Head of Museums – Portsmouth City Council

The Service

Portsmouth Museums operate six accredited museums – Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery, the award-winning D-Day Story (home to the Overlord Embroidery and Landing Craft Tank 7074), Charles Dickens’ Birthplace, Southsea Castle, Cumberland House Natural History Museum and the Eastney Engines.  Entry is free apart from The D-Day Story and Charles Dickens’ Birthplace. The service cares for a wide range of collections, including social, military and natural history, archaeology and art. The service also cares for the Richard Lancelyn Green Bequest Conan Doyle collection. The service works closely with Arts Council England and is keen to continue to develop the relationship.  As part of the regeneration of the city centre and Portsmouth Museums Strategy 2022-2026 there is potential to develop momentum for a new Museum of Portsmouth in co-production with the city’s communities.

Following retirement of the previous postholder, this is a unique opportunity to develop your career in the cultural sector and play a key role in the future of our city.

Your New Role

Although Portsmouth is home to world class and award winning museums, we see the role of our museums service as engaging local residents and communities with their heritage and working with them to tell their stories.

You will be responsible for the management of Portsmouth City Council’s museums service, its sites, collections and staff. This will include management of budgets and maintaining the service’s accreditation with Arts Council England.

You will collaborate with our partners to ensure that museums play a key role in delivering towards the city’s vision for 2040, Imagine Portsmouth, and to support placemaking as part of the regeneration of the city. You will also work with relevant partners to deliver against key priorities such as health and wellbeing and climate and the environment.

This role will include leading the service, its staff and stakeholders through a period a significant change and a shift to a more people-focused approach. You will develop the service’s approach to advocacy and relationship building, income generation and fundraising, and you will lead the development of a new Friends Group.

We are also working towards the 80th Anniversary of D-Day in 2024, with The D-Day Story playing a leading role as part of the commemorations.

The service operates six museum sites in total, along with a main museum store. 37 staff comprise the department, with 7 of those staff reporting directly to this post. The service’s budget is currently £1,138,600.

What you’ll need to succeed

You will have excellent leadership skills and an ability to think and work strategically.  You will be able to build and develop a team and an organisational culture.  You will also have a track record of supporting and developing people and have experience of guiding a team through organisational change.

You will be able to advocate for what museums can deliver with partners, stakeholders and funders. You will work collaboratively and build relationships with partners, communities and stakeholders.  You will develop engagement, particularly among under-represented communities.

You will have excellent communication skills, both verbal and written.  You will have experience of management in a museum, heritage or cultural setting and you will develop the service’s approach to fundraising and income generation.  You will have an awareness of Accreditation and other Museum standards.

What we can offer you

We are a disability confident employer – committed to ensuring that our recruitment and selection process is inclusive and accessible and welcome applications from all areas of society.

We really appreciate our employees and fully realise they are essential to our success and look to offer an inclusive, supportive working environment where employees can reach their potential with a healthy work life balance, offering the following rewards:

• A generous pension scheme
• Up to 31 days annual leave per year bank holidays
• Flexible / hybrid working
• A range of retail discounts via our reward portal offering discounts at retailers including IKEA, Currys, Tesco
• Free Access to Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and wellbeing support
• Access to a wide range of training and development opportunities including apprenticeships
• Potential to purchase additional annual leave
• Business travel support and initiatives, including bike loans

Please check out the link here to view the benefits of working with us!

https://careers.portsmouth.gov.uk/working-for-the-council/

When completing your application you may wish to upload a cover letter covering the ‘Who is the Person’ points on the job profile giving examples of your experience and any transferrable skills.

We look forward to speaking with you soon. Click here to make your application>>

Should you require any support in completing the application form please contact recruit@portsmouthcc.gov.uk