Nature of the Work
Being a museum curator involves time, dedication, and good management skills. A museum curator is responsible for items in a museum that belong to the museum or are being borrowed. They decide when an object is sold/,lent, exchanged, or bought. Aside from managing objects and displays, curators are also in charge of planning public outreach events and programs, such as lectures or tours at the museum. They are also in charge of arranging workshops and classes, finding and hiring interpreters or translators, collecting and keeping track of important documents, writing articles for websites or newspapers, budget managing and planning, training new staff members, and many other various tasks depending on the museum. The job is very disciplined and structured.
Why I Chose This Career
I feel like the job position of a museum curator is the right one for me because it’s focused overall proficient organization skills and a strong sense of responsibility. I have the ability to be persuasive and willing to compromise. I like the idea of having this job because it’s exciting and provides new challenges everyday. When working as a curator, someone has the opportunity to get up close and personal with historical documents, items, and works of art. Visitors and other workers simply don’t have the ability and privilege to do so.
Working Conditions
A curator needs to be able to negotiate and be willing to compromise, as it is often the task at hand to borrow from museums or other locations. Teamwork and flexibility are also valued, as the job isn’t completely independent. Museums are designed for public enjoyment, so good communication a...
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...ary. It is fairly common for curators that work in museums that are located in bigger cities to make more money.
Job Outlook
Museum jobs, especially the curator position, are expected to become harder to get because of how competitive the field is. The BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) anticipates the rate of employment will rise around 20% between 2008-2018 for museum curators, and the rate of pay should improve as well. According to a Jobs Rated report written in 2011, anyone who has skill and education in the humanities field are in luck. Out of the 200 jobs rated on the report, the museum curator position ranked 53rd while other related jobs such as historian, philosopher, and librarian were listed even higher. The jobs are all being evaluated and ranked by how physically demanding they are, the environment of the work, and the hiring outlook.
As an overview of an antique store manager, their duties are provided as follows. First, an antique store manager must be dedicated to their interest in antiques. They attend certain sales to locate antiques for their store or to find the specific requests of their customers. After purchasing the antiques, the manager is responsible for the appraising and valuing the antiques that are brought into the store for sale. Sometimes they have to renovate, repair, and refurnish their items; while doing the restorations, they have to make sure to use the appropriate methods that will not diminish the value of the item. Once the antiques are restored, the manager must correctly price the items in his store and be able to authenticate the items. Furthermore, they do the hiring, training, and scheduling of staff, while overseeing the daily operation of the store.
Choosing a vocation can be a daunting task. With the world ever-evolving, one may come across a new attractive career every year. In order to ensure optimal job satisfaction, it is vital to educate oneself about every alluring prospect prior to committing. Simple factors like the time commitment and salary can mean the difference between a content existence and a miserable one.
At the begging, the idea that I had to visit a museum for my assignment did not make me feel happy and amused. It was the opposite. I was thinking that it would be really stupid and boring going there, spending my day looking at some expensive “drawings”. However, when I saw the museum as a building, it really impressed me. The structure and architecture was really beautiful. As I was looking for the pieces of works that I had find information about. I was attracted by other gorgeous paintings as well. I saw paintings and sculptures from different cultures, which I never had heard before. My day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was really a pleasure and fun. Apart from pleasure and fun, I got an idea of art which is very important to anyone of us.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art came about as an idea from Jon Jay in Paris, France in 1866 with the idea of “national institution gallery of art” within the United States. Once this idea was proposed, it was immediately moved forward with his return to the United States. With the help of the Union League Club in NY they began to acquire civic leaders, businessmen, artists, and collectors who aided in the creation of the museum. For over 140 years, the visitors who go here have received everything the mission of the institution states.
In Stephen Weil’s essay, he argues “the museum’s role has transformed from one of mastery to one of service” (Weil, 196). According to him, museums have changed their mission from one that cultures the public to one that serves
New York City is known for its wide diversity as a cultural mecca for art,
The problem of African-American collections being housed without any departments or curators is that it jeopardizes the community, especially potential donations to the museums, therefore reducing the cultural value of the collection. Although acquiring African-American art from other museums are helpful, creating a space that allows outside donations to the museum is useful because this brings the community closer to the collection and the museum. For example, curator Valerie Mercer acknowledges the issue of mainstream North American museums not giving African-American art enough support, as this creates a barrier between the museums and the community. She finds that many potential donors fear that their contributions are not going to be viewed because these museums do not have departments or specialized curators dedicated to this study, thus the contributors shy away from these museums since they are less concerned with showing African-American art. A specialized curator or a department in this field could increase more donations, ultimately serving the public and allow viewers to learn about the various artists who are excluded from the American art
New museology is the modernisation of museums. New museums are made to be more interactive and more interesting for the visitors. Displays in the museums are no longer covered in glass and people are encouraged to look more closely and interact with displays. The museums are brighter are the displays...
One notable aspect in the Romanian museum market is that, whilst the number of museum visits recorded a significant decrease (12 million visitors to 9.5 from 2007 to 2011), the number of museums has increased from 679 to 709 (Pârvulescu 2013), according to Mediafax . The museum market equilibrium was affected due to a drastic decrease in demand, although supply increased by 30 un...
I believe art museums should be pay-what-you-can because I know I would go to the Gibbes Museum much more often if I could choose my price of admission, and so would other people. I would also bring more friends and family members with me because money would never be an issue. However, since museums would probably lose a part of their income, the communities, including businesses, have to be willing to support them.
During my final year at Kingston, I took the initiative to contact the museum for work experience. Whilst I will admit it was my interest in Alexander McQueen that prompted me to contact the archives initially, after two years - continuing to volunteer whilst completing my degree and working full time - I am now strongly interested in pursuing a career in curating. I wish to develop my experience at CSM by continuing to learn with further academic study and the opportunities this course offers.
... to the Library and that have generally been underused resources. B. Greater use of the Library's Capitol Hill facilities by scholars for the kind of interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, multimedia, multilingual, and synthetic writing that is important to Congressional deliberation and national policy-making, but inadequately encouraged both by special interest groups and by advocacy-oriented think tanks; and C. Greater use by the general public through programs that stimulate interest, increase knowledge, and encourage more citizens to use the collections on-site and electronically.”The Library employees will add their position as information guides by “helping more people find appropriate materials in a swelling sea of unsorted information” and directing them to services and resources exclusive to the Library of Congress. This requires not only more growth of employees that the Library has formerly had, but also making it easier in new ways more wide-ranging and “systematic use by researchers of the distinctive materials that only the Library of Congress has.” Courses for the common public, such as displays or publications, must display the importance and value of the collections.
Museum defines as an institution housing collections of objects of artistic, historic, or scientific interest conserved and displayed for the educational and enjoyment of the public. Museums are places of memory that provides the link of distant past to the present generation which also help the society to know the path their forebears trod. The main purpose of museum is neither to educate nor entertain but rather creates a memory bank would remind us of the past. No wonder most societies in different parts of the world traced their origin through the works of arts history. There are many types of museum includes museum of Antiquities-in which are housed ancient pieces of furniture or objects of art such as sculptures, paintings, ceramics, textiles and other crafts. Public record office museum serving as collection centre for famous documents, War museum containing relics of national wars, Maritime museum for maritime history, museum for architecture, with types, structures and styles of building, etc., Museum for Local/Indigenous Technologies, Science Museum, with objects depicting history of science and engineering and Natural History Museum. However, all types of these have their own roles of information institutions in national development. The main roles are to identify, acquire, preserve, and exhibit unique, collectible, or representative objects. The role of museum in the life of a nation involves conducting research into the vast natural history heritage and biodiversity of the country, serving as a repository, of natural objects, source materials and taxonomists in that country, creating scientific awareness, on natural history resources of the nation through annotated exhibitions for public enlightenment in display ga...
Museums in general are vastly different in what they offer to patrons. Some focus on a specific academic discipline such as science, history, astronomy, and art. Larger museums are afforded the opportunity to house multi-disciplinary displays, the largest of which have entire wings dedicated to each separate field. That said, the largest museums hold significant market share but only locally. Analysing the U.S. as a whole, there is a high number of competitors in the museum industry with low market share concentration. Locally, most of the large museums in Albuquerque are concentrated near the downtown
What is Museum Education? Museum Education is about educating the public about History, Science, Math, or English etc., but in an informal setting (not in a classroom or school). Museum Education is about immersing the students in the topic at hand. For example, a walking tour guide in downtown Frederick, MD places their tour group literally in front of the history they are teaching them. Similarly, a museum education intern reads the students a book like the Ox Cart Man then places them in a market that will teach them too how to trade and barter. Although, a museum educator does not get to be in the classroom with the students, like a general education teacher, they teach students meaningful lessons that they often remember. Lauren Allen