What are the responsibilities and job description for the Program Assistant position at Blue Mountain Center?
BMC is seeking a thoughtful, organized, humorful, self-starting Program Assistant for the 2025 season, from early April to the late November. Please read the descriptions below for more details about the Center and the job.
ABOUT BLUE MOUNTAIN CENTER :
Housed on Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe Land amidst 1,600 acres of Adirondack wilderness, Blue Mountain Center (BMC) was repurposed from a private 19th century golf course resort and family estate into a social justice-oriented artist residency and conference center in 1982. Today, BMC offers a unique refuge to artists, activists, organizers, and cultural workers who produce transformative work for their times.
Our season consists of month-long residency sessions in the summer, spanning medium and genre, including : visual artists, fiction and non-fiction writers, poets, playwrights, filmmakers, composers, and activists. Our Spring and Fall conference season is made up of larger weekend-length to week-long gatherings. BMC conferences typically include a mix of movement-building gatherings, cross-silo and issue-based discussions, and organizational retreats for rejuvenation and dialogue.
Running BMC requires a team of dedicated staff who align with our mission in their own way. As hosts, decision-makers, program shapers, cooks, innkeepers and groundskeepers, the BMC staff work interdependently to offer a nurturing and generative environment.
In addition to the above, we encourage all applicants to review the Blue Mountain Center website at bluemountaincenter.org to better understand the culture and mission of the Center. Please note that Blue Mountain Center is an intentionally low-tech space, and we have restrictions around Internet connectivity / cell phone usage.
HIRING
BMC is seeking a thoughtful, organized, humorful, self-starting Program Assistant for the 2025 season. The work is varied, demanding, and highly rewarding. It combines sharing in the daily responsibilities of all program staff at BMC to run the center and assisting with BMC's operations and facilities. As a place that hosts temporary and intentional communities, BMC provides an immersive social experience with periods of spacious quiet in between. This balance requires a team of residential staff who are able to collectively host and attend to the needs of guests in a remote but intimate environment, requiring substantial time commitments while guests are in session. The Program Assistant position is an 8 month residential job and requires living on site for the Center’s open season, which is from early April through November.
The Assistant should have an active interest in the Center and its mission of hosting cultural workers dedicated to producing transformative, timely work. We create a unique community setting for artists, writers and activists to work and rejuvenate, which we live in and are a part of. The residential staff sets the tone and atmosphere at BMC by establishing a working community where guests feel productive, comfortable, and willing to pitch in. The Program Assistant reports directly to the Program Director. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to :
Office Administration :
- Provide administrative and logistical support for guests, organizers, and staff.
- Support communications and archival work for BMC.
- Assist coworkers with general administration and on-going projects as needed.
Operations :
Hosting :
This is a unique job with varied tasks that involve working independently and with a team, so desirable prior experiences can look like many things : expertise in facilitating and hosting social justice-oriented spaces, a background in the arts and / or activism, experience working in hospitality, administrative skills and comfortability with databases and archives are all assets. Qualified applicants are open and eager to learn how to thrive and facilitate a communal living environment. We ask that all applicants have a valid Driver’s License and be comfortable driving guests and for errands, which can range up to 3 hours away.
COVID-19 PROTOCOLS :
Our program and operations continue to adapt to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in 2025. We have established a series of protocols for all staff and guests, with specific guidelines for residential staff, which include periods of masking with provided masks and testing regularly to reduce exposure for the communities we live with and are neighbors to. We require that staff are vaccinated. We are happy to set up an informational call with serious applicants to share more information about how we are running BMC this year in regards to our protocols.