Senior Registrar of Exhibitions

MoMA PS1 – Senior Registrar of Exhibitions

PS1 seeks an experienced, dynamic Senior Registrar to oversee the registration responsibilities for the planning, documentation and logistics surrounding a robust program of loans, exhibitions, and installations at MoMA PS1. The registrar monitors fine art holdings at the museum at all times and implements policies and procedures to support the exhibition program at the museum and ensure that best museum practices are maintained.

Supervision

This position reports to the Director of Program Production, works collaboratively across all museum departments including Program Production, Curatorial, External Affairs, Visitor Engagement, Security, Operations, and Administration, as well as with lenders, conservators, artists, couriers, and other artistic collaborators. The Registrar supervises and manages one Assistant Registrar as well as regularly scheduled contract Registrars. In collaboration with the Assistant Installation Manager, the Registrar guides a team of seasonal gallery installation staff.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate and manage all logistical arrangements pertaining to transportation, customs clearance, booking transports and requesting/comparing shipping estimates, packing, and courier needs for borrowed artworks.
• Develop and oversee registration budgets by creating initial estimates, processing and tracking expenses, and reporting regularly on budgets related to each exhibition.
• Issue all loan agreements and review/negotiate lender terms and requirements of agreements in collaboration with the Director of Program Production, Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, MoMA Legal team and insurance agent.
• Plan all install and deinstall schedules in collaboration with the Program Production team; consider staffing levels for art handler needs, contract registrar assignments, artists on-site, couriers, conservators, shipping deadlines and curatorial priorities.
• Adhere to the industry’s best practices for art handling, movement, installation, storage, condition reporting, data management, packing and shipping.
• Create and maintain all condition report documents and images.
• Work across museum departments to implement security protocols and floorplans as they pertain to art object safety; communicate and educate staff on art safety; maintain and distribute reference photos of each exhibition to share with front-line staff.
• Liaise with relevant departments to help maintain the incoming and outgoing shipping schedule for the museum.
• Function as the on-site and off-site storage liaison and maintain inventories, exhibition data, coordinate deliveries, track insurance values, and issue COIs for artwork on and off-site.
• Maintain fine art insurance policy including annual renewal, tracking insurance holdings, obtaining COIs and liaising with insurance agent for input as needed.
• Collaborate with MoMA’s CEMS team to customize templates for MoMA PS1.

Experience

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential function satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

• Minimum of 5 years relevant experience managing exhibitions with responsibility for logistical arrangements pertaining to packing, transportation, customs clearance, and courier needs, for complex exhibitions involving foreign and domestic loans.
• Attention to detail, with ability to prioritize and manage time effectively, multitask, and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment with frequently changing deadlines.
• Experience developing, managing and overseeing registration budgets.
• Knowledge of standard museum loan and registration practices and understanding of fine arts insurance.
• Experience with art handling, transportation, and knowledge of best practices.
• Familiarity with exhibition installation and experience with management, supervision, and guidance of skilled teams.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, effective and professional negotiating skills, strong interpersonal skills, discretion and diplomacy.
• Proficient with museum databases systems (TMS preferred) and experience working in Microsoft and Google environments.
• Ability to work collaboratively across museum departments and to understand the goals of a small curatorial and program support team in formulating and implementing an ambitious program of temporary exhibitions.
• Ability to maintain a professional and positive attitude in a fast-paced environment.
• Availability to respond to art incidents during off-hours.

Compensation and Benefits

This position is permanent and full-time with a salary range of $75,000 – 80,000. Benefits include 20 days paid vacation leave; 10 days paid sick leave; 11 paid holidays; and 3 paid personal days; participation in a 401(k) and pension plan; life insurance; medical/health (including visual and dental); transit, and dependent care FSA.

How to Apply

Apply online
SENIO002044

About MoMA PS1

Long Island City, NY

PS1 was born out of New York’s alternative space movement in the 1970s, transforming an abandoned nineteenth century schoolhouse in Long Island City, Queens, into a space for artists and their collaborators to generate ideas and present work.

Located in what was once an industrial enclave, the institution has now become a creative landmark in the fastest growing residential neighborhood in the country. Continuously responsive to the potential for collective impact, in 1976 PS1 was registered as an independent non-profit in a city-owned building. In 1982 it became the first Cultural Institutions Group (CIG) that focused on contemporary art as part of NYC’s Department of Cultural Affairs. Then in 2000, PS1 also established an affiliation with the Museum of Modern Art, and in 2010 it became known as MoMA PS1.

In 2022–23 PS1 has a budget of approximately $11M and is a team of about 50 led by an independent Board of Directors. Embracing that we operate by, for and with artists, we are focusing on collective action to reach our local and global community in our programming. Working with an evolving constellation of practitioners, neighbors and partners, we are committed to the critical work of diversity, equity, access, and inclusion. It is through these lenses that we examine and build our programs, relationships and organizational culture.

PS1 champions how art and artists are at the intersection of the social, cultural, and political issues of their time, and we center equity in how we work and what we do.

MoMA PS1 is a proud equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, familial or veteran status, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status.

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