Museum Technician or Conservator
Job Description & Duties
Restore, maintain, or prepare objects in museum collections for storage, research, or exhibit. May work with specimens such as fossils, skeletal parts, or botanicals; or artifacts, textiles, or art. May identify and record objects or install and arrange them in exhibits. Includes book or document conservators.
Responsibilities
- Supervise and work with volunteers.
- Notify superior when restoration of artifacts requires outside experts.
- Direct and supervise curatorial, technical, and student staff in the handling, mounting, care, and storage of art objects.
- Deliver artwork on courier trips.
- Install, arrange, assemble, and prepare artifacts for exhibition, ensuring the artifacts’ safety, reporting their status and condition, and identifying and correcting any problems with the set up.
- Clean objects, such as paper, textiles, wood, metal, glass, rock, pottery, and furniture, using cleansers, solvents, soap solutions, and polishes.
Required Skills
- Active Listening: Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Speaking: Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Reading Comprehension: Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Writing: Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Critical Thinking: Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
- Judgment and Decision Making: Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
Other Job Titles
- Paintings Conservator
- Ethnographic Materials Conservator
- Conservator
- Ceramic Restorer
- Conservation Technician
Tools & Technologies Used
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Word
- Microsoft Office
- Microsoft Outlook
- Adobe Photoshop
- Microsoft Visual FoxPro
- Gallery Systems EmbARK
- PastPerfect Software
- Questor Systems ARGUS