Museums and Heritage Officer - Lichfield, United Kingdom - Lichfield City Council

Description

Post Title:

MUSEUMS AND HERITAGE OFFICER

Location:
The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum, Breadmarket St, Lichfield, WS13 6LG

Hours: 37 hours per week.

Some working out of normal office hours for special events may be required, for which compensatory time off in lieu will be granted.

Salary: 2023/24 pay award pending

Pension The post is pensionable through the Staffordshire County Council fund, further details and options will be made available to the successful applicant.

Car Allowance:
A casual car user allowance will be payable where use of the employee's own car is deemed necessary.


Holidays:
27 days paid leave per annum (31 days after five years' service), plus public holidays.

New entrants to the service are entitled to annual leave proportionate to the completed months of service during the leave year of entry and thereafter on the normal scale.

Probationary period:

Closing Date:
12 Noon, Monday 3 July 2023


MAIN PURPOSE OF THE POST

Overall responsibility for the operation, care and development of the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum, a Grade I listed building housing an Accredited Museum with a collection of c.8000 objects, and the Guildhall Old Prison Cells, a seasonally opened exhibition inside Lichfield Guildhall.

Working in partnership with other city tourism and arts organisations, the Museums and Heritage Officer contributes to the promotion and development of Lichfield as Staffordshire's premier heritage city.

BACKGROUND DETAILS

The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum (SJBM) is governed and operated by the parish authority Lichfield City Council, as sole trustee of Dr Johnson's Birthplace Trust.

It is an historic house and a museum dedicated to the life, work and personality of Samuel Johnson, which has been open to the public since 1901.

SJBM welcomes up to 22,000 visitors a year.

The Museums and Heritage Officer (MHO) manages Johnson's Birthplace with the assistance of the part-time Museum Support Officer.

Museum Attendants are employed to welcome visitors and act as keyholders, and a small team of volunteers support special events and collection projects.

As Curator/Manager, the MHO leads all aspects of the Museum's work.

SJBM's audience is growing annually, and this is an exciting time to join the Museum as it seeks to increase local engagement, improve access to the historic building, and update existing displays.

The MHO also has responsibility for the Guildhall Prison Cells, a small exhibition area with volunteers welcoming up to 6,000 visitors over opening on Saturdays over the summer.

Main Duties:

• To line-manage the SJBM staff team (part-time Museum Support Officer and a rota of five Museum Attendants) providing support, training, and chairing a monthly staff meeting.
• To manage volunteers and promote volunteer involvement at SJBM and Guildhall Cells (currently total of 20 regular and casual across both sites).
• To maintain and uphold SJBM's Accredited status by preparing and updating policy, procedure and submitting scheduled returns, ensuring that the standard is consistently adhered to.
• To oversee and develop all aspects of curatorial work and collection management including care, documentation, loans, storage, display, and collections-based research, including database administration and editing the SJBM collections blog.
• To maintain the Grade-I listed building in liaison with the Town Clerk, Architects, and other specialist advisors, and have oversight for health and safety and the emergency plan at the SJBM site.
• To develop access to SJBM by working with architects and specialist partners to deliver an existing project for wheelchair access into the ground floor.
• To manage the delivery of proposed improvements to the ground floor displays at SJBM, in liaison with the Town Clerk, Advisory Committee, Architects, designers and other specialist contractors, and to lead on future plans for the development of upper floor displays.
• To support and develop higher education partnerships, including supervision for an established Collaborative Doctoral Award project, and annual undergraduate work placements.
• To maintain and develop contact with local schools and promote and extend SJBM's education offer, in conjunction with other Lichfield attractions.
• To seek opportunities to engage and collaborate with local community groups.
• To organise an annual programme of special events at SJBM including talks, book launches, recitals, writer's events, exhibitions and family activities, including the annual celebrations for Johnson's Birthday in September as part of the wider Lichfield Heritage Weekend.
• To prepare reports to Council including regular Officer reports (approx. 8 times per year), annual reports, Johnson Birthplace Advisory Committee agenda reports, SJBM Forward Plan and as required by the Town Clerk.
• To prepare occasional grant bids to external funding sources, implement grant aided works, and submi