Dorking Museum
Volunteers to help develop and run activities for young people
Dorking Museum’s Family Activities & Education Team runs a range of distinctive heritage-related
activities in both formal and informal educational settings.
Museum gallery visits by local schools happen during term time and inspire curiosity while exploring
aspects of local history relevant to the school curriculum. Sessions are led by an experienced teacher with
the support of volunteers. Volunteers with experience of teaching and learning, or who are familiar with
work with young people, can make an important contribution. Evening visits are also offered to
community groups, such as cubs and air cadets. These sessions are suitable for volunteers who can put in
occasional hours midweek daytimes or evenings.
The museum also offers a wide range of family activities (free of charge) which are held on Saturdays and
during school holidays. Events have included Spy School, Cabinet of Curiosity – the children’s choice,
Refugee Week, Festival of Archaeology and Victorian Christmas Creations.
Some family activities are held at Dorking Museum (particularly when they involve the displays or
artefacts) while others are held at Dorking Library (in collaboration with SCC) where there is more space
and big windows to entice passers-by. These attract wide audiences.
Art and craft activities are particularly popular, but there are other approaches we would like to add to the
mix if we can find people with the skills to make them happen. For example, participatory drama or music
performance would be excellent to engage young & older children and their families in local history.
Dorking has a wealth of stories to tell. We are wide open to fresh ideas.
What we can achieve is limited only by voluntary effort. If this kind of voluntary work might light your
fire (at whatever level of commitment you can put in) and you would like to know more, please do
get in touch.
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 be an HR Manager
A person with people and organisational skills is needed to organise and oversee volunteer recruitment and training and to keep our volunteer team happy!
To apply – please fill in our online form.
Volunteer to be a Qualified Archivist
A qualified archive is sought to assist the archive team in cataloguing the collections and training volunteers.
To apply – please fill in our online form.
Volunteer to be an Assistant for school and youth visits and family activities
The team is looking for enthusiastic and friendly people to assist in welcoming young people to the museum, either assisting in the planning and delivery of family activities or delivery of youth and school visits. Formal teaching experience is not necessary.
To apply – please fill in our online form.
Social Media assistant
A person familiar with Instagram is required to post posters, events and news on Facebook and/or Instagram. All posters, photos and content will be provided.
