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Job Vacancy: Collection Manager, British Council Collection

Job title: Collection Manager (Visual Arts)

Organisation: British Council Collection

Contract: Indefinite (permanent) 36 hours per week F/T

Location: West London, UK only

Please note that the British Council Collection and operations will be relocating to Coventry in late 2025.

Salary: Pay Band 7: £30,839 – £37,152 per annum plus £3,300 London Market Allowance

Closing date: 19th November 2023 at 23:59 UK Time

Contact details: Moira Lindsay, Head of Collection moira.lindsay@britishcouncil.org

Link to application: https://careers.britishcouncil.org/job-invite/38209/

The Role

This is an exciting moment to join the British Council Collection as it prepares for a major relocation and embarks on new developments and ambitions in its 86^th year.  The Collection Manager will be part of a dynamic team charged with implementing a new strategy for the British Council Collection, aimed at increasing visibility, access and use of the Collection both in the UK and internationally and supporting partners in developing innovative exhibitions programmes with UK and international partners with the Collection at their core.

As Collection Manager you will:

• lead on a programme of integrated collections management, care, and day to day administration of the British Council Collection.
• lead on a review of the Collections Management System database and online catalogue of object and artist information, looking at strategies to improve data equity and access.
• implement collections management projects including a storage rationalisation and audit of works on paper, work with external art valuers on revaluation.
• work with colleagues and partners on Collection content suggestions and advise on suitability for exhibitions and digital programmes, ensuring that all promotional opportunities for the Collection are maximized.
• support the relocation project including contributing expertise to the design of the new permanent home to increase access to and use of the Collection both in the UK and internationally in British Council programmes.
• deliver policies, processes and procedures for the physical and intellectual control of the Collection, ensuring end to end best practice.
• line manage the Collection Coordinator and Collection Content Coordinator and deputises for the Head of Collection when necessary.

The British Council Collection

The British Council Collection is a nationally significant collection of more than 8700 works of modern and contemporary British art, lent widely to museums and galleries in the UK and globally, and used in our collaborative exhibitions and professional development programmes with international institutional partners and UK organisations. The British Council Collection and its operations will be relocating from London to a new home in Coventry in late 2025.

About the Team

In the Visual Arts team, we enable UK and global creative talent to co-create exhibitions using the Collection at their core.  We facilitate networking and collaboration between UK and global visual arts creatives and support UK and international exhibition loans.

This role sits within the Cultural Engagement (CE) Strategic Business Unit (SBU). CE brings together our portfolio of work in arts, education, English, and research. Our UK arts team works with the arts and culture sector in the UK, and our global network of offices, to achieve significant impact and change by finding new ways of connecting and seeing each other through the arts.

We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. We work directly with individuals to help them gain the skills, confidence and connections to transform their lives and shape a better world in partnership with the UK. We support them to build networks and explore creative ideas, to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications.

Working with people in over 200 countries and territories, we are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2021–22 we reached 650 million people.

Requirements of the role:

• Demonstrable extensive experience in a public collection of collections management, care and documentation and in the context of related programmes such as exhibitions, displays and international touring exhibitions.
• A good, wide knowledge of modern and contemporary UK visual arts
• Demonstrable excellent knowledge of UKRG, GIS, ICOM and international museum standards, procedures and ethics for collection care: conservation, environmental control, Integrated Pest Management, condition checking, storage, security, handling and packing.
• Demonstrable excellent knowledge of UKRG and SPECTRUM museum standards, procedures and ethics for documentation: audits, photography, copyright and Intellectual Property legislation
• Demonstrable experience of leading on the use and functionality of a collections management database to SPECTRUM standards and procedures across a team for workflow

Benefits Include, but are not limited to:

• 32 days annual leave, in addition to public holidays
• 3 days volunteering leave
• Excellent Civil Service career average defined benefit pension scheme
• An unrivalled opportunity for you to get to use all the experience you’ve built up to support us in building trust across the world.

British Council supports working in new ways such as hybrid working, subject to full approval by line management and conditional upon our ability to provide the appropriate level of service.  This may not be appropriate for all roles but can be explored at interview.