Weeksville Educator

Job Description

Weeksville Educators are essential to facilitating our tours and programs. While the primary responsibility of the role is to conduct historic house tours for groups and walk-in visitors, Weeksville Educators help visitors see, connect, and engage with both Weeksville's historical past and its contemporary importance in new ways. They are trained in student-centered approaches and empower visitors to express themselves and their values, opinions, and thoughts. Weeksville Educators work with Education staff to facilitate school and adult tours. Additionally, they will support Programming staff with public programs and events, reaching a variety of audiences.

Primary Responsibilities:

Facilitate interactive tours of Hunterfly Road houses for a variety of audiences, including Pre-K-12 and university students, adults, and families, including:

teaching using inquiry-based, culturally responsive approaches

adapting teaching to multiple learning styles

aligning tours with the museum’s & education best practices

helping visitors feel comfortable at the museum

following up with tour groups, as needed

Lead hands-on workshops

Set up and clean up tour and workshop materials

Assist with the development of new and current tours, workshops, and other programs

Research special exhibitions and the museum’s archives

Serve as liaison between visitors and Weeksville, adapting to the needs and interests of each group where possible

Assist with outreach efforts to schools and other communities

Provide general program and administrative support as needed

Attend training sessions on updated and new tour and workshop content to stay updated on information being delivered to the public

Collaborate with fellow Weeksville Educators the Facilities team on program logistics

Assist the Vice President of Learning and Engagement in facilitating extended school partnerships, teacher professional development, public programs and events, and other community-focused programs.

Company Description

Weeksville Heritage Center is an historic house museum and cultural center in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. We use preservation, education, arts, and civic engagement to examine, interrogate and explore the history of Weeksville, a pre-Civil War free Black community. Weeksville’s legacy of social and intellectual self-determination holds great meaning for the African Diaspora but has universal relevance at this precarious time in American history. As a community hub, WHC provides a physical and virtual convening space for the Black community. As a presenter of first-rate artistic programming and facilitator of thought leadership, we leverage our inspiring history to serve as a thought-center, hosting leading activists, artists, writers, educators, and community members as they explore the Black experience and the process of community-making. Through exhibitions, residencies, symposia, artistic partnerships and events, and research, we offer a space to grapple with contemporary social issues through the lens of our unique piece of American history. We also conduct conservation efforts by promoting oral history, genealogy, digital storytelling, and other forms of accessible historical research. Lastly, as an education space, we draw on our tactile connection to our history to educate, enrich and inspire generations to come.

Weeksville Heritage Center is an historic house museum and cultural center in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. We use preservation, education, arts, and civic engagement to examine, interrogate and explore the history of Weeksville, a pre-Civil War free Black community. Weeksville’s legacy of social and intellectual self-determination holds great meaning for the African Diaspora but has universal relevance at this precarious time in American history. As a community hub, WHC provides a physical and virtual convening space for the Black community. As a presenter of first-rate artistic programming and facilitator of thought leadership, we leverage our inspiring history to serve as a thought-center, hosting leading activists, artists, writers, educators, and community members as they explore the Black experience and the process of community-making. Through exhibitions, residencies, symposia, artistic partnerships and events, and research, we offer a space to grapple with contemporary social issues through the lens of our unique piece of American history. We also conduct conservation efforts by promoting oral history, genealogy, digital storytelling, and other forms of accessible historical research. Lastly, as an education space, we draw on our tactile connection to our history to educate, enrich and inspire generations to come.