Museum Registrar (3556) - Fine Arts Museums

Company Description

This is a Position-Based Test conducted in accordance with CSC Rule 111A.

Application Opening - Friday, June 12, 2026

Application Deadline - Friday, July 3, 2026 at 11:59 PM PST

Compensation as of January 3, 2026: $83,460 to $101,556 Annually

Working at FAMSF: 

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) are the city's largest public arts institutions and are comprised of the de Young and the Legion of Honor museums. The de Young, designed by Herzog & de Meuron and located in Golden Gate Park, showcases American art from the 17th through the 21st centuries, international contemporary art, textiles and costumes, and art from the Americas, the Pacific, and Africa. The Legion of Honor displays a collection of over 4,000 years of ancient and European art and houses the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts in a Beaux-Arts style building overlooking Lincoln Park and the Golden Gate Bridge. The staff, the Board of Trustees, the volunteers, and various support groups are continuously working together to ensure the optimal utilization, display, preservation, and enrichment of this magnificent collection. The Fine Arts Museums believe that each employee contributes directly to the Museums' growth and success, and upholds the Museums' mission to make art accessible to the large and diverse Bay Area audience.

We Value Equal Employment Opportunity! 

FAMSF connects art, people and ideas. Echoing the inclusive values of our region, we warmly welcome people of all backgrounds, connecting them to each other and to a world of art and ideas through programming that sparks curiosity and dialogue. Between our two museums, you can experience a world of possibilities.

Job Description

Under direction, the Museum Registrar is a critical position to the department and the collection operations by performing a wide variety of professional registration duties in support of the museum's collections management and exhibition programs. The Museum Registrar will oversee the intake and processing of all new acquisitions, averaging approximately 800 objects annually. This position also manages all registration aspects of the institution's deaccessioning process.

Essential Duties:

The essential duties and responsibilities of this position include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Receives, inspects, accessions, documents, labels and catalogs objects acquired for collections and/or exhibitions; makes notes and/or comments on condition reports; oversees deaccession procedures in compliance with collection management policies.
2. Oversees the movement, exhibition, storage, and disposition of art objects in order to guarantee security of the collections, including coordination with conservators, preparators, designers, curators and photographers.
3. Facilitates care and security of collections of art and artifacts on site; coordinates with conservators regarding the conditions necessary to store objects in a seismically safe, temperate place; controls art storage area; oversees object movement, internal and external; conducts periodic inventories of collection areas; maintains storage records and shelf lists.
4. Arranges for insurance on permanent collection, outgoing or incoming loans, including executing applications for federal indemnification of international exhibitions, maintaining insurance coverage and computing premiums when due, and processing liability and damage claims.
5. Prepares agreements and arrangements for outgoing and incoming loans, special exhibitions or permanent installation of objects, including contractual arrangements, loan agreement forms, exhibition contracts, condition reports, facility reports, supplying photographs, cataloging information, and other documents related to collections management.
6. Makes shipping arrangements for incoming and outgoing objects; inspects objects and checks condition reports, making notes as needed; coordinates the packing, crating and couriering of objects; establishes the date and method of shipping items. Works collaboratively with museum staff including curators, conservators, preparators, and packers, as well as representatives of other museums and outside art handling personnel such as airline personnel and cargo handlers in coordinating, scheduling, and monitoring the safe and legal movement of objects.
7. Researches and provides accurate information to museum administrators, staff and board members, representatives of other museums and the general public regarding loans, special collections, catalog information, packing, shipping, and insurance; promotes compliance with federal, state, and local laws relating to art collections management.
8. Serves as a courier accompanying valuable objects o