Museum Registrar

The Registrar is part of the Vanderbilt University Museum of Art and is the key individual contributor responsible for overseeing all aspects of the care, safety, handling, and documentation of the museum’s art collection. The position develops and implements collections management standards, policies, and procedures. **Position Summary:** The Registrar is part of the Vanderbilt University Museum of Art (VUMA) and is the key individual contributor responsible for overseeing all aspects of the care, safety, handling, and documentation of the museum’s art collection. The position develops and implements collections management standards, policies, and procedures. The Registrar also helps educate museum staff, students, and other interested parties in best practices and contributes to a lively exh­ibition and public engagement program. Reporting to the Director, the position interacts with both internal and external stakeholders. **About VUMA:** With 20,000 objects, the Vanderbilt University Museum of Art houses the largest art museum collection in the state of Tennessee, and is the only encyclopedic collecting institution in Nashville. VUMA’s collection strengths are U.S. and European works on paper, especially from 1500 to the present; East Asian art; twentieth-century photography; and modern and contemporary art, broadly defined. The museum presents exhibitions of all types of art from antiquity to the contemporary. Its mission is to be a “globally minded laboratory where the spirit of curiosity meets visual expression to engage with the most critical human issues, build empathy, and inspire wonder across Vanderbilt University and throughout middle Tennessee*.*” **Key Functions and Expected Performance:** - Creates and maintains records encompassing the museum’s art collection and exhibitions in a collection database and physical form. - Acts as onsite database administrator for the museum’s collections management system, Zetcom/eMuseum. Generates reports as needed. - Oversees cataloging and lexicon standards for the collection in conjunction with other museum staff and in accordance with best practices - Collaborates with curatorial and education staff to ensure accuracy of all electronic- and print-based collection-related information and conformity to museum standards of quality and consistency - Responsible for the maintenance and care of the museum archives, including the care of existing accession, exhibition, and loan files; creates new accession, exhibition, and loan files - Organizes and maintains the museum’s digital files on the organizational shared drives. - Manages public online access to collection database (eMuseum+) - Manages logistical issues surrounding local, domestic, and international incoming and outgoing loans, including soliciting bids and contracting shippers, tracking shipments and expenses, developing loan contracts, and generating condition reports. - Manages conservation projects, including correspondence with conservators, maintenance of records, and loan paperwork and transit. - Maintains regular communications with Vanderbilt office of risk management for collections and loan insurance‐related purposes. - Photographs works of art in in-house photo studio and oversees the digital image library and photography needs for collections and exhibitions. - Manages the museum’s photographic services, including rights and reproductions. - Oversees physical facilities requirements including environmental control and monitoring, pest management, security, and risk management; reviews facility reports of potential borrowers and generates facility reports, climate control reports, and other reports as required for incoming loans of artwork. - Creates, establishes, and implements procedures for periodic inventories and routine condition reporting. - Generates and oversees short- and long-term collection storage plans, coordinating with staff and external vendors as needed for moving services and supply procur…