Registrar

POSITION TITLE

Registrar

REPORTS TO

Director, Collections + Registration

DEPARTMENT

Collections

SUPERVISES

Interns and Volunteers

UPDATED

July 2024

SALARY

$70,012.80 - $72,446.40

Position Summary

The Registrar focuses on MoPOP’s expansive permanent Pop Culture Collection. This position is responsible for supporting the full breadth of the curatorial, collections and exhibitions teams with fine detail in intaking, researching, cataloging, and adding new objects to the MoPOP collection. The Registrar supports the Director, Collections & Registration with incoming and outgoing loans. They work alongside the Mountmaker/Preparator to customize and optimize display and storage, to preserve and maintain the integrity of the artifacts, this includes a vast knowledge and understanding of preservation and conversation. They also work alongside the Assistant Registrar and the Registration Assistant to provide mentorship and offer skill building and learning opportunities. As a collections team member, the Registrar supports installation and deinstallation of artifacts across MoPOP’s 13 galleries.

Schedule: Monday-Friday, at least 3-days onsite. This role has flexible start and end times, most often +/- 3 hours to the standard 9-5pm to best support installation and deinstallation before or after regular guest hours.

Essential Job Duties (other duties as assigned)

Collection Management:

Alongside MoPOP counsel, process and implement Permission Agreements, photo licenses, and collections related contracts.
Collaborate with the full Collections staff to research and facilitate best practices/standards in material science of exhibition installation in coordination with Collections department, Exhibits department, Curatorial Director and outside conservators.
Oversee the incoming and outgoing domestic loan program for MoPOP’s permanent collection and gallery, and assist the Director, Collections + Registration as needed with international and exhibition loans.
Collaborate within Collections department to support disaster planning and relief guidance to museum employees including researching and stocking materials and staff training across departments.
Collaborate with Collections colleagues to keep policy documents current including the Facility Report and the Collections Management Policy and support quarterly vault inventory + audit.
Oversee the integrated pest management and Collections response plan with input from the Facilities team.
Oversee the deployment, upkeep, and tracking of HVAC devices in the Museum and storage areas and work in tandem with Facilities department to maintain stable conditions.
Work with Collections team to draft and implement a Digital Preservation plan to support born-digital collecting and support the implementation of a DAM.
Coordinate fine art shipping and/or overnight shipping arrangements from donors.
Field online requests from Collections inquiries for incoming and outgoing loans and donations.
Oversee the internship and volunteer program for the Collections department including working directly with MoPOP’s volunteer coordinator, scheduling intern interviews for Collections staff, providing guidance to interns/volunteers on a day-to-day basis, and scheduling other Collections staff to participate in the intern/volunteer’s education.
Create and maintain new acquisition records in digital and hard copy form.
Work with Assistant Registrar to direct the processing of unaccessioned materials including cataloging, photography coordination, assigning permanent locations and flagging for potential inclusion in the online collections.
Work with the Assistant Registrar to direct the processing of deaccessioned materials including identifying objects for deaccessioning, formatting deaccessioned lists and communicating those for Board approval, overseeing dispersal or destruction of objects.

Collection Stewardship:

Participate in exhibit installation and de-installation for semi-permanent galleries, including collections specific gallery maintenance, scheduling movement, tracking new locations in collections database, and packing artifacts for storage.
Organize and plan artifact gallery swaps.
Work alongside the full Collections team to standardize TMS data for object inclusion in the online collection and tracking all coordination in TMS and object files.
Be willing to act as one of departmental couriers and MoPOP representatives for loans from the collection and traveling exhibits installations.
Facilitate interdepartmental communication and coordination as related to permanent collection objects including image and oral history requests and usage and credit line clearances.
Lead Collections workroom and vault tours, represent MoPOP at conferences and presentations, and leverage MoPOP’s collection to continue to cultivate a culture of philanthropy.

MoPOP Community:

Support our internal culture which inspires and empowers our staff to live our mission to its highest standards.
Contribute to a consistent customer service standard across all departments.
Work to ensure customer service is ingrained at the core of the team and is reflected outward to our guests and other staff.
Commitment to participating in anti-racism work, learning about the ways institutional racism impacts the workplace, and supporting teammates in operationalizing DEIA strategies in the department.

Preferred/Desired Qualifications:

Thorough and keen knowledge of registration industry standards, methods, and practices; professional museum standards in registration procedures; basic conservation for varied artifacts and materials; and best-practice methods of documenting, storing, handling, packing and shipping artifacts.
Five (5)+ years of experience in museum registration, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
Understanding of and familiarity of various means of local, national, and international art transport and demonstrated experience with contract standards.
Valid WA State driver’s license. This is required to transport artifacts or to be a second person in the van in case of emergency.
Valid Passport. This is required to transport artifacts internationally as part of our expanding loans program.
Strong knowledge of legal and ethical issues related to museum collections, insurance, donations, gifts, bequests, and deaccessioning procedures.
Proven ability to work with proprietary and confidential information.
Excellent computer skills and experience with a museum collections database (The Museum System preferred).
Demonstrated attention to detail, with strong organizational skills to manage a continuous workflow in a high volume, multi-tasking environment.
Flexibility to handle multiple requests simultaneously and a strong ability to analyze and resolve problems.
Ability to work independently as well as in collaboration with multiple team members in the department and across the organization possessing excellent verbal and written communication skills.
Sound judgment and problem-solving skills; ability to understand when to escalate questions and issues to appropriate parties.
Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and demonstrated customer service orientation.
Ability to work comfortably in an environment where workloads and task priorities vary daily.
Comfortability with performing duties at a height, from a scissor lift, a plus.

Benefits

This regular full-time position includes Medical/Vision insurance, Dental insurance, Life/AD&D/LTD insurance, 3.08 hours of accrued Vacation per bi-weekly pay period, Seattle Sick/Safe, 2-7 Floating Holidays dependent on hire date, 8 Company Holidays paid throughout the year, EAP, 401k plan with vested match schedule once eligible, and subsidized transportation benefits for Orca Pass or parking.

Why MoPOP

We’re really glad you’re thinking about joining the team at MoPOP! We believe pop culture is a universal language capable of building connections across a range of people, no matter our differences in race, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, ability, education, socio-economic status, ethnicity, country of origin, or any other characteristic that makes us who we are. For more than twenty years, we have been showcasing how music, film, fashion, video games, sports, and more spark those connections and create a lasting cultural impact.

MoPOP provides both a physical space and an emotional and intellectual opportunity for people from any background to explore, find and build community, and recognize their own creative potential. This applies not only to our guests, but also to our staff — be it in designing an educational program to engage the next generation of creators, trying to reach a new audience with a marketing initiative, preserving an artifact in our collection, or providing excellent customer service to a visitor. If this sounds like something you’d be into, we’d love to hear from you!

MoPOP’s Mission and Commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility 

Our mission is to make creative expression a life-changing force by offering experiences that inspire and connect our communities. A nonprofit grounded in five core values — open arms, creative exchanges, light bulb moments, pursuing excellence, and excitement — MoPOP is actively committed to ongoing learning in the areas of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA). In partnership with our community, we hope to also develop safe spaces for their application. This includes taking steps to continue increasing our awareness of institutional “-isms,” as well as uncovering and undoing the ways they show up in museum culture. We recognize this is a process that requires intentionality, energy, and resources, and we are developing a DEIA framework that can cultivate a work environment and museum experience that is truly welcoming for all.

We are committed to creating an inclusive and equitable workplace, and we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We believe that having staff, interns, and volunteers with diverse backgrounds enables us to better meet our mission and encourage BIPOC, women, and LGBTQIA+ individuals to apply. We acknowledge that our work to build safe spaces and better systems for traditionally marginalized groups is ongoing and will require constant vigilance and expect all MoPOP employees to be part of our DEIA journey.

Please email jobs@MoPOP.org if you need reasonable accommodation during the application or hiring process.

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