Classification: Hourly Employee
Salary: $20 per hour, up to 24 hours per week for a period of 20 weeks
Anticipated Start: Week of May 11, 2025
Reports to: NRF Visitor Services Manager
Job Summary:
The Ambassador plays an integral role in helping to make 46 Clarke Street (The Vernon House) a welcoming, accessible, and engaging experience for members of the public with a variety of interests, backgrounds, and needs. This position is responsible for ensuring the daily operations of Vernon House during the span of the special exhibition, including opening and closing the building, Point of Sale operations and troubleshooting, sharing interpretive and wayfinding information with visitors, leading walking tours, special research projects, and providing excellent customer service. This is a part time position, up to 24 hours per week including Friday, Saturdays, and Sundays, May 31-September 28, 2025.
About 46 Clarke Street/The Vernon House:
46 Clarke Street (otherwise known as “The Vernon House”) is not a house museum: it is a place for expansive storytelling, contemporary dialogue, and preservation trades skill-building. While NRF has become the process of investigating the architectural, material, and historical aspects of the house, there is much more to discover. NRF looks forward to continuing discoveries, collaborating with community partners and scholars, and sharing more stories.
The house is connected to many integral stories of not only the history of the city of Newport but the broader history of colonization, global trade, and historic preservation’s impact on city planning. The house was gifted to NRF in 2009, and since then, NRF has been working to better understand the long-term preservation needs of the building as well as working towards researching and interpreting the history of the house and its inhabitants. Recently, NRF completed a historic structures report, which involved historical research on the building, archeology, paint analysis, and dendrochronology to uncover a more complete history of the house.
About the Ambassador program:
The Ambassador program is a collaboration between the Newport Restoration Foundation and the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society. The program is designed to empower emerging cultural heritage professionals to develop research, analytical, public speaking, and interpretive skills and gain hands-on experience with working at a publicly accessible cultural heritage site. The inaugural year for the program is centered around A Matter of Truth-Newport—an exhibition presented by the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society in partnership with the Newport Restoration Foundation. A Matter of Truth celebrates over 400 years of African heritage history in Rhode Island, with a particular emphasis on Newport. It traces the stories of generations of African heritage people and their indelible contributions in shaping the city and how this intersects with historic preservation movements today.
Specific Responsibilities:
- Open and close the building during the span of the exhibition (including arming and disarming the alarm system)
- Troubleshoot technical issues involving the POS/Visitor Management system
- Provide excellent customer service to address visitor questions and feedback
- Assist on the floor— greet visitors and help manage the number of guests in the building at one time
- Initial point of contact for facilities issues and onsite emergencies
- Help monitor and report building-related issues to the Director of Preservation; act as liaison with the Visitor Services Manager to communicate information related to customer service, operations, and the exhibition objects
- Ambassadors will also have the opportunity to conduct research projects related to the themes of the exhibition and may become a walking tour guide for NRF’s planned Neighborhood walks
- Assist with program setup and staffing as needed
- Other duties as assigned
Qualifications:
- 2+ years customer service experience
- Experience leading guided tours
- Experience in museums, performing arts venues, or other nonprofit organizations a plus
- Experience in operating point of sales systems and/or handling retail sales (Salesforce and Shopify a plus)
- A problem-solver; calm under pressure and challenging circumstances
- Excellent communications skills; can communicate effectively with people from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences (museum visitors as well as colleagues)
- Fluency in English, other languages a plus
- A team player who is capable of collaborating across NRF departments
- Available to work weekends
The job description is meant to outline the role but not define potential candidates. If you do not meet all the qualifications but are enthusiastic about the work of NRF and this position, please apply!
To apply, please send a resumé and cover letter indicating your interest to Maeve Sheehan, NRF Administrator at maeve@newportrestoration.org. We will review applications on a rolling basis and the closing date is April 30, 2025.
