Assistant Curator

**Who are we?**

We are Scotland’s design museum. Designed for everyone, firing imaginations and sparking curiosity in design across Scotland and around the world. At V&A Dundee we are on a mission to inspire and empower through design.

Design shapes our world, it's part of everyday life and it's everywhere. We are a museum with energy and have a vision of the future where everyone is inspired through design and recognizes its far-reaching impact in our lives.

We are a welcoming place for people of Dundee to explore design and to use as an everyday part of their city, as well as inviting visitors from around the world. We are part of the V&A family of museums that celebrate creativity in all its forms from across centuries, for everyone.

**Role profile**:
The Assistant Curator works with a small and busy team on the realisation of exhibitions and commissions working with designers, lenders and design institutions. The Assistant Curator will work on all aspects of exhibition development and delivery comprising curatorial, registrarial and project management responsibilities. The role includes leading on smaller scale exhibitions and displays and supporting the Curators on major exhibitions running concurrently, including historic and contemporary exhibitions with objects from UK and international collections.

As a member of the Exhibitions team, the Assistant Curator contributes ideas to the museum’s programme, is essential to the department's collegiate work environment and liaises with other internal departments and with the professional design world, in one of the most dynamic design environments in Europe.

**Duties and Responsibilities**:
**General**
- Provide support to the Exhibitions team, working closely with the Curators to support on the research, development and delivery of major exhibitions and leading on the development of smaller scale exhibitions
- Liaise with artists, designers and their representatives, design organisations and funders
- Work cross-organisationally to support the timely delivery of a project, liaising with Operations, Audiences & Media, Philanthropy & Partnerships and the wider Programme team (Learning, Design & Innovation) to secure a smooth flow of information
- Monitor and maintain budgets for specific exhibitions meticulously and in timely fashion. This includes obtaining estimates, raising purchase orders, processing invoices, maintaining digital files and liaising with the Finance team and budget holders
- Contribute to the development of the structure, themes and content of exhibitions and the programme broadly through research, attending exhibitions, conferences and events
- Deal with routine enquiries, maintain the collection management system and process responses to exhibition proposals with other members of the Exhibitions team

**Registrarial duties**
- Research loans and liaise with the Curators to prepare loan documentation, administer loan requests and ensure loan conditions are fulfilled
- Compile condition and packing reports to museum standard, keeping records of movement and conditions of works and liaise with conservators and couriers when necessary
- Organise exhibition related transport, which includes updating shipping lists, obtaining estimates of costs, and monitoring customs documentation, liaising with shippers and the exhibition Curator
- Oversee the administration and transport arrangements for specific exhibitions on tour and act as courier for touring exhibitions when necessary
- Maintain and manage a detailed object list and lender tracker
- Liaise with lenders to secure object dimensions, display requirements, environmental conditions and any other information required
- Coordinate courier travel, per diems and accommodation, create courier packs and schedules and host couriers on-site
- Coordinate the insurance of works of art, either commercially or through the Museums and Galleries Government Indemnity Scheme, and compile and file insurance claims in the event of loss or damage of work
- Issue contracts to partner organisations, artists, curators and authors in consultation with the Exhibitions team
- Maintain files and correspondence as well as archiving past exhibition files

**Project Management duties**
- Regularly update key project monitoring documents including the project schedule and exhibition budget, working with the Curator to deliver the exhibition on time and on budget
- Work with the Curator to host regular project team meetings with teams across the organisation
- Diarise meetings, book meeting rooms, draft agendas, take minutes and share and follow up on key actions from meetings
- To be responsible for the management of the documentation of objects, both electronic record creation and compilation of gallery reference materials
- Compile exhibition guest lists in collaboration with Philanthropy & Partnerships

**Curatorial duties**
- Undertake research to develop a curatorial concept and narrative, making recomme