Max Lenik Email & Phone Number

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Assist the Director of Project Management and Integration for the Obama Presidential Center with creating and maintaining tracking documents for the project and populating risk registers, installation sequences, impact logs, and open item lists. Coordinate and facilitate interdisciplinary working sessions, participate in and lead project integration meetings and planning sessions, generate meeting notes, and chase action items. Gather information for, coordinate, and create board-level presentation materials and holistic project status and progress reports. Assist with schedule development and identifying cross-departmental dependencies in multiple software. Project manage the Inclusive Design Working Group, gathering community feedback and addressing accessibility concerns throughout the project.

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Founded in March of 2021, Lenik Museum Services offers museum collections and exhibitions services including installation and de-installation, object and art handling, condition reporting, transportation, exhibition coordination, content research, label writing, consultation, and more. See Lenikmuseumservices.com for more information and a complete list of past projects. Clients include:- Elmhurst Art Museum (Elmhurst, IL)- Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago, IL)- The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL)- Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center (Skokie, IL)- Richard Gray Gallery (Chicago, IL).

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Provides project-based artifact handling and installation support to the Museum’s Preparator. This role will be involved in carefully moving, arranging, and organizing a wide variety of the museum’s artifacts.Responsibilities include: - Preparing artifacts for moves within storage or installation as needed, including packing or building custom support structures for moving.- Cleaning and assessing the condition of artifacts that will be handled.- Communicating and coordinating with Collections team, including Director, Curator, and Registrar to ensure that all projects are accomplished on time and with care.- Assessing materials and tools needed for the handling of specific artifacts.- Coordinating with the Head Preparator and other Museum staff on areas that involve the Collection Storage.

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Assisted with the venue build-out and exhibit installation process, onboarded technicians, and coordinated with vendors in order to meet the grand opening deadline. Managed all aspects of the venue and exhibit maintenance and technical functions by leading the team of technicians to create and maintain a memorable and engaging experience for each guest. This included venue upgrades, material sourcing, maintenance, contractor management, technical troubleshooting, budget and project management, team development, scheduling, and supplier correspondence. This position was cut short due to company layoffs.

Washington D.C. Metro Area

Managed exhibition maintenance, timelines, installs, de-installs, shipping, vendor negotiations, and contracts. Provided logistical and physical support for all exhibit needs, including all communication with exhibited artists and partners. Prepared, maintained, and repaired exhibits and exhibit space for public hours on weekends, as well as trained and managed weekend docents. Planned exhibit floorplans, fabrication and installation methods, managed vendors and/or installed content and audio/visual equipment, and tracked budgets for each project from start to finish.Coordinated all logistics before, during, and after all corporate, diplomatic, and cultural events, totaling over 100 events per year, including discussion panels, diplomatic social gatherings, concerts, film screenings, press conferences, exhibition openings, author and artist talks, black-tie galas, non-profit socials, and holiday celebrations. Sourced all event vendors and facilitated client logistics, communications, and timelines. Executed all event technical, food and beverage, security, decor, entertainment, and transportation needs for events of up to 500 guests. Processed invoices, purchased food, beverages, and materials, and created and tracked events and yearly budgets. Unfortunately, this position was eliminated due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Washington, D.C.

Manages private events by coordinating onsite caterers and other vendors, acting as liaison for clients, assisting with preparing the event space and staff for each event, and acting as onsite manager for all aspects of the event and the museum.

Washington D.C.

Provided assistance with developing and fabricating new exhibit projects, providing maintenance and updates for current exhibits, processing and condition reporting artifacts, photographing artifacts, building exhibit mock-ups for new museum exhibit development and design purposes.

Washington D.C. Metro Area

Acts as the day-of production manager and coordinator for bands at both small and large-scale events. Serves as liaison between the talent, the event planner, and the client. Ensures the musical entertainment follows the given timeline and needs of the client along with all associated contracts for artists are met.

Washington D.C. Metro Area

Maintained and coordinated client and vendor correspondence as well as project timelines, budgets, documents, and drawings while serving as the center point for all project detailers, designers, subcontractors, vendors, and clients from concept to installation. Identified and defined total and partial project scopes, and prepared detailed work plans, schedules, and work orders. Sourced vendors and subcontractors and submitted RFQs required for project completion. Projects worked on included the Museum of the Bible, the National Law Enforcement Museum, and the National Museum of the United States Army.

Washington D.C. Metro Area

Coordinated transportation for the 975 participants of the 2017 Folklife Festival. Managed travel and shuttle schedules, ensuring all participants had transportation to and from DC airports and train stations, and to and from the Festival site on the National Mall. Assisted with transportation coordination for the "Freedom Sounds" opening festival of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Landover, Md

Assisted with production planning and fabrication of exhibits, most notably, the Yayoi Kusama exhibit for the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Fairfax, Va

Assisted with developing exhibition themes and content as well as asset management and image acquisition for several exhibits including the Museum of Mississippi History and the National Park Service (more than one location).

Washington D.C. Metro Area

Researched, sourced, and acquired legal permissions for images to be used in publications, exhibitions, and other formats while also maintaining and managing archival spreadsheets and asset management systems.

Washington D.C. Metro Area

Lead “Operation Spy” participants through a one-hour-long fictional spy mission, and managed interactives, guest services posts, museum interactives, and customer assistance.

Suffern, Ny

Served as pre and post-production assistant for materials research, editing, scheduling, writing, lighting and camera assistant, on-screen talent, interview archival and metadata input, and client correspondence.

Washington D.C. Metro Area

Produced and edited video content for the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Documented the 2014 and 2015 Smithsonian Folklife Festivals. Planned and developed new audience outreach methods and materials.

Greater Chicago Area

Visually documented events and communities of ethnographic substance and producing own research findings for the Calumet Heritage Project. Edited, archived, and coded metadata of visual and non-visual ethnographic materials for the museum's digital asset management system. Assisted researchers in the field.

Worked on behalf of the firm at the Kleinman Family Holocaust Education Center in Borough Park, NY, and assisted with artifact and photograph acquisition, documentation, processing, inquiry, organization, and completed artifact and photograph histories and/or donor interviews.

Suffern, Ny

Assisted with educational programs, prepared and designed displays and exhibits, and created and implemented a new catalog system for the museum's internal library. Served as the lead docent and guide on weekends.

Master Of Arts (M.A.), Museum Studies

Activities and Societies: Museum Studies Student Association Officer Majored in exhibition development and design.

Bachelor'S Degree, Anthropology

Activities and Societies: Anthropology Club, NCAA Men's Volleyball Team Majored in Cultural Anthropology Minored in History NCAA Div. III.

Associate Of Arts (Aa), Humanities/Humanistic Studies

Activities and Societies: Mentor/Talented Student Honors, Hillel