The Senior Registrar oversees the ICA’s registration practices and team within the Curatorial Department. This includes registration oversight of the ICA’s permanent collection and robust exhibitions program and management of the Associate Registrar and Registration and Preparation Assistant. With a broad knowledge of contemporary art and the inherent complexities of such works, the Senior Registrar works collaboratively to help the ICA attain its ambitious programmatic goals while taking appropriate actions to anticipate issues, to ensure the security of each artwork, and to impart best museum practices. This individual serves as an important liaison between the ICA, lenders, and borrowers with utmost professionalism. This role works closely with other museum departments to comply with standards as they relate to collections and exhibitions management. Schedule includes some domestic and international travel and occasional nights and weekend hours in conjunction with installations, gallery incidents, and touring exhibitions. This is a full-time, salaried position.
The Senior Registrar contributes to a culture of collaboration, community, and respect while embodying the principles of ICA’s Quality of Service and centers the work of Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, Inclusion, and Belonging in all areas of their work.
Please note:
- All ICA employees are required to reside in Massachusetts and within commuting distance from our Seaport location as of their first day of work.
- The ICA offers the flexibility of a hybrid work week, which averages three days a week onsite for employees who are eligible to work remotely (subject to change, and at managers discretion).
Key Responsibilities:
- Coordinates and manages logistical arrangements pertaining to transportation, customs clearance, booking transports, and requesting/comparing shipping estimates, framing, packing, and courier needs for borrowed artwork
- Supervises and mentors Associate Registrar, Registration and Preparation Assistant, and other junior registration staff
- Plans, prioritizes, and schedules registration workload, assigning projects and delegating specific tasks as necessary to registration team members
- With registration team, oversees completion of condition and packing reports for objects, supervises packing and handling during installation and de-installation
- Ensures that museum standards regarding security and environmental conditions are followed
- Communicates security requirements for each exhibition to security staff and other departments as needed
- Maintains fine art insurance policy and provides quarterly value updates to CFO and ICA insurance broker; Tracks insurance values and issues COIs for collection artwork on and off-site; Files claims as needed
- Facilitates the registration duties for ICA’s touring exhibitions, including securing tour cost estimates, transportation, and planning
- Assists the Director of Exhibitions and Exhibition manager with developing registration budgets by creating initial estimates, tracking expenses, and providing quarterly projections related to Registration expenses
- In collaboration with the Chief Preparator, the Senior Registrar guides a team of seasonal gallery installation staff
- Provides guidance to Chief Curator and Curator of Collections in assessing outgoing loan requests from the museum from ICA’s permanent collection and facilitates approved loans
- With Curator of Collections, reviews and updates museum-wide collections and acquisitions policies for Chief Curator to review; Upholds policies upon implementation
- With Curator of Collections, maintains care of the ICA archives in offsite storage
- Serves as liaison to the off-site art storage and maintains inventories and coordinates deliveries
- Advances utilization of TMS database in the Curatorial Department
Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in art or art history required
- 7-10 years of progressively responsible museum registration experience required
- Experience organizing touring exhibitions as well as budget management are both required
- Facility with Microsoft Office suite and collections databases required
- 3-5 years of experience managing employees, contractors, and teams, and must possess sufficient flexibility in management style and approach to understand and quickly adjust to overseeing both registration staff and installation crew as well as with interactions with other departments
- The ideal candidate will have excellent communication skills and the ability to maintain a professional and positive attitude in a fast-paced environment
Physical Requirements:
- Ability to routinely lift 25 lbs. boxes, pushing and pulling, keyboarding, and gripping
- Possess mobility to move about throughout the museum spaces and travel offsite to different locations
- Very frequent sitting, standing, and walking for extended periods
- Visual acuity: color perception, close vision, accurate depth perception and distance vision
- Ability and flexibility to occasionally travel domestically and internationally
This is not necessarily an all-inclusive list of job-related responsibilities, duties, skills, efforts, requirements or working conditions. While the above is intended to be an accurate reflection of the current job, management reserves the right to revise the job or to require that other or different tasks be performed as assigned.
The ICA offers an excellent benefit package that includes health, dental and vision insurance, disability/life insurance, flexible spending accounts, 403(b) retirement plan, and paid time off.
Starting Compensation: $95,000.00 Annually
Starting compensation is based on meeting minimum qualifications.
ICA Compensation:
Each ICA position has a job grade based on the position’s evaluated job responsibilities, required education and experience, needed skills to perform the job, and professional knowledge. The position’s grade and respective compensation range is determined by the position’s overall responsibilities, including decision making, supervisory/management requirements, resource management and budgeting duties.
Compensation is ultimately determined by the scope of the position and responsibilities, the candidate’s relevant experience, and internal equity, with starting salaries typically falling in the lower half of the compensation range.
Interested candidates should submit resume and letter of interest to jobs@icaboston.org. When applying, please include “Senior Registrar” in the subject line.
The ICA is located at 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston, and is accessible by public transportation (Red and Silver Line).
Other Locations:
Seaport Studio
100 Pier 4 Blvd, Second Floor
Boston, MA 02210
ICA Watershed
256 Marginal Street
Boston, MA 02128
The ICA is dedicated to building a culturally diverse and pluralistic workforce committed to working in a multicultural environment. Qualified candidates from groups historically underrepresented in the museum professions are strongly encouraged to apply.
The ICA is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to being a diverse and inclusive workplace. We are an EOE/AA employer dedicated to fair and inclusive employment practices for all individuals. The ICA is committed to providing access and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. To request reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, contact HR-EOE@icaboston.org or 617-478-3171.