Senior Curator Voyaging and Early Colonial Maritime History
The key duties of the position include:
Reporting to the Head of Knowledge, The Senior Curator of Voyaging and Early Colonial History is a leadership role in the Curatorial and Research team tasked with the ongoing development of the museum’s important early colonial collections, material and research.
You will be responsible for providing subject matter expertise, curating and delivering a range of collection, exhibition, digital and outreach projects. The position manages a group of curators collectively tasked with developing the museum’s History and Ocean Environment narratives and program, and takes an important role in the museum’s Acquisitions Committee and in leading funding and high-level donation opportunities. You will provide expert advice in the area of early colonial maritime history in Australia and its regional and trans-national influences and making museum research and collections available to audiences through a range of programs.
Key responsibilities will include:
- Manage and develop the collections and collecting areas by providing expert research and curatorial advice on early colonial maritime history.
- Lead a curatorial team including overseeing workflows and resource allocation, contributions to exhibitions, education programs and online projects.
- Support the Museum’s digital outreach strategy ensure curatorial input to engage culturally diverse communities nationally and internationally.
- Conceive, and work with colleagues to develop immersive programs that engage audiences with Museum narratives through including exhibitions and other new media opportunities and public programs.
- Lead the development of the National Maritime Collection in the role’s core subject areas, making recommendations on the acquisition and disposal of objects.
- Realise the potential of the museum’s important early colonial and voyaging collections and research by engaging audiences with digital and online content as well as exhibitions and other programs.
- Research and develop curatorial content for exhibitions and public programs and provide leadership and expert curatorial input during exhibition and program development and review.
- Participate in the Museum’s Acquisitions Committee, review proposals for new acquisitions and take a leading role in monitoring the Museum’s policy obligations and processes PCOL obligations.
- Oversee staff training and awareness of PCOL in the museum’s acquisitions and loans procedures and provide curatorial input into periodic reviews of the Collection Development Policy.
- Actively seek external grants, funding, key donations, and provide support to the ANMM Foundation’s fund raising activities.
Key Selection Criteria:
- Relevant Postgraduate qualification in a historical discipline
- Demonstrated knowledge of Early European and Asian voyaging in the Pacific and Indian Oceans relating to Australian and regional histories from the 15th century to the 18th century, including Chinese, South-East Asian and European voyages and trading in a colonial context, as well as early British colonial history pre-1901 and its relations with Indigenous histories.
- Extensive experience in management and curatorial in a Museum or similar cultural institution, and of working with academics, historians, and experts in the field in Museum and exhibition settings.
- Extensive experience liaising with potential donors, auction houses and collecting institutions.
- Successful record of obtaining grants, funding and high-level donations and important acquisitions.
- High level of knowledge and experience with Museum acquisitions policy and procedure, including Collection Development policies and PCOL loans and acquisitions policies and procedures.
- Experience working with digital teams and public programs in generating and producing online content from Museum collections and research that expands audience outreach.
- High-level public engagement skills and experience in media, conferences, presentations and public speaking.
- Proven experience meeting project deadlines, working within budget constraints and working across multiple diverse projects simultaneously.
- Experience with Museum database systems such as TMS.
- Current NSW driver’s licence.
Eligibility
This position is open to all eligible members of the community and we encourage applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with a disability and people from every cultural and linguistic background. To be an eligible member of the community, you must be an Australian citizen. Applications may be accepted from Australian permanent residents who are in the process of acquiring Australian citizenship.
Notes
Selection for this position will be made on the basis of relative merit which will be assessed against each item of the selection criteria. Applications that do not address the selection criteria will not be considered for shortlisting by the Selection Committee. As part of the selection process, the selection committee may invite candidates to undertake a psychometric test, you should advise the selection committee if you have any special needs. Psychometric tests may be used as the initial short-listing test or later in the selection process. Some tests are very short while others may take one or more hours.
For more information or to apply visit: APSJobs.
