Associate Collections Manager

ABOUT THE LUCAS MUSEUM OF NARRATIVE ARTOpening in September 2026, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is dedicated to illustrated storytelling.  Founded by George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, the museum’s collection features works by artists including Norman Rockwell, Kadir Nelson, Jessie Willcox Smith, N. C. Wyeth, Beatrix Potter, Judith F. Baca, Frida Kahlo, and Maxfield Parrish; as well as comic art legends such as Winsor McCay, Jack Kirby, Frank Frazetta, Alison Bechdel, Chris Ware, and R. Crumb; and photographers Gordon Parks, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Dorothea Lange. The Museum also houses the Lucas Archives, containing models, props, concept art, and costumes from Lucas’s filmmaking career.  Designed by Ma Yansong of MAD with a landscape by Mia Lehrer of Studio-MLA, the Museum is in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, on an 11-acre campus that includes new green space and a 300,000-square-foot building with galleries, two theaters, a library, restaurant, café, retail store, and community spaces.   
POSITION SUMMARY The Associate Collections Manager will support departmental priorities and assist in overseeing the preservation, organization, accessibility, and safety of the Lucas Museum’s collection in storage. Reporting to the Head of Collections Management, this position requires a confident mastery of safe handling and archival packing methods for a variety of collection material including works on paper, paintings, textiles, and objects. Experience ordering and tracking supplies, managing parallel project schedules, assisting with the creation and maintenance of departmental policies and procedures, and cross-departmental collaboration in a museum environment is required.
The Associate Collections Manager will oversee the work of entry to mid-level collections staff, working closely with the Head of Collections Management to provide training and daily oversight to ensure museum best practices are being followed. This position works closely with the Registration department to support incoming registration, collection inventory, maintenance of the collections database, and more. In addition, this position works alongside Art Preparation and Installation (API) and Exhibition Departments to support exhibition-related projects and workflows.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Collaborates with the Head of Collections Management to develop strategic departmental goals; creates, deploys, and manages strategic plans, responsible for attaining strategic plan objectives
• Assists with the creation, implementation, and management of Collections Management departmental policies and procedures including but not limited to storage access protocols, emergency response, environmental monitoring and the pest management program, rehousing guidelines, cross-departmental workorder systems, and more
• Responsible for meeting monthly and annual budget standards; ensures equipment and archival supply inventory, meets par stock standards; responsible for establishing and maintaining supply chain vendor standards for quality, cost, and service levels
• Responsible for the creation, implementation, and management of training programs for art handling, rehousing techniques, integrated pest management, and environmental monitoring that protect the high value assets of the museum
• Supervises and oversees the daily activities of Collections Management technicians, interns, and on-call staff
• Performs storeroom maintenance and upgrades including constructing shelving, installing earthquake mitigation, cleaning and organization as needed, both on-site at the museum and in off-site museum storage
• Assists the Senior Director, Museum Services and the Head of Collections Management with long-term art storage related planning, including the inaugural collection move into the museum facilities and future collection moves
• Assists with the management of department workflows and schedules to meet milestones and goals in collaboration with Collections Technicians, Registrar’s department, API, and outside contractors
• Coordinates exhibitions workflows related to costume dressing, mannequins, and supports workflows related to mounts and framing in close collaboration with API and Installation, as assigned 
• Coordinates and oversees viewings of the collection with internal and external stakeholders, as assigned
• Oversees and undertakes collections care processes and maintenance in storage and public/gallery spaces including collection movement, light cleaning, and rehousing
• Coordinates collection photography, including overseeing incoming requests, hiring external photographers, and coordinating delivery of assets to stakeholders; may be asked to take preliminary photography of collection objects, as assigned
• Coordinates and tracks day-to-day logistics of onsite and off-site collect