Visitor Services Associate

Job Description

Job Description

VISITOR SERVICES ASSOCIATE (PART-TIME)

The Visitor Services Associate is a part-time, front-facing customer service and administrative position that supports the Backus Museum’s daily activities. The Visitor Services Associate is the primary staff representative to the public, responsible for daily admissions; all on-site sales in the Museum Store; conveying general information about the exhibitions on display; maintaining the order and cleanliness of the facilities; and other services visitors may require for a positive and rewarding experience at the Backus Museum.

A warm, polite, respectful, responsive, polished, dependable individual with a positive attitude, good judgment, with attention to processes and details is necessary for success in this position.

As the primary staff representative to the public, the Visitor Services Associate is the first and often only staff person welcoming and interacting directly with visitors. The Visitor Services Associate has regular contact with Museum members, board members, donors and sponsors, volunteers, artists and other key constituents and stakeholders.

The Visitor Services Associate position is non-exempt, and works one designated weekday with two rotating weekend days per month (typically 8-16 hours/week) with occasional exceptions. All Museum staff positions may require additional intermittent evening and weekend work availability to support special events. Compensation rate is $13.00/hour.

RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Daily management of the front desk, including admissions, telephone, cash register and cash management, etc.
2. Facilitating all on-site sales, including Museum Store merchandise, Represented and Exhibiting Artist sales, as well as juried competition entry fees, special event fees, raffle ticket sales, general donations
3. Welcoming and orienting visitors, conveying general information
4. Maintaining the cleanliness and safety of the facilities for guests
5. Taking program reservations by phone or in person

KEY ACTIVITIES

• Opens and closes the facility for business, including de/activating security alarm; turning on/off lights, ambient gallery music, orientation video; checks restrooms for toilet paper; performs periodic surface cleaning and sanitizing activities; inspects and straightens with level works of art hanging askew; picks up trash outside and around Outdoor Mural Plaza before opening that may give a poor first impression to visitors
• Opens, runs and closes the POS cash register, accounting for and balancing all daily sales activities (cash, checks, credit cards, gift certificates), preparing daily deposits
• Acts as Museum Store sales associate, knowledgeable of available products, and making sales with any applicable discounts
• Maintains stock and display in the Museum Store when sales are made; occasionally assembles reproductions into ready-made frames, compiles correspondence notecard sets, or prices items as needed
• Makes sales of any Represented artists and Exhibiting artists sales of original art, records sales
• Accepts formal offers and deposits on Consignment Paintings, contacting and coordinating with Director of Exhibitions & Consignments
• Receives and catalogs juried exhibition entries and fees according to guidelines
• Promotes annual memberships, special events, raffle ticket sales
• Maintains sales records for annual raffle ticket sales from front desk, fulfilling mail, phone, and online orders
• Collects program reservations, meeting RSVPs, waiting lists, or other response lists
• Takes outgoing mail to street; retrieves any incoming mail daily
• General office administration tasks, with other duties as assigned

Functional Relationships:

Reports to the Executive Director and the Visitor Services Manager. Works closely with the Visitor Services staff, Museum Store Manager, Director of Exhibitions & Consignments, Information Specialist, volunteers and the public. This position is classified as Non-Exempt.

Qualifications:

Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree preferred, and/or relevant front-facing retail experience, especially in a museum, attractions, or nonprofit environment; basic/working knowledge of Microsoft and Google office programs (especially MS Office and Google Workspace); good time/task management and organizational skills, customer service and interpersonal skills, ability to work with others in a fast-paced environment.

We are a community-centered, membership-based, nonprofit collecting art museum with a mission to promote the arts and perpetuate the artistic and altruistic legacy of Florida’s famed painter laureate, A.E. “Bean” Backus (1906-1990). Florida-born and legendary throughout his life for his iconic landscape paintings, he is also remembered for nurturing new and emerging artists, and renowned for his humanitarian principles to “pay it forward” for countless individuals in his lifetime. Our mission is inclusive of the art and artists who later became known as The Highwaymen, who got their start here and blazed their own indelible and celebrated trail. Nearly half of the visual artists inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame trace their paths to Backus’s open studio door. We seek to preserve and share this creative heart of Florida that continues to inspire today.

Company Description

We are a community-centered, membership-based, nonprofit collecting art museum with a mission to promote the arts and perpetuate the artistic and altruistic legacy of Florida’s famed painter laureate, A.E. “Bean” Backus (1906-1990). Florida-born and legendary throughout his life for his iconic landscape paintings, he is also remembered for nurturing new and emerging artists, and renowned for his humanitarian principles to “pay it forward” for countless individuals in his lifetime. Our mission is inclusive of the art and artists who later became known as The Highwaymen, who got their start here and blazed their own indelible and celebrated trail. Nearly half of the visual artists inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame trace their paths to Backus’s open studio door. We seek to preserve and share this creative heart of Florida that continues to inspire today.