Program Assistant I (Regular Part-Time Benefited)

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Join the Palo Alto Art Center – Where Creativity Thrives and Community Grows!

The Palo Alto Art Center is your place to see and make art, activate your creativity, and expand your community. Created by the community, for the community in 1971, the Palo Alto Art Center provides an accessible and welcoming place to engage with art. We engage approximately 150,000 people every year through a diverse range of programs, including free-admission exhibitions, classes and workshops for all ages, school programs, and special events throughout the year. The Art Center staff work toward a vision in which art is embedded in the community, a part of everyday life. Our values:

• Art is essential for individual and community vitality.
• Seeing and making art is transformative.
• Respect for one another builds greater understanding, stronger relationships, and community.
• Creativity and innovation inform our public offerings, thinking, and work as an organization.
• Collaborative partnerships and practices are essential for fostering a more interrelated, vibrant City.

Every Art Center staff and volunteer knows and understands their roles in upholding the mission, values, and vision. We operate with the highest level of professionalism on behalf of the Palo Alto Art Center, the Palo Alto Art Center Foundation, and the City of Palo Alto, with whom we share a long-term commitment to serve residents of and visitors to our diverse City.

Our tenets of organizational culture: inclusive, respectful, collaborative, and strategic.

Our key strategies in our strategic plan (adopted 2018) include: heighten community engagement; increase financial sustainability; increase leadership capacity.

The Palo Alto Art Center is owned and operated by the City of Palo Alto as a program of the Division of Arts and Sciences, Department of Community Services. The Palo Alto Art Center Foundation was founded in 1973 and is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides financial support and advocacy to the Art Center through a public/private partnership that allows us to enhance our reach and impact in the community.

POSITION DESCRIPTION

The Program Assistant I provides coordination and administrative support for Art Center programs and projects, overseeing daily operations, including the scheduling and coordination of programs and events, providing excellent customer service to the public, community groups, and other City departments as directed. The position works as part of a larger Visitor Services team that is vital to the Art Center’s success.

Visitor Services:

• Greets visitors to the Art Center, directing them to appropriate program areas, working to support and create a positive visitor experience.
• Addresses all visitor information inquiries for Art Center programs, directing the public to appropriate staff member as needed, to provide excellent service to those interested in Art Center programs and services.
• Registers guests in classes, workshops, and summer camps in person, by phone, and supports online registration and point-of-sale services.
• Actively engages visitors in a variety of ways, including visitor surveys, to gather visitor feedback and demographics to continually improve the visitor experience and provide data for reporting to stakeholders.

Facility and Operations Management:

• Conducts daily building walkthroughs and monthly building inspections to ensure the safety of visitors, staff, and artwork on display in Art Center exhibitions.
• Supports the Program Assistant II in all facility related issues; reports identified issues to PWD Facilities Management in a timely fashion and ensures facility issues are resolved as soon as possible to prevent unsafe conditions.
• Assists the Program Assistant II in keeping staff informed about safety and emergency procedures for situations such as fire, earthquakes, severe weather, and other potential safety concerns to protect visitors, staff, and artwork.
• Monitors and manages security systems, including alarm, keys and card keys, and trains all staff in security system procedures to provide a safe and secure environment for visitors and staff.
  • Listed on alarm call-out list, to respond to off-hour alarm issues.

Facility Rentals:

• Supports coordinating revenue-generating facility rentals
• Responds to inquiries about facility rentals at the Art Center, providing rental rates and tours of the facility rentals.
• Reserves spaces for customers in the City of Palo Alto’s Civic Rec reservation system, coordinating contracts and taking deposits and payment.
• Provides information to renters about Art Center facility rental procedures and regulations.
• Schedules House Managers for facility rentals as needed.
• With the support of the Program Assistant II, supervises team of House Managers to ensure the effective and efficient functioning of rentals, special events and other Art Center programs.
• Coordinate the hiring, training, onboarding, and evaluation of House Manager staff.
• Follows up with renters after events, providing survey information and regularly reviewing that evaluation feedback with the Art Center staff.
• Helps to promote facility rental opportunities in the community.

Other Responsibilities:

• Coordinates cash handling procedures, daily cash handling reporting requirements, regular deposits.
• Oversee administrative budgets, coordinating contracts and payments as needed.
• Coordinate tracking of monthly performance measures to identify program trends, measure program success and to provide required data to grantors and other agencies.
• Support timecard submissions.
• Support special events including the Palo Alto Clay & Glass Festival and the Great Glass Pumpkin Patch, ensuring internal and external stakeholders are supported and adhering to the rules and regulations of the City of Palo Alto and the Palo Alto Art Center.
• Provide administrative support to programs and special projects as needed.

• Employer contributions towards medical, dental and vision will be pro-rated based on the number of hours worked.
• Vacation accruals are also pro-rated and will be determined on the number of hours worked.

Essential Duties:

Essential and other important responsibilities and duties may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Act as receptionist, and coordinator of volunteer activities, schedule appointments, screen calls; receives visitors, and respond to inquiries.
• Act as liaison with City programs and managerial staff, contractors, community groups and local businesses associated with the assigned programs and projects. Responsibilities may include but are not limited to conducting tours and workshops, and meeting attendance.
• Establish and maintain a system of monitoring and reporting on the status of the assigned program. Prepare and track payments, purchase requisitions and contracts, purchasing forms.
• Coordinate facility booking, scheduling, rental process and computerized registration processes where applicable.
• Conduct research for use in the specified areas of assignment in development of material used in reports, promotional materials, design, or dissemination of information to the public.

• Perform related level classification duties and responsibilities depending on area of assignment.

Minimum Qualifications:

Sufficient education, training and/or work experience to demonstrate possession of the following knowledge, skills, and abilities which would typically be acquired through:

• Equivalent to graduation from high school and 3 years of progressively responsible administrative experience working with programs or projects. Completion of 2 years of college may substitute for 1 year of work experience.

• May be required to possess a valid California Driver's License.

Supplemental Information: