Responsibilities of a Museum Curator

The career of museum curator is a challenging and rewarding one that offers a broad array of opportunities in museums in government, educational and private sectors. Keenly competitive, there are more qualified applicants with graduate degrees than there are job openings as museum curator. Museum curators carry out an array of responsibilities and duties in their role, but these often vary considerably depending on whether one works for a public, educational or private museum. Nearly half a century ago, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) devised the "Position Classification Standard for Museum Curator" in February, 1962 (Position 1). This standard provides four "conceptual cornerstones" that are the foundation of modern museums: 1) research, 2) collection, 3) exhibits, and 4) education (Position 2). Any understanding of the museum curator in any culture must be based on these concepts of curatorial activity in order to understand the role and its duties and responsibilities.

Museum curators perform essential functions; require specific knowledge, skills and abilities, and they must be flexible in the sense that they play diverse roles from a professor of history to a skilled designer of exhibits. One professional curator organization, AGCAS, describes a museum curator as someone that "acquires, cares for, develops, displays and interprets a collection of artifacts or works of art in order to inform, educate and entertain the public" (Spilman

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1) The above functions deemed "essential" to the museum curator position opening for the City of Phoenix shows why museum curators must be highly educated and experienced to land a position. The museum curator is not only responsible for collections and acquiring and maintaining them, but he or she also serves as teacher, researcher, specialist, fundraiser, manager, accountant and a variety of other roles in carrying out curatorial activities required for the job. The expanded scope and nature of the role and responsibilities of museum curator demand that today's museum curators are prepared in other ways pertaining to them. Ray (1) maintains the following tips for those who hope to be able to fulfill the role and responsibilities of museum curators: 1) Possess superb overall writing and speaking skills; 2) Be proficient in the use of technology and computer databases; 3) Take a course in grant writing; and 4) Be prepared to travel the world over to find new additions. A significant number of different skills, abilities and personal qualities are required to successfully fulfill the role of museum curator. It is not a position anyone can do successfully. It is readily apparent that the role and responsibil

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