Full Time, PermanentRethinking the presentation of our collections to ensure they engage and inspire a contemporary audience.
The challenge
With its world-beating festivals, thriving music scene, amazing architectural and engineering heritage, and thriving creative and media sector, Bristol is a city full of energy and imagination. At Bristol City Council we’re committed to harnessing the full potential of our rich culture and creative industries to boost the local economy, encourage community cohesion and generate wellbeing.
Within our Culture and Creative Industries Service (C&CI), we are passionate about inspiring communities and visitors with stories that inspire wonder, ignite curiosity and reveal significance and meaning in our amazing collections and the world around us. As our new Head of Collections and Archives, you will work with our five museums – Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, M Shed, Red Lodge, Georgian House and Blaise Museum – to promote curatorial and research excellence across an ambitious public programme of cultural activities and display projects.
Your role
This is an opportunity to bring about real change in the way civic collections are cared for and used to engage both communities and visitors in understanding Bristol’s history and future. Bristol Museums have been awarded Arts Council England NPO funding for the next three years, and key challenge will be to embed a new structure to support public programmes while simultaneously establishing a clear curatorial vision for each museum and delivering a phased programme of gallery redisplay projects.
Involved in both strategic development and ground-breaking presentation and engagement initiatives, you will inspire your team to achieve achieve continuous improvement of the service. You’ll drive focused collections management, development and review, identifying and securing high-quality acquisitions, as well as leading the development of a research strategy. Working collaboratively with other departments, you will ensure seamless planning and delivery of gallery displays, temporary exhibitions, digitisation, publications and research. Meanwhile, as a member of our senior management team, you will help us build a strong and supportive management ethos and team culture across our different sites.
About you
You have substantial leadership experience, most likely in the museums, archives, heritage or academic sectors. This should include a thorough knowledge of curatorial and archives practice, collections management and the delivery of exhibitions and research projects. You have a strong track-record of inspiring audiences by interpreting museum and archive collections in innovative and engaging ways. Highly organised, with an eye for detail, you’re capable of managing multiple projects simultaneously. A strong, resilient manager and team player, you’re ready to work collaboratively across the service and council, and with external partners.
The benefits
In return, you’ll have access to a range of valuable benefits including membership of the Local Government Pension scheme and generous annual leave entitlement. We place high value on creating an inclusive, healthy workplace and offer a range of flexible working options and family friendly policies.
How to ApplyTo apply you’ll need to submit your CV along with a covering letter as the first page of your CV (as one document) summarising your interest in the role and how you meet the criteria as outlined on the Person Specification.
To be shortlisted for interview you’ll need to demonstrate how you meet each of the essential criteria in the Person Specification. On occasion we will receive high numbers of applications, we may then shortlist against the desirable criteria along with the essential criteria, so if you can, please demonstrate how you meet this in your covering letter.
For further information, please refer to the Job Description and Person Specification or alternatively, please contact Patsy Mellor on patsy.mellor@bristol.gov.uk
At Bristol City Council, we value having a workforce as diverse as the city we serve. We therefore welcome, develop and promote people from all sections of the community. We particularly welcome applications from Young People, Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic, Disabled and Male candidates who are currently under-represented within this Service of Bristol City Council. Appointments will be made on merit.