Associate Conservator

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Employer will not sponsor for employment Visa status.

The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum fosters the study and appreciation of art, history, and culture—both within the university and throughout the global community.

The Textile Museum is an institution with a nearly one-hundred-year history, an established audience, and a respected collection of textile art representing six continents and five millennia. The conservation lab began practice in the late 1920s.

GW is currently seeking an Associate Conservator to join The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum. The successful candidate will work within the conservation department and in close collaboration with other museum departments, including curatorial and exhibition production, collections management, education, communications, and advancement. Work is required at both the Foggy Bottom and Ashburn, Virginia Avenir Foundation Conservation and Collections Resource Center (AFCCRC) facilities.

The associate conservator’s main duties are in exhibition and outgoing loan preparation, and in preventive collections care. Supporting the museum’s priorities in emerging professional education, outreach, and collections-based research is also an important focus for the position.

Reporting to the Chief Conservator, the Associate Conservator will:

• Assess conservation requirements for treatment, display, and rehousing of collections objects. Plan and undertake treatment, rehousing, and mounting preparations. Take part in planning teams for exhibition and loan development. Assist in the preparation of exhibition and loan budgets and manage expenditures. Manage one's exhibition preparation workflow to meet deadlines and balance tasks. Prepare objects for transport between facilities. Undertake installation, de-installation, and handling of objects during exhibitions.
  
  Responsible for the maintenance of objects on display and collaboration regarding maintenance and security in galleries.
• Preventive collections care:
  Re-house objects as part of the Conservation Department’s responsibility for collections management. Coordinate conservation projects related to collections care in storage. Support the development and maintenance of Integrated Pest Management and environmental monitoring protocols.
• Provide supervision of conservation interns, fellows, contractors, visiting researchers, and staff as assigned. Participate in interview panels for the aforementioned positions as appropriate. Promote internships, fellowships, and course instruction.
• Take part in the development of conservation guidelines and standards for collections care and conservation workshops, joining internal museum task forces.
• Participate in outreach, institutional, and public educational programs and presentations. Work with faculty, staff, and students to promote the educational mission of GWU.
• Conduct research projects in the area of technical and instrumental analysis of collections and applied conservation techniques. Collaborate with external researchers at the direction of the supervisor. Publish and present research projects in professional journals and at appropriate professional meetings.

Other duties as assigned. The omission of specific duties does not preclude the supervisor from assigning additional responsibilities that are logically related to the position.

This position is covered under a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which governs wages, benefits, and working conditions.

Qualified candidates will hold a Bachelor’s degree in an appropriate area of specialization plus 2 years of relevant professional experience, or a Master’s degree or higher in a relevant area of study. Degree must be conferred by the start date of the position. Degree requirements may be substituted with an equivalent combination of education, training and experience.

• A degree from a recognized graduate-level (M.A. or M.S.) conservation training program is desired.
• 2+ years of post-graduate experience, beyond the fellowship phase, in textile conservation in a museum…