Job Description

Post: Assistant Curator, based at MoBA

Terms: Full-time, 5 days a week

This role may require some weekend/bank holiday workingto support special events and activities. The salary for this role is £18,000

Reporting to: Senior Curator

Purpose of role: To support the Senior Curator in the care of collections at MoBA, the Herschel Museum, and Beckford Tower, as well as the archive and the library held at MoBA and BPT. To complete research and exhibitions across the three museums and support the Senior Curator with museum accreditation renewal for all four BPT museums.

The main activities of the role are described below. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of duties but a guide to the main priorities. The post holder may be required to undertake other duties and responsibilities compatible with the overall scope of the post. They are expected to use their judgement about priorities within the overall purpose of the role.

Key responsibilities

Care and management of the collections

  • Researching and maintaining detailed knowledge about the museum collections
  • Caring for the museum collections, including displays, preventative conservation, security and insurance, demonstrating an understanding of Accreditation Standard and Government Indemnity Standard and meeting these across the four museums where possible
  • Maintaining collections management and documentation to high standard and compliant to SPECTRUM, including Museum Accreditation and regular checks of the museum inventories to ensure databases, photographs and relevant forms for each item are present and up to date
  • Carrying out the work required to achieve Designation status for the Bath Buildings Record / MoBA collection
  • Undertaking conservation surveys of collections and reporting any concerns regarding damage or the need for conservation work, to the Senior Curator. Liaising with conservators when required by Senior Curator
  • Management and updating of loan and ownership registersand liaising with lenders when requested by Senior Curator
  • Delivering curatorial aspects of the five year exhibition and activity programme
  • Responding to enquiries about the collections

Care and management of the archives and library

  • Maintaining and overseeingthe use of libraries and archives including the digital collection of ‘Bath in Time’ images, as part of the museum collection and according to those standards
  • Ensuring documentation is up to date and all items stored and catalogued appropriately to best practice standards of museums conservation
  • Managing and responding to requests for reproductions and image licenses relating to the archive collection to hit income generation targets, also meeting compliance requirements of Statutory Polices for example Copyright, Data Protection and Freedom of Information

Environmental Monitoring

  • Managing and recording all environmental monitoring of museum collections including archives and library, across the four museums
  • Escalating any environmental concerns to the Senior Curator as required

Museum management

  • Managing and working with any collections, archives and library volunteers
  • If required, deputising for the Senior Curator at committee meetings for the four museums, providing curatorial input as required
  • Delivering the museums’ forward plans and relevant sections of the Museum Strategic Plan, working collaboratively as part of the BPT Museums team to deliver the overall strategic objectives of BPT

Property Conservation

  • Monitoring the condition of the museum buildings and furnishings, liaising with the Senior Curator and Facilities Manager as required
  • Supporting the Senior Curator to maintain current partnerships with the Landmark Trust and Lansdown Cemetery (Bath & North East Somerset Council and Walcot Parish)

Learning

  • Leading specialist tours and talks for members, visitors, students and other groups as required
  • Delivering the curatorial delivery of adult and higher education learning programmes

General

  • Attending staff and museum team meetings, deputising for the Senior Curator as needed
  • Liaising with all BPT Museum staff as required
  • Participating in emergency planning and collection salvage exercises as required
  • Responding to any alarms, security issues or health and safety problems with the support of Museum Administrators at all sites and the Facilities Manager

Job Specification:

Qualifications – Essential

  • MA in Museums or Heritage Studies

Qualifications – Desirable

  • AMA

Knowledge – Essential

  • Sound knowledge of 18th century aesthetic and social history
  • Understanding of current best practice in relation to collections and archives careandmanagement, including Museum Accreditation, Government Indemnity and SPECTRUM standards, as well as compliance requirements of Statutory Polices for example Copyright, Data Protection and Freedom of Information
  • Understanding of the theory and practice of presentation, interpretation and programme approaches
  • Understanding of conservation principles, practice and record keeping

Knowledge – Desirable

  • Specialist knowledge of 18th century decorative arts, architecture, and/or social history

Skills – Essential

  • Undertaking and disseminating research
  • Working collaboratively with a range of stakeholders
  • Developing creative interpretation approaches
  • Planning
  • Good communication, interpersonal, team and influencing skills
  • Managing projects including brokering, commissioning and managing external consultancy, creative, artistic, and design and build services
  • Working at pace and being decisive, prioritising work and activity as required
  • Strong people and influencing skills, enabling strong relationships externally and internally to be built and maintained. Experience of working with external agencies, contractors and organisations
  • Strong demonstrable consulting skills of listening, building trust and acting to deliver a high quality service
  • Excellent IT skills

Skills – Desirable

  • Interest in presentation and programme approaches
  • Consultancy skills

Experience – Essential

  • Working in an accredited museum or heritage setting with responsibility for collections care and exhibitions
  • Demonstrable experience of best practice in handling museum collections
  • Demonstrable experience of best practice in documentation and digitisation of museum collections
  • Demonstrable experience of best practice in conservation monitoring and recording
  • Taking an informed and holistic approach to conservation management
  • Commissioning, undertaking and disseminating research
  • Leading on, interpreting and responding to external and internal research, intelligence and analysis
  • Building relationships and working collaboratively with a range of internal and external stakeholders in order to deliver curatorial outcomes
  • Leading high quality and creative interpretation approaches and content development
  • Taking a holistic and creative approach to revealing the meaning of collections and places for internal and external audiences, relating artefacts to a wider historical and contemporary understanding
  • Active involvement in planning processes
  • Managing collections database systems to Museum Accreditation standards
  • Managing volunteers

Experience – Desirable

  • Experience of assessing collections for rationalisation
  • Experience of fundraising to support museum activities and collection acquisitions

Terms and conditions

  • Some physical elements including movement of museum objects, archives and display materials
  • Some weekend and evening working may be required
  • Some lone working