Assistant Curator Leathercraft

The Guildhall Northampton; Northampton; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 31,000; Part time

Job summary

West Northamptonshire Council is recruiting an Assistant Curator Leathercraft to work within the Museums team at Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, supporting collections care, documentation, exhibitions and public engagement. The role involves developing ideas to engage the public with leathercraft objects spanning pre-history to today, coordinating volunteers and liaising with donors and stakeholders.

The postholder will write exhibition text, contribute to interpretation and help plan future

Qualifications

• Good people skills and ability to work with diverse teams.
• Strong organisational skills to manage volunteers and liaise with donors and stakeholders.
• Excellent written communication for text in exhibitions and publications.
• Ability to conduct research to support exhibitions and help researchers.

Responsibilities

• Support delivery of a dynamic programme of collections care and documentation.
• Assist with temporary exhibitions and events/public engagement activities.
• Collaborate with exhibitions/public programme teams, operations and fundraising.
• Develop ideas to make the Leathercraft collection accessible to a wide audience.

Skills

People skills

Organisational skills

Communication skills

Research

Job description

About The Role

This is an exciting time to be joining West Northamptonshire Council in the Museums team as we plan for future development. This includes new galleries and stores at Northampton Museum and Art Gallery alongside what we can achieve with our funding as a National Portfolio Organisation Arts Council England. This will build on the previous £6.7million expansion and renovation project of 2021 which doubled the size of the museum, creating new exhibition galleries, collections facilities and visitor amenities. The service also runs Abington Park Museum, set in Northampton’s premier park.

Assistant Curator Leathercraft

What will you be doing? The service recently took on the unique Leathercraft collection, and the Leathercraft Curator will work directly on these intriguing objects collected by the founders Walterer and Spiers in the early twentieth century. Grounded in a strong heritage the Leathercraft collection contains objects from across the world made from leather and celebrating inspirational design. Dedicated to leather‑crafting in all its forms, the 10,000 objects range from pre‑history through to the present day. The collection continues to grow through contemporary artist‑designed and crafted pieces alongside further historic objects. The collection has synergies with the other collections held by the museum including the Designated Shoe collection, Social history collection and the Decorative art collection. Working in the museum collections team, the post will support the delivery of a dynamic and engaging programme of collections care, collections documentation, temporary exhibitions, and events/public engagement activities. The postholder will contribute creative ideas to develop and enable people to engage with the collection as part of planning for the projects mentioned above. We are looking to recruit an enthusiastic and energetic individual who has good people skills to work with other members of the collections staff, and across the museum team in exhibitions/public programme, operations and income generation. The postholder will be expected to have good organisational skills to manage groups of volunteers and liaise with donors, enquirers and stakeholders. A typical day is very varied working across the different areas of the postholder responsibilities.

About You

The postholder will have a strong interest in making collections accessible externally to a wide range of users and customers. As part of a task the postholder will assist in the research, interpretation, and presentation of collections to diverse audiences through exhibitions and events. Good communication skills will be required for writing text for exhibitions and publications. Attention to detail and knowledge in how to research would be useful to support exhibitions and help researchers who wish to use the collection. The postholder may have students from a university coming to visit the collection on an organised visit, academic researchers from a university wanting to look at specific objects or members of funding bodies such as the Leathersellers’ Guild.

Our benefits

You can also see our full list of employee benefits on our careers site here: Why you should work for us | West Northamptonshire Council.

About Us

At West Northants Council, it’s about our people. People who thrive with ambition, bubble with new ideas, demand better ways of working, caring about every detail, and who never shy away from a challenge. Our culture is a gateway for new experiences. A place to forge new opportunities. To empower you in your career and unite you with like-minded people. Our vision is ‘to make West Northants a great place to live, work, visit and thrive’. We truly stand by this and work hard every day to make this a reality. Our corporate values, THRIVE, stand for: Trust, High Performance, Respect, Innovate and Empower, they underpin everything we do and how we deliver services. Hear from our Chief Executive, Martin Henry, about building a career at WNC. We are committed to ensuring diversity, equality, equity, and inclusion is woven into the fabric of WNC and everything we do, to enable all colleagues to develop and maximize their full potential. We are a disability confident employer, a member of the Armed Forces Covenant, and a Care Leaver Covenant partner. The following film was created by us to communicate our intentions - watch WNC colleagues explain what DEI means to us.

If you need additional support or reasonable adjustments during the application process, including needing the job description in another format or language, please email [e-mail] for support.

Please note we reserve the right to close the advert early if we receive a high volume of suitable applications, so we recommend applying as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

West Northants Council, where careers thrive.

• Salary £29,716 - £31,251 pro rata
• Salary Frequency Annual
• Working Hours 16
• Job Reference Ref/53/9495
• Contract Type Part Time
• Contract Details Permanent
• Closing Date 8 November, 2026
• Job Category Leisure and Tourism
• Location Northampton, United Kingdom
• Job Posted Date 15 October, 2026