Position Overview & Specifications
Salary: £48,164
Closing date: Sunday, 18 June 2023
Contract Type: Permanent
Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library exploring health and human experience. Through exhibitions, collections, live programming, digital, broadcast and publishing, we aim to provide a rich, diverse and inclusive platform for thought-provoking and imaginative engagement that values everyone’s experience of health.
Wellcome Collection is part of Wellcome, a global charitable foundation that improves health for everyone by funding science, shaping policy and advocacy campaigns, and building partnerships. Wellcome Collection is, we plan to spend £16bn over the next ten years, funding new discoveries in life, health, and wellbeing, and taking on three global health challenges: mental health, infectious disease, and climate.
In 2027 we will open a new collections gallery, built on a programme of research and development. This new permanent role – Lead Curator, Collections Gallery – will play a crucial role in delivering this project.
In 2023, Wellcome Collection will be developing a new strategy, making this an exciting time to join our team and be part of a changing cultural sector which is finding new ways of delivering its work, engaging people, and placing a greater focus on social impact and change.
We are looking for a Lead Curator to join our team.
Where in Wellcome will I be working?
You will be working as part of the Collections Gallery project team, reporting to the Head of Exhibitions and working closely with the Director of Wellcome Collection. You will be collaborating with colleagues across Wellcome Collection and externally ensuring that this project is embedded in our wider work to address the history of our collections.
What will I be doing?
You will be shaping the curatorial vision and delivery of this compelling new gallery for our visitors, ensuring the gallery is anchored by our collections, built on new research and informed by multiple perspectives. This is a challenging role at the heart of a complex project, and also an exciting opportunity for your work to have significant and meaningful impact.
As Lead Curator – Collections Gallery you will:
- Embed a shared vision for the new Collections Gallery project among the project team and wider stakeholders.
- Lead the curatorial development and the delivery of this new long-term exhibition focusing on our collections
- Be responsible managing a team of freelance collaborators, as well as any future staff team members
- Support Wellcome Collection’s anti-racist and anti-ableist practice through personal development and nurturing networks.
- Leading collection displays and/or exhibition projects with multiple stakeholders
- Turning complex and challenging ideas into a compelling display for a wide range of visitors
- Operating in a leadership or line management capacity