Keeper of Eastern Art, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Keeper of Eastern Art, Ashmolean Museum, Beaumont Street, Oxford

Salary Grade 10: £52,793 – £61,179 p.a.

As Keeper of Eastern Art you will head a Department with an outstanding collection of the arts of Asia and the Islamic world. Founded in 1962, the Department grew out of the Museum of Eastern Art established in 1948 in the University’s former Indian Institute, which had previously housed a museum of Indian art since 1897.

The Keeper of Eastern Art is a senior management role within the Museum and sits on the Executive Management Group, the Museum’s key strategic and decision making body. The postholder will lead one of the Museum’s five curatorial departments and play a key role in ensuring the Museum meets its strategic objectives around stewardship, digitisation, public access, research and teaching.

The department currently comprises four curators who cover key areas of the collection, with a current vacancy in the Indian subcontinent. The curator of Chinese art is supported by the Christiansen fellow in Chinese painting. The department is supported by a full-time administrator, who also acts as personal assistant to the Keeper, by two Studyroom and Collections Managers.

The Keeper will also curate one of the areas, in which s/he will be required to be research-active. The post is structured as a split contract, with 30% of time allocated to research, including a Sabbatical Leave entitlement of one month’s sabbatical leave for every six months of service the timing to be agreed with the Director of the Museum. The postholder will contribute to University teaching, proactively working with academic departments to develop teaching opportunities. If the Keeper’s area of expertise is in the Indian sub-continent there will be a formal obligation to teach a postgraduate course in the History of Indian Art.

To be successful in this role you will have a specialisation in one of the key areas curated by the department, with at least a bachelor degree (preferably a doctoral degree) and/or significant publications in the relevant area. In addition, you will have experience at senior management level in a major museum, including personnel, financial and collections management and experience in planning, developing and delivering major exhibitions.

Applications will be made online. You will upload a CV, a supporting statement telling us how your knowledge, experience and skills match this position and a recently published paper.

To apply for this role and for further details, including a job description and selection criteria, please follow this link

Closing date: 27th February 2017 (at midday)