Curatorial Assistant, Art
Full Time Term Position: January 2024 – July 2025 (extension subject to funding)
Hiring Manager: Daryl Betenia, Director, Collections & Curatorial
Closing Date: January 5, 2024
CUPE Local 1645
Salary Grade 6
$57,097 – $72,327
Glenbow is an equal opportunity employer and values different perspectives, backgrounds, identities and lived experiences. We are committed to building a diverse team and encourage people from underrepresented groups to apply. Should you have special accommodation needs, please let us know.
About Glenbow
Situated in Calgary, Alberta, Glenbow is an arts and culture museum undergoing a complete transformation and reimagining of what a museum can be.
Glenbow’s team is passionate and dedicated to making art accessible for everyone. Every member of our team, regardless of job title or description, is focused on serving our community and reimagining the museum experience.
As an integral part of Calgary’s community, the Glenbow team is focused on making arts and culture experiences accessible to everyone. We are dedicated community builders, working to shape the future of arts and culture in Calgary and beyond. Working at Glenbow also means you are part of an organization that recognizes its role in reconciliation and is working toward building an equitable community.
The Role
Overview
Reporting to the manager, curatorial and with key relationships with the director, collections and curatorial, director, JR Shaw Institute for Art in Canada, and curators, this position is responsible for helping to provide access to Glenbow’s Art collections through various means. This includes documentation such as cataloguing artworks, assisting with exhibitions, maintaining records (electronic and written) and storage maintenance.
Glenbow’s Art collection focuses primarily on northwestern North America. It features artworks in all media from the nineteenth century to the present. Its strengths are prints and drawings, Western art, nineteenth-century railway artists, Arctic art, abstraction and extensive individual collections of many important artists from Western Canada. The incumbent will be expected to engage with all aspects of the collection: historical, modernist and contemporary art as well as artworks in all media.
Role Responsibilities
Documentation of Collections
- Catalogue artworks, develop standards, conduct research and maintain the collections management system to ensure appropriate organization and documentation of art.
- Coordinate requests for copyright, exhibition rights and FOIP (Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy).
Maintenance of Collections
- Maintain, monitor and prepare art for storage, loans and exhibitions.
Public Service
- Respond to public inquiries about the collection.
- Initiate, research, develop and provide educational tours in the collection, and respond to specific exhibition and program inquiries pertaining to the collection.
- Assist with exhibition development and collaboratively curate small exhibitions or sections of exhibitions.
Administrative
- Maintain files (electronic and paper).
- Track artworks as they move through the acquisition process.
- Participate in interviews, make staffing recommendations regarding grant and volunteer positions, provide training, coordinate activities and projects and monitor volunteers, grant and term employees.
- Contribute to grant applications and submissions to the Acquisition Committee, and plan and participate in projects as needed.
Performs other duties as assigned.
Qualifications for this Role
- Bachelor of Arts, Fine Arts, Visual Arts, Art History or equivalent.
- Minimum 2 – 3 years related experience in museum practices and methods, including cataloguing artworks, art handling, artwork care and storage, as well as museum collections best practices.
- Demonstrated knowledge of and previous experience with museum and exhibition methods and practices, including developing, planning and implementing museum exhibitions.
- Experience working with database systems for museums and inventory control, including bar-coding.
- Proficient time management and organizational skills, with the ability to adapt to tight deadlines, varying workloads and sudden and frequent changes in priorities.
- Exceptional interpersonal skills, with a focus on customer service, networking, stewardship, public relations, mentorship and team building.
- Creativity and the ability to generate new ideas, approaches or techniques that improve the organization.
Benefits of Working at Glenbow
We recognize there are many reasons to believe in your work — and that everyone deserves to be valued, be part of a caring culture, be compensated fairly and be part of building our community.
- Flexible work environment: We know having flexibility in how you work is important in today’s workplace. From hybrid working options, flexible hours and more, Glenbow offers ways to achieve the balance you’re looking for in your life.
- Health & wellness benefits: We believe in physical and mental well-being. Our benefits package supports you and your family in your ongoing health.
- RRSP matching: Glenbow matches employee RRSP contributions, up to 5%. Employees structure their retirement savings how they choose and Glenbow tops up those contributions.
To apply, please submit your resume and cover letter to careers@glenbow.org.
