Assistant Curator (Huang Chak Yee Collection)

The Role and the Department

In January 1833 Bishop William van Mildert donated 160 volumes to found the University Library, located on Palace Green and in the same year Durham’s first university museum opened to the public. Today the University Library and Collections offers spaces, collections, expertise and services supporting education, research, the wider student experience and cultural and educational outreach. Collections and services operate across a wide estate of libraries, archives, museums, galleries and exhibition spaces, including the UNESCO World Heritage Site on Palace Green. Our nationally and internationally recognised collections span early books, archives and manuscripts, museum objects and art, print and electronic materials and include a repository of digitised materials, research outputs and research data. Our users encompass anyone engaging with our collections, services and facilities in person or remotely, this includes university staff, r esearchers from around the globe, students in higher education from Durham and other universities, school pupils and teachers, Durham’s local residents and tourists.

We are an ambitious and developing team with a focus on providing the best experience for our students, researchers and the wider community. We are valued partners working with students, professional services and academics across the University, and professionals and organisations regionally, nationally and internationally.

The University Library and Collections is made up of six sections: Collections; Customer Services; Education, Learning and Engagement; Research and Systems; Museums, Galleries and Exhibitions; and Finance and Administration. Staff work flexibly between the sections, enabled by seven cross-cutting groups, Collections, Education, Engagement, User Experience, Operations, Research, Staff Development and a Programme and Project Steering Group.

The Museums, Galleries and Exhibitions team, under the leadership of the Head of Museums, Galleries and Exhibitions, is responsible for world-class museum, art, college and natural science collection supporting their care, curation, and discovery, as well as facilitating public and research access to those collections. Our spaces include the Oriental Museum, Palace Green Library (including the Museum of Archaeology) and Durham Castle Museum. We work with pre-school children, primary and secondary schools, undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers and the wider community both within our venues and through our loans and outreach programmes, as well as increasingly through digital engagement.

The successful candidate will join the MGE team as an Assistant Curator, reporting to the Curator of Chinese collections, to curate the Huang Chak Yee Collection. The Huang Chak Yee Collection is a recent donation to the Oriental Museum with a particular focus on Chinese women’s lives from the 18^th century onwards. The successful candidate will take responsibility for documentation, publication, display, interpretation, and access to the collection, ensuring curatorial best practice and meeting Accreditation guidelines. Based at the Oriental Museum, the collections-based nature of the role means that there will be limited scope for hybrid working. Further information about the role and the responsibilities is at the bottom of this job description.

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