Trainee Curators 2022 Programme
Summary
The Trainee Curator Programme is produced and delivered alongside museum placements by Claire English with Cornwall Museums Partnership (CMP). Offering mentoring and training through a series of 121s, meetings, tasks and study trips, Claire brings together the cohort of Trainees from Falmouth Art Gallery, Museum of Cornish Life, Wheal Martyn Clay Works, Bodmin Keep and Royal Cornwall Museum to meet and support each other with regular peer network meetings. Together you will visit museums across Cornwall and the UK and meet a range of museum professionals. A series of assignments and training will support your experience at your chosen museum and support the delivery of an exhibition or project there. Each Trainee receives a significant training budget to develop your individual needs and interests.
The Trainee Curator Programme is designed to be accessible to emerging professionals with the ambition of inclusive work placements and training. The programme is shaped by its participants, CMP, and the museum hosts to offer a supportive, empowering and relevant work experience. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds who have the interest and enthusiasm to engage with collections and communities. We will shortlist applications anonymously and endeavour to make fair decisions. We will respond to your needs to ensure access to interviews and the Traineeship, including adjustments for disabilities. One of our 2018 cohort wrote about her experience as a disabled Trainee Curator, which you can read here.
Key tasks
This traineeship will provide experience in a wide range of curatorial, engagement and visitor services tasks, typical of those carried out by museum professionals in smaller, regional museums, including for example the following key tasks:
- Supporting museum staff and volunteers with collections management in line with Museum Accreditation standards, including collections care, repacking and object marking and documentation tasks such as cataloguing objects and updating museum database records
- Completing gallery inspections including environmental and pest monitoring
- Researching and developing exhibitions (both physical and digital)
- Assisting with learning activities and events
- Creating content for the museum’s social media platforms and website
- Responding to research enquires from the general public
- Supporting the day-to-day operations of the museum including working front-of-house on the museum desk as required
- Hosting at least 1 curatorial intern peer network meeting and attending training and peer support networks led by Cornwall Museums Partnership
The Trainee Curator will also have responsibility for developing a project based on their own museum interests, to be agreed with the Assistant Director.
Application process
Closing Date: Saturday 30 October 2021
Start Date: 17 January 2021
Please find the individual job descriptions and application forms for each participating museum here:
Bodmin Keep
The Trainee Curator programme is generously funded by Arts Council England via its National Portfolio Organisation Programme, and the John Ellerman Foundation.
