Museum Curator

Every museum, whether it’s a natural history, modern art or children’s museum, has a Museum Curator. Their job is to oversee and manage the museum’s exhibits, making sure there are always new pieces coming in and keeping displays safe.

You are the one as the Museum Curator to decide what a museum displays. This depends on a few things: where you work, (since you wouldn’t put a Picasso in a children’s museum) personal taste and availability. Once you’ve secured a piece to display, as the Museum Curator, you’ll need to do the research about why it’s important and set up an exhibit that best shows off the work. You might also write the information used on a tour or field trips.

As much as this job focuses on art, history, and culture, you also have to keep an eye on money. Any new piece you buy has to be justified to trustees so you need to know all about the piece in question and be able to verify it’s the real deal. Big exhibits can cost a lot, so for these you work with businesses to convince them to back the exhibit, figuring out the selling points that will make corporations jump on board with your vision.

You obviously want your museum to be the best around, so you work to find the exhibits that draw the most people. For a traveling exhibit you might borrow art from another museum or if you’re putting together a more permanent display, deal with Art Dealers or private collectors to see if they’ll lend or sell a new piece of art.