CULTURAL STRATEGY
Gymnasium Whitehall
2023-Present
Whitehall, MT
Snyder Consultancy is providing guidance to develop a renovated 6,000 square foot former 1930s gymnasium in Whitehall, Montana. Gymnasium Whitehall will serve as a vibrant visual arts site in an expanding contemporary cultural community in the Bozeman, MT region. Our process engages a strategic approach to financial, real estate, and art assets to design an innovative and sustainable platform that will serve as a catalyst for a regional arts ecosystem.
CULTURAL STRATEGY
Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize
2023-Present
Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture
Chicago, IL
The Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize at the Illinois Institute of Technology, founded in 2012 in Chicago, is a biennial award recognizing excellence in built works of architecture in the Americas. Snyder Consultancy is providing strategic visioning and fundraising counsel to commemorate MCHAP’s Tenth Anniversary, leading toward a global conference, multi-site exhibition, scholarly publications and positioning the prize as an experimental platform for rethinking architectural practice.
CULTURAL STRATEGY
Private Foundation
2023-Present
Private Foundation
Greensboro, NC
Snyder Consultancy is providing guidance to a private artist endowed foundation to realize the founder’s legacy goals to deepen our humanity through the visual arts. Our process engages research, collaboration with the foundation’s advisors, and a holistic approach to the foundation’s financial, real estate, and art assets to design an innovative and sustainable platform that will achieve generational impact.
MUSEUM DESIGN PLANNING
The Richard H. Driehaus Museum
Summer 2023
The Richard H. Driehaus Museum
Chicago, IL
The Richard H. Driehaus Museum showcases art, architecture, and design from the late 19th and early 20th century in a restored Gilded Age mansion. In 2022, the museum acquired the adjacent Murphy Auditorium to expand its campus. Our activation plan considered new spatial dynamics, engagement with partnerships, and contemporary programming designed to activate a dynamic new cultural campus downtown and position the Driehaus as a vital part of the community.
CULTURAL STRATEGY
Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art
Summer 2023
Johnson County Community College
Kansas City, MO
The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, housed within Johnson County Community College, is recognized for its collection of contemporary masterworks. Snyder Consultancy provided counsel to a new museum director seeking to advance institutional growth and nurture a culture of equity and inclusion. We designed team building workshops to celebrate collective successes, identify core values, and examine systems requiring realignment. This reflective and creative process supported the director’s goals to create a coherent, trusting, productive, and collaborative work environment.
CULTURAL STRATEGY
Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College
Spring 2023
Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College
Clinton, NY
The Wellin is an art museum at Hamilton College which serves its liberal arts community and the broader region in discovering the arts through contemporary exhibitions, a global teaching collection, and community programming. Snyder Consultancy designed a full day retreat with the Wellin team to build upon and deepen an inclusive work culture by reinforcing core values and aligning organizational activities. Interactive exercises employing systems mapping and values identification catalyzed a collaborative and empowered team, laying the foundation for the next phase of strategic visioning.
Photo by John Bentham. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College.
CULTURAL STRATEGY
Sarasota Museum of Art
Spring 2023
Sarasota Museum of Art
Sarasota, FL
The Sarasota Museum of Art is affiliated with the Ringling College of Art and Design. Snyder Consultancy designed a full day retreat with a new Executive Director to build upon and deepen an inclusive work culture by reinforcing core values and aligning organizational activities. Interactive exercises employing systems mapping and values identification laid the foundation for the next phase of strategic visioning.
Photo by Ryan Gamma
MAPPING THE FUTURE
School of the Art Institute Chicago
Fall 2022
School of the Art Institute Chicago
Chicago, IL
In collaboration with Professor Mary Jane Jacob, Jill Snyder co-taught a seminar in the Curatorial Studies program at SAIC focused on museum leadership. Snyder facilitated dialogues with museum directors who participated in the inaugural EXPO Directors Summit that focused on their experiences leading change at a time when institutions are grappling with challenges to inequitable systems and structures.
MUSEUM DESIGN PLANNING
Institute of Contemporary Art
Spring 2022
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, VA
Snyder Consultancy was engaged to explore design solutions that would animate the public and commons area of the museum’s ground floor to better engage and serve VCU students. We designed interactive activities to examine student behaviors, noting incentives and barriers to engagement and focusing on social mobility and culturally determined practices. Drawing upon insights generated during these sessions, participants linked desired experiences to place dynamics and proffered design solutions to humanize and animate the space.
Cauleen Smith, “Sit at the feet of action,” 2019. Exhibition view Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, Markel Center, Royall Forum, "Cauleen Smith: Give It or Leave It," (Feb 16, 2019 - May 5, 2019). Photo: David Hale
MAPPING THE FUTURE
Rethinking The 21st Century Museum: Equitable Design
Summer 2021
Snyder Consultancy, in partnership with AEA Consulting and Perkins&Will, organized Rethinking the 21st-Century Museum: Equitable Design, a virtual conversation that took place over three sessions in June and July 2021. Set against the imperative for museums to become more visitor-centered, civic-minded, inclusive, welcoming, and participatory, a diverse group of museum professionals and designers came together to explore how the built environment can affect a sense of collective wellbeing. These workshops channeled a vital conversation at the intersection of museums, design, and equity, ultimately positing that equity in design respects the emotional, social, and political dynamics of space.
Snyder Consultancy offers customized spatial equity workshops designed to release the potential for design to create more inclusive, welcoming environments.
CULTURAL STRATEGY
Farshid Moussavi Architecture
Winter 2022
London, UK
Farshid Moussavi Architecture is a London-based architecture practice with a reputation for working with global clients who recognize the profound impact of architecture on the quality of life. Snyder Consultancy consulted on the development of a business plan to identify positioning opportunities for FMA that elevate brand distinction, expand market outreach, and cultivate a new client base in the US.
MAPPING THE FUTURE
Directors Summit
Spring 2022, 2023, 2024
EXPO Chicago
Chicago, IL
Drawing upon her extensive professional network, Jill Snyder consults with EXPO Chicago to produce the annual Directors Summit, which brings together a diverse group of emerging art museum leaders from across the United States for a three-day series of conversations on the future of museum leadership and institutional reinvention. The Directors Summit centers on two public roundtable discussions on the /Dialogues stage that examine how to forge equitable and sustainable movement forward for art museums and institutions.
