Curatorship

Job header

Help put inspirational curatorship at the heart of the way in which we look after and interpret our places

At the Trust, we invite our audience to understand and connect with each of our inspirational places. We share the whole picture – from houses and collections to gardens and landscapes – and we look after and celebrate their distinctive spirit of place. We encourage our visitors to recognise how places can be relevant to today’s world, and that nature and the historic environment are under threat. Our ambition is to enlighten and inspire people to value and appreciate the nature, history, and beauty at the places we care for.

We aspire to be world-class in our curatorship of places, grounded in exemplary care, research and presentation. We reveal the stories of places through innovative interpretation to ever-broader audiences, encouraging people to support our cause. Curators play a central role in helping us to achieve our ambitions, as we make what we do, what we believe in and the places we care for ever more relevant to people of all ages. We need experienced, energetic Curators, who share our love of special places, and can bring their understanding, expertise, and skills to teach and inspire our audiences.

It’s an exciting time to join our charity. We’re doubling the number of our curatorial staff from 36 to around 65 full-time staff over the next two years. Starting with our campaign in April '17 to recruit Curators across each region/country. These changes mean that the Trust is committed to investing more in curatorial excellence than at any time in its history

John Orna-Ornstein, Director of Curation

Typical roles

We have a variety of opportunities for dynamic and inspirational Curators to help us look after a range of sites and to lead in uncovering and sharing their wider context, meaning and relevance. We are looking for excellent communicators and collaborators to deliver our ambition to reveal the stories that make our properties special.

Senior National Curator

From landscapes, parks and gardens to historic houses and collections, as Senior National Curator, you’ll work with regional management to help lead the professional development and research priorities of the local curatorial team. Your subject specialist expertise will transform the way we engage our audiences with places and collections.

Cultural Heritage Curator

You’ll support a portfolio of properties, working with a diverse range of specialists and operational teams to develop understanding, and care for the collections and places we look after. You’ll play a key role in enabling innovative presentation and interpretation, building strong engagement with our audiences.

Property Curator

As Property Curator, you’ll provide leadership to the collection and house team and work with our consultancy teams to develop a lively and engaging house experience, delivering high quality presentation, interpretation, programming, and collections care.

Our curators

  • Volunteer Margaret

    John

    Director of Curation and Experience

    We are looking for curators who marry strong knowledge relevant to our special places and collections with an absolute passion for the experience of visitors. The Trust is ambitious for its curatorial work; we welcome applications from people who are as excited about the role that curators can play in telling stories that excite and inspire as we are. You’ll be joining a cohort of new and existing curators that are at the heart of the National Trust’s plans for the future.

  • Volunteer Margaret

    Tarnya

    Curatorial and Conservation Director

    We are continuing to invest in our curatorial team and we are looking for curators who want to help increase our understanding about their significance, share knowledge about our collections as widely as possible and to excite and inspire new audiences throughout outstanding interpretation.

  • Volunteer Margaret

    Liz

    Senior National Curator

    Being a National Trust Curator is completely different to any other organisation; ours are living, evolving places.

  • Volunteer Margaret

    Katie

    Cultural Heritage Curator

    The best thing is the privilege of knowing that we are caring for the places where history happened which brings a real truth in what we do.

Latest Curatorship jobs