The Canterbury Museum exists to add value to the present and future citizens of Canterbury and the many visitors to Christchurch, by welcoming our visitors to explore the diversity of the natural world and our cultural heritage and to make this a fun experience. This will be achieved through:
- creating an interactive experiential journey for our visitors through which we tell the stories of Canterbury Waitaha and New Zealand Aotearoa and provide a view on the rest of the world
- reaching out to children of all ages and providing learning experiences in an informative and enjoyable setting
- building and properly caring for the collection of priceless treasures we hold in trust for the community
- high quality relevant research on our collections and the dissemination of the results to the widest possible audience
- working with a range of partnerships which integrate us into the wider community. In particular we are committed to working with iwi in the spirit of the Treaty of Waitangi, embodying concepts such as mauri, kawa, mana and wairua
- providing our visitors with friendly high quality service and ensuring equitable access to all
- upholding and adhering to the highest professional standards of best practice
- providing maximum community benefits from the resources made available to us
- providing staff with the learning and development opportunities required to enable them to carry out their work.
The Exhibitions Technician reports to the Exhibitions Manager (see attached Organisation Chart).
Job Purpose
In both the current Museum and as we move towards redevelopment, the position of the Exhibitions Technician exists to:
- assist in design, development, preparation and installation of permanent and temporary exhibitions, with a focus on building, installation and deinstallation
- assist in maintaining and upgrading permanent exhibitions
- assist in maintaining and upgrading corporate and wayfinding signage in and around the Museum
- assist in maintaining a high standard of presentation in the public areas of the Museum
- contribute to Exhibitions Group operations including planning, documentation and recording of exhibitions, completion of work requests from other staff and maintenance and cleaning of workspaces and equipment
Please note the role will require some agility as Canterbury Museum moves towards a major redevelopment, and will involve support of wider Museum operations such as moving collections and set-up of new front-of-house and back-of-house facilities.
Key Output Areas
The duties and responsibilities outlined describe the core tasks, you may be required to undertake other duties.
1. Exhibition development achieved by:
- assisting with development and preparation of exhibitions through developing design solutions and the production of exhibition layouts and drawings
- assisting with production and installation of exhibitions including exhibition space preparation, 3D construction, painting and mountmaking
- assisting with the deinstallation of exhibitions
2. Exhibition maintenance achieved by:
- assisting with routine inspections of permanent exhibitions and identification of maintenance required
- assisting with the Museum exhibition cleaning programme
- assisting with the completion of work requests identifying maintenance and repair work required for permanent exhibitions
3. Corporate signage and wayfinding achieved by:
- assisting with routine inspections of all Museum signage and identifying alterations and repairs
- responding to work requests for new signage and alterations and repairs to existing signage
4. Exhibitions Group operations achieved by:
- assisting in maintenance of group work and storage areas, assets and records and equipment
- assisting in recording, documenting and archiving of exhibitions
- assisting in maintenance and cleaning of office and workshop areas and equipment
- assisting in completion of Exhibitions work requests
5. Professional development undertaken by:
- keeping up to date with professional information and literature
- participating in relevant training and development opportunities
6. Promotion of Museum as a Centre of Excellence by:
- adhering to Museum policies and procedures, guidelines and house rules
- adhering to professional standards, practices and codes of ethics
- promoting excellent public relations by clearly communicating Museum values and objectives
- working to ensure the Museum is a responsible tourism destination
- proactively seeking continuous improvement to further enhance the visitor experience
- accepting additional responsibilities when requested
- promoting and maintaining excellent internal working relations
- adhering to the Museum’s health and safety practices and remaining aware of all health and safety matters at all times
- ensuring use of sustainable practices wherever possible and continuously looking for ways for improvement.
