Job Posting: Cape Dorset Archives Collections Assistants (paid internship), McMichael Gallery, Kleinburg, Ontario

http://www.mcmichael.com/about/archives-collections-assistant.cfm

Cape Dorset Archives Collections Assistant (internship)
5-month contract, with possibility of extension

February – June 30, 2015

The McMichael Canadian Art Collection ranks among Canada’s top public galleries in size and significance…. Over 6,000 distinctively Canadian works of art comprise the permanent collection, and the gallery welcomes on average more than 110,000 visitors annually.

The McMichael Canadian Art Collection also houses the Cape Dorset Archive of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative, which forms an important visual record of Inuit life, including folklore, material culture, and personal accounts. The McMichael has housed the Archive since 1990, but it has been primarily accessible only through occasional exhibitions, loans, and on-site research.

As part of an ongoing Aboriginal Internship program, Making Culture Visible, the McMichael is recruiting for a 5-month Intern in our Collections departments, with the possibility of extension. The Intern will focus on  making the Cape Dorset Archives collection more accessible by undertaking research, and supervising the cataloguing, digitization and housing of works on paper according to museological standards.

The position of Cape Dorset Archives Collections Assistant is funded under an ongoing Museums Assistant Project (MAP) initiated in 2014.

Under the supervision of the McMichael Head of Collections/Registrar, the Cape Dorset Archives Collection Assistant will be responsible for the overall documentation, care and development of the Archive, including the following:
• ensuring individual artworks within the Archive are catalogued, digitized and housed according to standard museum practices, and supervising student workers assigned to execute these tasks;
• researching individual artworks in order to update existing records or create new ones;
• tracking individual works as they are used for exhibitions, loans, or publications;
• researching individual artists with the goal of creating a “family tree” that clearly demonstrates the artistic and familial relationships amongst various artists within and across generations in the Cape Dorset community;
• corresponding with the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative and other community stakeholders for the purposes of developing a program to make the Archive available remotely;
• organizing the addition to the Archive of print drawings and print proofs on an ongoing basis as they become available, and addressing existing gaps from recent decades so that the Archive can become a true reserve
collection;
• working with researchers and other content users accessing the Archive on site or remotely;
• with the McMichael Head of Collections, identifying other McMichael resources that would enrich—and in turn be enriched by—the Archive, and developing a program to access and link these resources and include them within the overall program of the planned Centre for Inuit Art at the McMichael.

Qualified candidates will have minimum three years experience in registration /collections management,  with the completion of post-secondary Education in museum studies and/or collections management.. As a condition of MAP funding for the position, applicants must be of aboriginal decent and possess a strong understanding of Aboriginal traditional knowledge.  Experience using collection databases, particularly The Museum System (TMS), and PhotoShop and other imaging software are an asset.

Application Process:
If you are interested in applying for this position, please email, mail or fax your resume along with a covering letter to Human Resources by January 31, 2015.

hr@mcmichael.com
Fax: 905.893.2588

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