Museum Specialist (General)

The Digital Asset Management Consortium, Inc.; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 50,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

The Digital Asset Management Consortium, Inc. seeks a Museum Specialist to serve as a liaison for NMAI's collection at the Cultural Resources Center (CRC) in Washington, DC.

Responsibilities include researching Native cultures, coordinating visits, and maintaining storage and handling standards for over 850,000 objects. Qualified candidates will have a Master’s degree or higher and experience with Native American collections, visitor services, and collections management.

Qualifications

• Specialized museum experience focusing on Native American collections.
• Coordinating visitor services with emphasis on Native American visitors.
• Experience with collections management and care.
• Ability to conduct research related to Native art, culture or history.
• Familiarity with museum databases (e.g., EMu) and external resources.

Responsibilities

• Serve as liaison for NMAI's collection at the Cultural Resources Center (CRC).
• Maintain collections space cleanliness and follow storage/handling procedures.
• Manage requests for visits to NMAI collections from diverse stakeholders.
• Conduct research on Native cultures and their material culture; connect elements to inform researchers.

Skills

Museum collections

Visitor coordination

Research

Cultural sensitivity

Education

Master’s degree or higher

Job description

Duties

As a Museum Specialist you will serve as a Liaison for NMAI's museum collection at the Cultural Resources Center (CRC).

The duties of this position include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Have a working knowledge of the over 850,000 objects in the NMAI collection from North, Central and South America of Native cultures, art forms and material from a wide variety of geographic and cultural regions (contemporary, archaeological, and ethnographic) including an awareness of the potential spiritual and sensitive nature of some items or materials in Native collections to better facilitate collections visits.
• Conduct research on Native cultures and their material culture and make connections between different elements to determine best avenues for securing information for the researcher. Examples could include materials related to a specific tribe or all examples of netted style beadwork in the collections from the entire hemisphere. In addition to using the museum’s database (EMu), the incumbent utilizes outside resources (i.e., Web searches, museum & outside publications, archaeological reports, and tribal websites). When developing database reports, the incumbent must also consider the cultural sensitivity of some objects.
• Exercise knowledge, skill, and experience in collections care practices and participate in collections care duties. This work includes maintaining the cleanliness of the collections space (vacuuming, dusting, and reshelving) and following all requirements for the proper tracking, moving and storage of collections objects.
• Manage requests for visits to the NMAI collections at the Cultural Resources Center that may come from Native community members and representatives, SI/NMAI staff, Federal and state officials, researchers, academics and curators, museum professionals, visitors, or the general public.

Qualifications

Experience: You qualify for this position if you have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-07 level in the Federal Service. For this position specialized experience is defined as: experience in a museum, cultural, or historical organization focusing on Native American (or other indigenous culture of the Western Hemisphere) collections. The experience must include at least one of the following areas: Coordinating visitor services with an emphasis on Native American visitors, Collections management, Research related to Native art, culture, or history.

OR

You qualify with Education: Master’s or equivalent graduate degree.

OR 2 full years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to such a degree; OR LL.B. or J.D., if related.

OR You may qualify by a combination of experience and education.