YCBA Senior Curatorial Assistant in Prints & Drawings

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Overview

Working independently under the guidance of the Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA), the Senior Curatorial Assistant provides a high level of support and oversight to the administrative and curatorial functions of the department, including exhibitions, acquisitions, and loans; collection care and documentation; coordination of meetings and schedules; and supporting the department's clerical, budgetary, and administrative functions.

Administrative Duties

* Acts as the departmental liaison and point of contact; coordinates collections care, administrative and office activities.

* Schedules meetings and creates agendas, attends relevant meetings, takes notes and compiles minutes; provides follow-up for relevant tasks discussed at meetings.

* Answers departmental emails and enquiries; answers and screens telephone calls; writes, edits, and tracks correspondence; assists with visitors of all kinds.

* Organizes, tracks, and maintains departmental administrative documentation and files.

* Maintains lists, keeps track of status updates, and assists in preparation of paperwork and documentation for ongoing departmental business, including for outgoing loans and acquisitions in progress.

* Manages a range of clerical activities, including: orders and maintains an inventory of supplies; tracks budgets, processes payments and expenses; completes forms; composes and proofreads correspondence; occasionally makes travel arrangements.

* Performs clerical functions incidental to museum activities.

Collection Care

* Oversees and manages Prints and Drawings collection storage, ensuring secure, organized, and appropriate conditions.

* Retrieves, refiles, and tracks movement of Prints and Drawings objects for the purpose of loans, exhibitions, conservation, imaging, and departmental needs.

* Maintains Prints and Drawings collection storage: rehouses and reorganizes collection objects as needed; identifies and applies appropriate storage conditions, housing, and locations for new acquisitions; reports potential conservation concerns to curators and conservators; participates in periodic inventories of the collection.

* Assists in preparation of loans from the collection: retrieves objects requested for loan; moves where needed; and tracks their movement; schedules review of works with curators and conservators; coordinates and tracks movement of objects for review, treatment, matting, and framing.

* Coordinates imaging requests and prepares works for imaging.

* Liaises with Conservation about collections care needs.

Collection and Exhibition Support

* Undertakes cataloguing and research of objects in the collection.

* Prepares and maintains object files and other documentation for the Prints and Drawings collection.

* In consultation with the curators, researches and responds to public requests for information about the Prints and Drawings collection.

* Assists curators in planning and organization of exhibitions and gallery displays, including conducting bibliographic, thematic, and object research; creating and updating illustrated checklists; retrieving, refiling, and tracking movement of objects; handling database entry; assisting with updates of gallery plans and layouts; writes object labels and social media posts as assigned.

Study Room and Other

* Liaises with staff in the Study Room to coordinate, schedule, organize, and undertake the movement of collections items to and from relevant locations at YCBA.

* Assists in the Study Room, including the retrieval and reshelving of objects for researchers, invigilation, and preparation for classes, as needed.

* May participate in the routine training of regular, student, and casual workers in their duties as needed.

* May represent the Prints and Drawings department on YCBA committees and working groups.

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