When visiting a beautiful spacious museum filled with rich interesting works of art, have you ever imagined if all that was your office? Well, in the case of a museum curator, that is, to an extent, their reality.
Occupying just one position, the museum curator has the unique experience of working with artifacts or works of art from the past while communicating with the public about the present and interacting with potential donors concerning the future. The museum curator gets to express his or her passion for museum collection and share it with the community at large.
If you feel like you might not be cut out for
surviving in the corporate world, or if you have just recently entered the job market, just started university, or are
contemplating a career change at 30, it would be possible to aspire for a more financially rewarding career than that of a museum curator. But for those who are passionate about museum collections, it would be hard to beat the perks and the work environment that comes with this unique profession.
In this short article, we’ll be taking a look at what it means to be a museum curator, what skills and personal attributes go into being a successful museum curator, and what kind of jobs can act as a stepping stone to eventually reaching the coveted post.
Job Description of a Museum Curator
The museum curator plays a large role in deciding on what pieces are acquired and displayed at a given museum. He or she is responsible for creating collections (from existing works the museum owns, loans from other museums and collections, new acquisitions, and commissions).
They are also chiefly responsible for how the works are presented. This includes where and when, in what order, and determining and commissioning any explanatory signs or descriptions that should accompany the works.
The museum curator is also responsible for making sure that all the pieces of a museum’s collection are well-kept, stored properly, and cleaned appropriately. They will also oversee any restoration work that may need to be carried out.
The museum curator is also responsible for cataloging the pieces in a museum’s collection for archive purposes and for easy retrieval when a given piece is called for., and marketing.
Profile of a Museum Curator
The typical museum curator usually has some kind of academic background in art or archeology, either through a master’s degree in art history, archeology, or museum studies. Some smaller museums or heritage houses may consider someone who only has a bachelor’s degree for the position of museum curator, but it is not typical.
The ideal museum curator has also displayed experience in organization and administration. He or she has generally completed some form of additional training such as completing courses in business administration, public relations, or event planning.
Skills and Attributes of a Museum Curator
The job of museum curator can be quite demanding - not in terms of workload but in terms of expectations regarding the skills and talents needed to successfully carry out this job.
The ideal museum curator will:
• Have a passion for art history and/or archeology
• Be highly organized
• Have strong administrative skills (know how to delegate and oversee)
• Have good interpersonal skills (as they have to interact with the public)
• Have good research skills (as they will need to research pieces of a collection and publish their findings)
This short list barely scratches the surface. The museum curator must also have working to expert knowledge on the care and restoration of artifacts. And since they will have to buy works, the museum curator also has to be good at handling a budget - not to mention knowing how to go about securing new funds from potential donors.
Stepping Stone Jobs for Prospective Museum Curators
Since museum creators come from a background of higher education (most have a master’s degree in a field that would interest a museum) they tend to have a rather linear career path. What this means is that we don’t typically see museum curators who bounce around from museum to museum or from job to job in a series of lateral movements. Museum curators tend to get opportunities once they have finished with their academic career and they tend to move on from those opportunities to embrace bigger and better positions.
Internships
Most museum curators have at one time in their professional career (usually right out of university) taken an internship at a museum.
Publications
A part of the role of a museum curator is to talk about art (whether with the general public, administrators, other artists, or collectors). Their passion and intellectual curiosity inevitably open up opportunities to share what they know in the form of written papers, essaies, or critiques. Often, this is a part of their academic journey.
Having pieces about art or archeology published in leading outlets for those fields is a good way to catch the eye of museum administration. It may not necessarily be a prerequisite for getting invited to come in for a job interview, but a lack of publication history is out of the norm and does raise a red flag.
The Bottom Line
Museum curator is a well-paid (though not exorbitantly well paid) job. It comes with a certain amount of prestige. And, for someone who is passionate about the work a particular museum is doing, it can provide a lot of professional satisfaction. More often than not, museum curators have a master’s degree and have done internships at a museum before ascending to the position of museum curator.
The museum curator does provide a face or a personality to the museum. For this reason, and others, having a publication history and a reputation of being engaged in the art world is a big plus (if not a prerequisite) for the job.
