JOB TITLE: Head Registrar

INSTITUTION: Peabody Essex Museum

JOB LOCATION: Salem, MA 

INSTITUTION WEBSITE: https://museum-search.com/

About the Institution: 

Located in Salem, Massachusetts, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) is a destination museum with approximately 88,000 square feet of gallery space, 225 staff, a $32M annual budget and an endowment of more than $450M. PEM sees on average 200,000 visitors a year and engages local, national, global, and digital audiences, partners, and supporters in its efforts to be a magnetic meeting place, an agent of generous experimentation, and an engine for lifelong learning.

Founded in 1799, it is also the country’s oldest continuously operating museum. At its heart is a mission to enrich people's lives by broadening their perspectives, attitudes and knowledge of themselves and the wider world. PEM celebrates outstanding artistic and cultural creativity through exhibitions, programming, publishing, digital media, and special initiatives that emphasize cross-cultural connections around the world, integrate past and present, and underscore the vital importance of creative expression.

The Museum's collection is among the finest of its kind boasting superlative works from around the globe and across time -- including American art and architecture, African, Asian export, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, maritime, Native American, and Oceanic art; fashion and textiles; and photography, as well as one of the nation’s most important museum-based collections of rare books and manuscripts. PEM's campus offers a varied and unique visitor experience with hands-on creativity zones, interactive opportunities, and performance spaces. Twenty-two noted historic structures and gardens grace PEM’s campus, including Yin Yu Tang, a 200-year-old Chinese house that is the only example of Chinese domestic architecture on display in the United States. The state-of-the-art, 120,000-square-foot Collection Center opened in 2018 in Rowley, MA., which is also home to PEM’s acclaimed Phillips Library.

Job Description: 

The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), in Salem, MA, one of the largest and most dynamic art museums in the nation, is pleased to announce that it has reopened the search for Head Registrar, a pivotal position in a multi-year strategic priority of collection accessibility and engagement. The successful candidate will be not only a specialist in the complex details of museum collection and exhibition registration, but a skilled, positive team builder and cross-departmental collaborator. Overseeing and partnering with the Registrar for Exhibitions and the Registrar for Collections and their teams, the Head Registrar is responsible for the general oversight and management of all aspects of the Registration department and coordinating departmental support for the implementation of institutional initiatives.

The Head Registrar joins the team at a moment of great excitement at PEM, midway through a major full-scale collections move to The James B. and Mary Lou Hawkes Collection Center in nearby Rowley, MA, a 120,000-square-foot facility that also houses the Phillips Library, collections records, archives and conservation. When the project is complete, this state-of-the-art facility will unify, preserve, protect, and activate all the works of art and culture in PEM's collection, which represents more than 12,000 years of global artistic and cultural creativity.

This unique opportunity requires a Head Registrar who enjoys mentoring and motivating exceptional staff during the rapid pace of progress. They will help the team to prioritize and pivot as they collaborate on ongoing exhibition rotations, cataloguing, the continuing schedule of collection moves and the buildout of new storage / educational facilities. The Head Registrar has a chance to make a major impact across the institution, working with colleagues within and outside the department to innovate, shape and refine inter-departmental processes, and steer the flow of simultaneous priorities. They will need to be an experienced, energetic, and creative problem solver with an ambition to foster positive cross-departmental relations, be adaptable, open to new ways of working, and have a genuine desire for collegial engagement.

PEM’s culture is forward-thinking and collaborative, with staff regularly working across collections and departments, celebrating intersections, discovery, and immersive, out-of-the-box visitor experiences. The Head Registrar will divide their work between the Collection Center (approximately 25% of their time) and the main Museum, working closely with the Registrars, Exhibition Planning, and the Curatorial team, as well as across all museum departments.

This position reports to the Director of Collections.

Exhibitions and Collections

PEM’s collections are deep and far-ranging. They consist of more than 850,000 works of art and culture, architecture, and objects that date from antiquity to today, including African, Asian, American, Maritime, Native American and Oceanic objects of every medium, and including a 17th-century Chinese merchant’s home, brought to PEM and reassembled inside the Museum over the course of seven years. Since its origins in 1799, the Museum has collected plants, animals and geological specimens from around the world, including “natural curiosities” donated by the Museum’s founding sea captains, among the first objects to enter the collection. The Phillips Library Collection, more than 350,000 bound volumes, broadsides, maps, ephemera, and ships’ logbooks, is among the oldest libraries in the United States, and is now housed along with a public Reading Room at the Hawkes Collection Center.

PEM’s seventeen curators share in the production of a robust calendar of unique and highly acclaimed special exhibitions, circulating through approximately 22,000 square feet of gallery space. Ongoing collection galleries rotate regularly and are often installed in thematic, multi-disciplinary presentations, throughout approximately 30,000 square feet of galleries.

SELECT RESPONSIBILITIES INCLUDE:

• Manages tracking of the remaining collection moves from Salem to the Hawkes Collection Center in collaboration with Collection Management department.
• Oversees collection and exhibition documentation and processing in collaboration with Preparation and Collection Management departments, including proper care, handling, preparation, storage, movement, packing and unpacking of all art objects.
• Supervises Registration department staff, volunteers, and interns. Reviews registration work schedules and projects, develops the long-term strategic plan for the department in coordination with Director of Collections.
• Works with Preparation and Exhibitions Registration staff in overall planning and execution of changing exhibition installations and de-installations.
• Initiates and implements policies and procedures on the management of the collections and the implementation of exhibitions, in consultation and collaboration across relevant PEM departments,
• Implements and regularly reviews policies and procedures pertaining to MuseumPlus, the collection management database. Approves the development, maintenance and sharing of the information maintained by this system.
• Participates in sourcing, preparing, and supporting funding initiatives to achieve departmental goals, including grants, donations, and campaigns as appropriate and necessary.
• Develops the annual budget for the Registration Department and participates in the development of PEM exhibition budgets. Ensures that expenses are within the allocated budget.
• Supports the Collections Committee, Executive Director, and Chief Curator in fulfillment of responsibilities under PEM’s Collections Policy.
• Oversees the maintenance and evaluation of the fine arts insurance and may act as a courier for loans.
• Oversees TSA Air Cargo Security Certified Cargo Screening Program for PEM Main Campus and Collection Center.
• Participates in the monitoring of the security and environment of collection storage and gallery locations. Maintains PEM facility report and environmental data in collaboration with Collection Management and Security and Facilities departments.
• Networks and maintains international professional relationships throughout the field and seeks out professional development opportunities for themselves and the Registration department.
• Participates on interdepartmental project teams and institutional initiatives.

• Strong interpersonal, communication, planning, and organizational skills. Ability to multitask and to delegate to and mentor junior staff.
• Passion for collaboration and team-oriented work style; can recognize and reward the contribution of others; and can communicate openly, decisively, and proactively.
• Takes initiative in identifying and fulfilling needs and implementing new administrative systems.
• Resourcefulness and nimbleness.
• Ability to adjust easily to changing priorities and complex situations.
• Positive, can-do attitude.

This Position is: In-Person

Position Type: Full-Time

Salary range: $76000 - 95000

Benefits: Health Insurance, Paid time off

How to Apply: Lora Urbanelli, searchandref@museum-search.com

Job Closing Date: 8/16/2024