Role Description – Curator of Artefacts
The principal responsibility of the Curator of Artefacts are as follows is the acquisition, conservation, storage, display and interpretation of the Museum’s artefacts collection, in order to inform, educate and entertain the public. The Curator will be responsible for the following:
- Developing and organising of accessioning and documentation of collections to SPECTRUM and other current best practice standards;
- Recording loans and acquisitions and maintaining the cloud based electronic catalogue, Ehive;
- Periodically undertaking a review of the collection to assess its condition and relevance to the needs of the Museum. This may include the assessment of artefacts with a view to distribution, sale or disposal of artefacts no longer required or in poor condition, in accordance with best practice and with the minuted agreement of the Museum Committee and its parent body.
- Recommending and carrying out or arranging for conservation work when relevant;
- Ensuring that collections are properly quarantined, preserved and stored;
- Checking on the cleanliness and condition of items on display in the permanent exhibition.
- Assisting the Exhibition team in identifying items and getting them ready for display in temporary exhibitions, and providing information for interpretation.
- Monitoring the Museum environment to ensure the risk to objects from environmental conditions is minimal.
- Providing information to team members on the collections and liaising with committee on the application for grants.
- Keeping abreast of current best practice standards for collections care and documentation of collections and reviewing the Museum’s curatorial policies, procedures and plans accordingly.
- Training and directing a team of curatorial volunteers to work behind the scenes on documentation and collections care
- Arranging for object research where necessary.
- Engaging in contemporary collecting, in accordance with the Museum’s Collection Policy, and liaising with individuals and organisations about possible donations and acquisitions.
- Liaising with other Museum Committee members by attending regular meetings of the Committee and working with other Curators and with the exhibitions team to agree processes and procedures.
- Keeping the Museum’s publicity team informed of new acquisitions and anything that might be shared with the press or social media.
To apply – please fill in our online form.
Visitor Assistants
- to greet and welcome visitors
- to collect information from visitors for marketing purposes
- to answer queries from visitors or telephone queries and pass on to the relevant team member
- to keep an eye on the security of the museum and its objects
- to keep the museum generally tidy and to ensure health and safety
- to hand out guides, children’s quizzes, large print book where needed.
- to sell items from the shop
- to generally assist in making visitors’ experience a good one
To apply – please fill in our online form.
Digital Communications manager
The Digital Communications manager will be responsible for organising and overseeing all of the museum’s online publicity and marketing. This will involve posting events (exhibitions, talks and family activities), news and volunteering opportunities to online listings magazines and social media, maintaining the Museum website by adding content and keeping it up to date, maintaining contact lists for museum volunteers, members and supporters and sending out announcements and e-newsletters, looking after ticketing and managing e-mail communication.
This role could be managed by one person or could be a supervisory role overseeing the output of volunteers taking charge of aspects of the role.
To apply – please fill in our online form.
Volunteer to maintain the Museum website
The website volunteer will be responsible for updating the Museum website with details of exhibitions, changes in opening times or planned closures, announcements of Museum events (talks, book launches and family activities), and updating listings of volunteer opportunities. The website is in WordPress and no coding skills are needed. Content will be provided by members of the Museum team.
To apply – please fill in our online form.
Volunteer to manage direct mailings
The e-newsletter volunteer would be responsible for the operation of the Museum mailchimp account which involves keeping email contact lists for the Museum’s members, volunteers, supporters and followers up to date and sending out e-newsletters announcing exhibitions, talks and family activities, cave and walk booking dates, recruitment opportunities and general news. All content, text, images and posters will be provided by members of the museum team. No coding skills are required and training will be given.
