Chief Registrar and Director of Collections Management [Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA]

Typical Duties and Responsibilities:

1. Manages the receipt, accession, labeling, and cataloging of objects acquired for the Museums’ collections. Ensures the safe handling and security of the collections by overseeing and managing the movement, exhibition, storage, and disposition of art objects. Manages the computerized collections database. Serves as system administrator and makes recommendations for upgrades or conversion of system, and oversees related migration of data.
2. Manages the maintenance of records of the Museums’ collections and provides information to the Chief Curator regarding loans, special collections, catalog information, packing, shipping, and insurance.
3. Develops, monitors and analyzes budgets for all departmental activities, exhibitions and related special projects.
4. Manages all details regarding outgoing and incoming loans, special exhibitions, or permanent installations of objects, including contractual arrangements, loan agreement forms, exhibition contracts, condition reports, photo documentation, and related cataloguing information. Manages all shipping arrangements which include coordinating the packing and crating of objects.
5. Supervises the work of the Museum Registrars, Associate and Assistant Registrars (minimum of five staff). Assigns and directs work. Monitors and evaluates performance of subordinate staff annually (and more frequently if necessary). Provides training and fosters professional development. Plans, prioritizes, and schedules workload, delegating specific tasks as necessary.
6. Supervises and administers the coordination of insurance on outgoing and incoming loans, including executing applications for federal indemnification for international exhibitions. Maintains insurance coverage and computes premiums when due. Maintains regular cooperative contact with shipping, insurance and customs brokers. Processes liability and damage claims.
7. Designates and coordinates couriers from FAMSF, lending, borrowing and participating institutions. Determines courier assignments and selects and trains couriers as required.
8. Works closely with staff such as curators, conservators, technicians, packers, and outside art handling personnel (such as airline and cargo handlers) in the coordination, scheduling, and monitoring of the safe movement of objects.
9. Inspects, receipts, and documents incoming and outgoing loans and special exhibition objects. Establishes the date and method of shipping of loaned items. Records the measurements of art objects and marks for identification of such objects with appropriate accession or loan numbers.
10. Oversees the preparation of materials for meetings of the Museums’ Acquisitions and Exhibitions Committees, including documentation to assure that the Museums’ permanent records reflect actions taken regarding specific objects or exhibitions.
11. Documents and coordinates de-accessions, including establishing legal eligibility of objects being proposed for de-accessions by the curators and Board of Trustees.
12. Coordinates with the Museum Photographer for identification photography for all newly accessioned objects.
13. Provides for proper storage of collections of art and artifacts, which includes coordination with conservators regarding the conditions necessary to store objects safely, as well as the maintenance of storage records.
14. Promotes compliance with Federal, State, and local laws relating to art collections management.

FAMSF offers a competitive salary and generous benefits package.

Application Deadline: Open until filled

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco are the city’s largest public arts institutions and comprise the de Young and the Legion of Honor museums. The de Young, designed by Herzog & de Meuron and located in Golden Gate Park, showcases American art from the 17th through the 21st centuries, international contemporary art, textiles and costumes, and art from the Americas, the Pacific, and Africa. The Legion of Honor displays a collection of over 4,000 years of ancient and European art including Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker and houses the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts in a Beaux-Arts style building overlooking Lincoln Park and the Golden Gate Bridge.

COFAM is the Corporation of Fine Arts Museums and is the privately funded non-profit corporation which supports the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, a department of the City and County of San Francisco.

COFAM is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and is committed to a policy of nondiscrimination in all phases of employment in accordance with all federal, state, and local laws.