Chief Registrar [Worcester Art Museum]

The Worcester Art Museum seeks an experienced Chief Registrar, a key leadership position within the Curatorial Division (which also includes Curatorial, Conservation, and Collections and Exhibition Services), to direct all activities of the Registration department (a staff of 4).  The museum has embarked on a number of new initiatives, including the integration of the Higgins Armory Museum collection, the second most important Arms and Armor collection in the United States; planning for an ambitious reinstallation of the entire collection; developing a stronger digital presence; and building a robust exhibition schedule.  

The Worcester Art Museum’s distinguished encyclopedic collection has particular strengths in European and American painting, American decorative arts, ancient art (especially Roman), Asian art (especially East Asia), as well as extensive holdings of European and American prints and drawings from the Renaissance to Contemporary and a collection of photographs that traces the history of the medium from the early 1840s to the present.  The museum also has an active contemporary program and an ongoing schedule of temporary exhibitions.  The Museum is currently in the process of leveraging its high level encyclopedic collections to have a stronger regional impact, with a clear focus on the visitor experience, seeking to build foot traffic and heighten the Museum’s relevance.

Guided by the Museum’s global perspective, vision statement, and strategic plan, the Chief Registrar will be responsible for collections management throughout the museum campus as well as managing all functions of the department (including incoming and outgoing loans, exhibition organization, digital asset management, and budgeting).

In 2020, the Worcester Art Museum is a top cultural destination in New England.We attract over 200,000 visitors annually to our exhibition spaces, and play a critical part in the cultural and economic vitality of the city of Worcester. Building on past successes, we expand our role as a focal institution in the region, providing cohesion to an ever-changing social fabric. As a highly motivated team, we further connect with our communities and build on the synergy with our partner institutions, including the eleven colleges and universities in Worcester.

Capitalizing on our medium size, our encyclopedic collection and a robust exhibition schedule, we emphasize our unique narrative – a narrative of connections: connecting art with individual experiences, joy and discovery, as well as connecting people, cultures, and histories with the here and now of a globalizing world. This narrative is supported by our visitor-focused culture, a highly welcoming environment and an all-pervading openness to experimentation and creative thinking.

The Worcester Art Museum is world-renowned for its 35,000-piece collection of paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, photography, prints, drawings and new media. The works span 5,000 years of art and culture. View paintings by Cassatt, Gauguin, Goya, Monet, Sargent and Whistler; admire floor mosaics from the ancient city of Antioch; see cutting-edge contemporary art; and discover the Museum’s many other treasures. Special exhibitions showcase the masterworks, seldom-seen gems, and important works on loan.

The Museum’s collections and programs are of national and international stature, while it remains a community-based institution with active and innovative educational programs.

Centrally located in New England, Worcester is an hour from Boston, Providence and Hartford, an hour and a half from the Berkshires, three hours from New York City, and is convenient to Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

The Worcester Art Museum is an Equal Opportunity Employer.