Vestry House Museum Curator

JOB DESCRIPTION

Organisation: London Borough of Waltham Forest

Salary: £41,442 - £44,331

Contract Type: Full-time; fixed term for 12 months

Working hours per week: 36

Application Deadline: 21 March 2025

Proposed Interview Date(s): 3 and 4 April 2025

Reference: 1643

About Us:

Bursting with culture, energy, and opportunity, the London Borough of Waltham Forest is a fantastic and exciting place to work.

We are a highly ambitious borough. Driven by culture and the innate creativity of our residents, we have developed new and innovative ways to build our communities. Our Council is relentlessly resident-focused, insight-led, digitally driven and commercially minded; a Council focused on meeting the needs of our existing and future residents.

London Borough of Waltham Forest is one of the Mayor of London's Good Work Standard employers. This accreditation is a proof of our commitment to creating a healthy, fair and inclusive workplace. This includes fair pay and conditions, workplace well-being, skills and progression and diversity and recruitment.

The Council's preference is for online application. However, if you have a disability and are unable to complete an online application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative application method.

About the role:

As part of the revitalisation of Vestry House Museum, we are looking for an experienced and dynamic local history curator to work on new displays, digitisation and co-curation projects with communities.

At a very exciting time for Vestry House Museum, you will work on creating new displays for the reopening of the local history museum in 2026. Working closely with the Head of Cultural Sites Development, will curate themed displays as part of the inclusive, accessible and welcoming museum that tells the stories of Waltham Forest's residents.

You will work to develop new displays co-curated with community groups as well as establishing satellite mini-museums in offsite locations. During this year, you will develop and pilot these initiatives as well as researching and testing a digitisation project for the museum's collections.

This role is supported by a development grant from National Lottery Heritage Fund and may be extended if funding for the delivery phases is secured.

>> Click here to download the Role Profile <<

Key Responsibilities:

• To develop and produce high quality permanent and temporary exhibitions and related activity telling the stories of the history, heritage and contemporary cultures of Waltham Forest, some to be co-created with partners, local creatives and communities across the borough as part of the revitalisation of Vestry House Museum.
• Working with the Engagement Producer, to develop new and innovative models of collaborative co-curation with communities and to develop and pilot Heritage Hubs offsite.
• To research and lead on the pilot digitisation of the VHM Photo Collection, overseeing the work of museum trainees and ensuring accessibility.
• To deliver accessible and engaging interpretation and high standards of collection care and documentation at Vestry House Museum.
• To assist the consultant and oversee the museum trainees working on collections review, and rationalisation, ensuring excellent record keeping and in line with accreditation standards.
• Contribute to data gathering and evaluation of the development phase of the NLHF-funded programme History in the Making at Vestry House museum and WF Archives.

Qualifications and Requirements:

To be considered for this position, you should meet the following requirements:

• Degree or equivalent or vocational qualification in relevant subject or area e.g. BA degree in history or related subject and a post-graduate qualification in Museum Studies or a related subject.
• Experience of delivering inclusive and accessible exhibitions and related programmes in a museum or gallery setting co-created and co-produced with diverse communities
• Experience of collection care and associated documentation, collections management systems, eg MODES
• Ability to undertake specialist curatorial duties to identify, acquire, research and document objects in the collection.
• Specialist knowledge of social, industrial and/or local history.
• Proven experience in building and managing relationships with key partners, funders and supporters
• Excellent organisational, logistics and leadership skills
• Ability to work to deadlines and keep calm under pressure
• Outstanding communication abilities, with the ability to work collaboratively across the directorate/council to maximise awareness of events and activities
• Experience of performance reporting and budget management
• The ability to manage and motivate teams of staff and volunteers
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office applications and other relevant systems.
• Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to establish trust and confidence at all levels and externally
• Able to work some weekends and evenings.
• Knowledge of Waltham Forest (desirable)
• Experience of operating in a local authority environment (desirable)

Terms and conditions:

The below terms and conditions apply to this role:

Satisfactory employment references and CIFAS identity checks;

Satisfactory declaration of interest;

As a public authority, we must ensure that members of staff in public-facing roles are able to speak fluent English. This means that they must have a command of spoken English, with confidence and accuracy, sufficient for the effective performance of their role. This requirement does not refer to any particular English language qualifications, regional or international accents, dialects, speech impediments or the tone of conversations. It does not require staff to speak only in English.

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications online by pressing the 'Apply' button below. This includes a supporting statement that outlines to us how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for this vacancy.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy early if we receive sufficient applications for the role. Therefore, if you are interested, please submit your application as early as possible.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value.

To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy.

We are keen to support employees to balance their working life with other commitments. Therefore, wherever possible, we will consider working arrangements that suit an individual's personal circumstances whilst still meeting the needs of the Council. If you would like to discuss the possible flexible working options that might be applicable to this role, please contact the person named below or feel free to discuss this during your interview.

For more information on the benefits of working for the Council, please visit https://www.walthamforest.gov.uk/jobs-and-training/find-jobs-and-other-opportunities/working-us.

Contact Information:

If you have any questions about this vacancy or the application process, please contact Sorrel Hershberg, Head of Cultural SItes Development at Sorrel.Hershberg@walthamforest.gov.uk

If you have any technical issues when trying to apply for this post, please contact our Recruitment Team via email at recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk.

Click here for further information on the Human Resources recruitment privacy notice.