every part of the Workshop’s design, teaching, production, and leadership. Alumni of the apprenticeship program have become educators, entrepreneurs, innovators, and contributors to the wellbeing of their communities. They are the single most important product of the EWM&W.

Pluralism and Diversity

The Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop holds equity, inclusion, and diversity as core values. We believe that a diversity of lived experiences leads to a more effective community of learning, creativity, and reflection. We welcome applicants from underrepresented communities including members of the LGBT community; Black, Indigenous, and people of color, immigrants; and people with disabilities.

Kenneth Robinson, speaker and international advisor on education, argues that narrow standardization suits manufacturing, not education. The EWM&W’s programs encourage exploration and experimentation in order to broaden perspectives and bring new understanding.
We stand by the following ideas:
• Pluralism in education: Equal respect for artisanal and academic learning.
• Pluralism in participation: There are no boys’ tools or girls’ tools.
• Cultural pluralism: Innovation is not the province of any one language or culture. Diverse perspectives enrich design.
• Individual differences: Every child has the capacity to learn, teach, and create.
• Shared resources: No child should be excluded from learning. No opportunity to learn from another should be wasted.
This discussion is expanded in the How We Do It section of our webpage.

Eli Whitney’s Legacy

Through the 1950’s, American History was often written uncritically as a narrative of heroic progress. Eli Whitney’s achievements were cited as illustrations of the Nation’s exceptional genius and industriousness. At the EWM&W, we teach a more cautious historical portrait of Whitney. From his writings, we know Whitney sincerely believed that his cotton gin, as a radical labor saving device, would accelerate the end of slavery. We don’t know, due to his silence on the subject of slavery, whether the reality driven by his well-intentioned technology troubled him. But his faith that innovation was inherently good, we think, does not excuse his failure to challenge the institution that perverted his apparent intent. Ultimately, Whitney remained silent in the face of expanding slavery that was fueled, at least in part, by his cotton gin. We draw from this history two constructive lessons: to speak when we witness injustice, and to examine the consequences of our work.

The economist Robert Solow argues that it is misguided to overvalue individual inventors as agents of change. Instead, change occurs through continuous improvement, achieved by the collaborative refinements of many hands and tools. We think the practice of learning together by experiment is the core of Whitney’s legacy. We believe that Whitney’s 1798 workshop achieved change as a community of learning. We remain a community of learning.

The ideal candidate will have training and experience equal to these; if not equal to all of these functions, they will bring complementary training and experience, and demonstrate the proven leadership skills necessary to delegate these tasks to others.

Scope of the Position

AS A LEADER: In small organizations, leadership requires hands-on engagement in every phase of the work. Learning by doing and leading by doing are intertwined.
~ The Director mobilizes the insight and support of the Board, coworkers, constituents, apprentices, and students in the management and execution of all tasks that sustain and grow the EWM&W.
~ The Director will drive initiatives that allow the organization to adapt to the new challenges and opportunities presented by providing tactile education in a global pandemic.

AS AN EDUCATOR: The director will have the experience and training to guide, develop, and promote the traditions of workshop learning that are the heart of the EWM&W’s mission.
~ The director creates and sustains programs that will both engage schools, educators, children, families, the community, and benefactors which the Museum serves and the apprentices that it cultivates.
~ The director interprets the technical requirements of curricula as school systems apply them, and anticipates opportunities to support and complement the work of the educational system.
~ The director coordinates and develops programs for children ages 6-13. Each program must have learning and entertainment value. Programs must have originality that appeals in a marketplace of many capable service providers.
~ The director will lead staff innovation in utilization of online learning technologies.
~ The director artfully employs the gifts of the EWM&W’s full time educators and apprentices, and engages part-time educators, artists, and artisans to expand the EWM&W’s offerings.

AS A MANAGER: The EWM&W works with many school systems, families, vendors, and partners. Each day is different. The director must balance flexibility with disciplined attention to detail. The director will be adept at defining and communicating policy and strategy, whether in person, in print, or through email.
~ The director, as a member of the Museum’s Board, assists in administering its fiduciary responsibilities.
~ The director creates budgets; supervises financial operations; and manages vendor, parent, donor, and customer relationships. They oversee both operational and capital planning.
~ The director currently trains and supervises seven full-time and 90 part-time staff members and apprentices.
~ The director oversees the operation and maintenance of five buildings and a seven-acre site.
~ The director ensures there are safe and logical policies related to risk mitigation and safety, including transmission of disease and other tool safety questions.
AS AN ADVOCATE: The EWM&W historically earns 75% of its revenue through its workshops and programs, and 25% through fundraising. The director must be attentive to relationship cultivation through understanding priorities and passions of children, parents, teachers, apprentices, school systems, community organizations, the state, and funding organizations.
~ The director curates the EWM&W’s presence in the community.
~ The director represents the EWM&W in its relationships with other arts, educational, and community organizations; in relationships with public and private funding organizations; and in relationships with donors.
~ The director writes or supervises appeals, grant applications, benefits, and a development strategy.
~ The director supervises community outreach in print, on digital platforms, and in shared projects and partnerships.

AS A DESIGNER: The EWM&W has many well-developed projects with established markets, but evolution and exploration are essential. The director must cultivate and lead a culture of continuous reinvention.
~ The director embraces and continues the EWM&W tradition of approaching change confidently, with open arms.
~ The director continuously assesses projects, products, and programs.
~ The director identifies ways to bring new efficiency, excitement, or direction to the work.
~ The director encourages and inspires innovation at every level by any member of the EWM&W community.

Nonessential but relevant experience:
~ Environmental education: The EWM&W’s site is surrounded on three sides by a 400-acre municipal park with remarkable bird populations. It sits on the bank of the Mill River, which comes with all the challenges and opportunities urban ecology can offer.
~ Historic interpretation: The Workshop’s focus on practical learning does not preclude more complete exploration of the site’s history. The EWM&W has a collection of antique firearms which were produced on the site, and a collection of educational toys produced down the street, by the A.C. Gilbert Company in New Haven. Gilbert is a significant figure in the history of learning outside of classrooms.
~Civic and community commitment: The EWM&W is embedded in and committed to both the New Haven and broader community. Knowledge of the region is helpful.
~ Architectural learning: New Haven has a strong history of architectural thinking. An architectural vision of people, places, opportunities, and interactions can inform strategy.
~ MAKER education: The EWM&W’s programs anticipated the Maker Movement by decades. The EWM&W’s overlapping philosophy in method and interests with the Maker Movement is deep and valuable.

Latitude

The job description outlines administrative responsibilities to indicate the varieties of experience that an ideal candidate will offer. The program catalog on our website reflects the interests and experience of the EWM&W’s current directors and educators. The Board anticipates and expects that a new director will contribute new interests and perspectives. The Board, which includes the current director, is supportive of the evolution of the EWM&W that will be brought by a new director.

Transition
The new director will be expected to prioritize the identification and hiring of a new associate director. This arrangement will allow the new director to lead the search for a new associate director with the skills they deem important.

Timeline and Procedure

~ Interviews will be scheduled as soon as possible after advancing candidates through initial screening.
~ The search is open and will remain open until a new director has been engaged, but early applications are appreciated.
~ The committee expects to have filtered down to final candidates by the end of November.
~ Interested candidates should send a letter of interest and resume to search@eliwhitney.org. Questions are welcome. Correspondence will be acknowledged within a few days.
~ Supporting material such as portfolios of work are welcome.