Job opportunities (6.11.2022)

2022-11-06

Head of Collections and Programme, PLYMOUTH CITY COUNCIL 

Plymouth is passionate about culture.

This new senior role gives you the opportunity to make your mark on a city full of creative potential. With two years of critically acclaimed programming behind us, The Box is hungry to grow our audiences and reputation and reimagine what a new hybrid cultural organisation can be in the 21st century.

If you are full of ideas and skilled at bringing them to fruition, we would love to hear from you.

The successful candidate must hold a degree or post-graduate qualification in a relevant arts/humanities subject, or equivalent professional knowledge of the national heritage and museum sectors and the issues, standards and best practice required for accreditation through Arts Council England and the National Archives.

This role is suitable for flexible working subject to the needs of the service.

Plymouth City Council is an equal opportunities employer. All applicants will be considered for employment regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage/civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity, race, religion/belief, sex or sexual orientation.

As part of our commitment to promoting equality we offer guaranteed interviews to those who meet the essential criteria and are considered disabled, have been in Plymouth City Council care or are an Armed Forces Service Leaver within the last two years.

For more information or an informal discussion, please contact Victoria Pomery on victoria.pomery@plymouth.gov.uk

Closing date: Monday 21 November 2022.

Anticipated interview dates: Thursday 8 December - Friday 9 December 2022.

Interpretation Editor, DESIGN MUSEUM 

The Design Museum's temporary exhibitions programme is the central focus of its activities. The exhibitions include monographs and thematic exhibitions on every aspect of contemporary design and architecture, ranging from the environment to football.

An exciting opportunity has arisen at the Design Museum for a self-motivated Interpretation Editor who is passionate and knowledgeable about communicating with audiences through exhibitions. This role will suit someone with a passion for language and for sharing ideas with a broad audience.

Job scope

The Interpretation Editor will guide and manage the department's interpretation processes and embed these processes into the exhibition schedule, as an active member of the curatorial team. They will work closely with the exhibition curators to support and guide the writing of exhibition text to produce clear, accurate, accessible and engaging copy for a wide range of audiences, tailored to the context. The role combines practical editorial skills with the ability to work within a team and take personal initiative to implement and regularly review the museum's interpretation strategy. They will report to a Senior Curator.

The successful candidate will have proven editing experience from the museum and galleries sector, and a sound knowledge of audience research and exhibition making. They will understand the importance of effective interpretation in delivering successful exhibitions and a proven knowledge contemporary design and/or architecture.

Research Leader in Collections and Culture, NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM 

The Natural History Museum, London, seeks a highly motivated world-class senior research leader from the social sciences, arts and/or humanities to lead and develop the NHM Collections & Culture Theme within the Science Department. This is a new post for Science with the purpose to provide strategic and operational leadership for the NHM Collections & Culture theme by developing, leading and supporting broad, cross-disciplinary research in the context of one of the oldest national natural history museums and a world leading scientific research institution.

About Us

This is an exciting time to join the Museum as we have secured investment from the UK Government to build a new science and digitisation centre at Thames Valley Science Park (TVSP), a science and technology hub outside Reading. The purpose-built centre (due 2026/27) will house much of the Museum's collection and will include laboratories, digitisation suites, collaborative research spaces, conservation labs and workspaces. To support the realisation of the NHM's vision of a future where both people and planet thrive, we focus our science on solutions from and for nature. Increasingly this puts the NHM, its collections and research at the nexus of trans-disciplinary science and research focusing on science and society.

Collections are at the core of the NHM, the foundation of scientific understanding of the natural world, enhanced and developed by systematics and taxonomy, with substantial infrastructure for downstream scientific research. Collections provide insights into change across multiple dimensions. In our new strategy, our scientific ambition and collaboration has been widened and revolutionised to become multi-disciplinary, integrative and constantly adaptable to change, with a firm foundation in the value of the collections and collecting.

About the role

We are seeking a highly motivated world-class senior research leader from the social sciences, arts and/or humanities to lead and develop the newly developed NHM Collections & Culture Theme within the Science Department. This new post for Science will provide strategic and operational leadership for the NHM Collections & Culture theme by developing, leading and supporting broad, cross-disciplinary research in the context of one of the oldest national natural history museums in a vibrant research environment.

The role offers an opportunity to develop research linking natural history collections to a wide variety of approaches, that could include (but is not limited to):

  • History of science
  • Cultural history related to understanding the natural world
  • Literatures of natural history and the environment
  • Science and racism, history of extractivism, colonialism and natural history science and practice
  • Contemporary cultural practices in natural history science
  • Social impacts of natural history collections and collecting
  • Collections and culture as windows into the past and present
  • The future of natural history collections in a changing world
  • Digital linkages to enhance cultural and natural sciences

Senior Preventive Conservator, SCIENCE MUSEUM GROUP 

Do you have relevant conservation experience and knowledge? Are you able to develop policies and workflows around preventive conservation?

About Us

The National Collections Centre (NCC) in Wroughton is a collections management facility housing a vast range of objects in the collection from microscope slides to railway carriages, other objects are stored in repurposed aircraft hangars, sustainable hempcrete constructed buildings and other facilities dispersed across the park.

We are now recruiting for a Senior Preventive Conservator join the Conservation & Collections Care team based at the NCC, working 35 hours per week on a permanent contract.

About the role

As Senior Preventive Conservator you will have both line management and project management responsibilities. Working with Science Museum Group (SMG) policies and protocols you will be instrumental in the development and delivery of a proactive preventive conservation programme providing focused and consistent preventive care for SMG collections.

In this role you be covering a diverse range of activities. You will be responsible for the collection, reporting and use of our environmental data, improving workflows and achieving consistency across the Group. You will draft and update our standard operating procedures and our collections salvage plans. You will also be involved with hazard management, including writing workflows, leading training and working with colleagues, including the Collections Hazards Officers, to plan and co-ordinate hazard surveying work.

You will work with internal and external stakeholders and provide advice on collection care, including assessing materials suitability for storage and display, making recommendations on suitable materials and applications.

Director of Collections and Research, The National Gallery 

The National Gallery houses one of the greatest collections of paintings in the world. The Gallery's Collection contains over 2,300 works, including many famous works, such as van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait, Velázquez's Rokeby Venus, Turner's Fighting Temeraire and Van Gogh's Sunflowers. These pictures belong to the public and entrance to see them is free. Millions of people visit the National Gallery every year and many more are reached online; the Gallery is committed to being a place of learning and enjoyment, and as a source of inspiration for this and future generations. The National Gallery is currently looking ahead to its bicentenary in 2024 (NG200) with plans for an exciting programme of exhibitions and events across the UK, alongside a suite of capital projects that will improve the Gallery's buildings and services for the people who visit now and those who will in the future.

At this exciting time for the organisation, the National Gallery are seeking candidates for the post of Director of Collections & Research. Reporting to the Director, this role is responsible for leading on Conservation, Curatorial, Scientific and Collections Research matters across the Gallery, serves on the Executive Committee and provides leadership to a number of key departments and functions. They will play a key role in delivering the NG200 programme. Candidates will ideally bring an established profile in an area relevant to the Gallery's collections and strong experience in interpreting collections for a wide variety of audiences, experience of managing research and good knowledge and understanding of currently developments and issues in the museum sector. They will play a strategic leadership role and will ideally bring experience of contributing at a senior level in a relevant environment and have the ability to represent the organisation externally and with key stakeholders and partners.

Saxton Bampfylde Ltd is acting as an employment agency advisor to the National Gallery on this appointment. For further information about the role, including details about how to apply, please visit www.saxbam.com/appointments using reference ENTG. Alternatively telephone +44 (0)20 7227 0880 (during office hours). Applications should be received by noon on Wednesday 23rd November 2022.