Profession exhibition curator
Exhibition curators organise and display artworks and artefacts. They work in and for museums, art galleries, museums for science or history, libraries and archives, and in other cultural institutions. In general, exhibition curators work in artistic and cultural exhibition fields and events of all kinds.
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Personality Type
- Enterprising / Conventional
Knowledge
- Art history
The history of art and artists, the artistic trends throughout centuries and their contemporary evolutions.
- Inheritance council practices
Principles and approach to treat heritage appropriately within a project in order not to damage and where possible improve its conditions.
- Cultural projects
The purpose, organisation and management of cultural projects and related fundraising actions.
- Museum databases
The tools and processes involved in working with museum databases.
- Art-historical values
The historical and artistic values implied in examples of one's branch of art.
- Art collections
The variety of paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings and other works that form collections in a museum and prospective new collections which are of interest for a museum or art gallery.
Skills
- Present reports
Display results, statistics and conclusions to an audience in a transparent and straightforward way.
- Ensure safety of exhibition
Ensure safety of exhibition environment and of artefacts by applying safety devices.
- Train employees
Lead and guide employees through a process in which they are taught the necessary skills for the perspective job. Organise activities aimed at introducing the work and systems or improving the performance of individuals and groups in organisational settings.
- Listen actively
Give attention to what other people say, patiently understand points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times; able to listen carefully the needs of customers, clients, passengers, service users or others, and provide solutions accordingly.
- Work in an organised manner
Stay focused on the project at hand, at any time. Organise, manage time, plan, schedule and meet deadlines.
- Create solutions to problems
Solve problems which arise in planning, prioritising, organising, directing/facilitating action and evaluating performance. Use systematic processes of collecting, analysing, and synthesising information to evaluate current practice and generate new understandings about practice.
- Perform project management
Manage and plan various resources, such as human resources, budget, deadline, results, and quality necessary for a specific project, and monitor the project's progress in order to achieve a specific goal within a set time and budget.
- Create new concepts
Come up with new concepts.
- Organise an exhibition
Organise and structure an exhibition in a strategic way, making the artworks more accessible to public.
- Manage budgets
Conduct cost estimates and budget planning. Monitor the budget, as well as costs and expenses. Forecast the budget development continuously. Report on the budget.
- Work independently on exhibitions
Work autonomously on the development of a framework for artistic projects such as locations and workflows.
- Coordinate operational activities
Synchronise activities and responsibilities of the operational staff to ensure that the resources of an organisation are used most efficiently in pursuit of the specified objectives.
- Have computer literacy
Utilise computers, IT equipment and modern day technology in an efficient way.
- Present exhibition
Present an exhibition and give educational lectures in a comprehensible way that is attractive to the public.
- Provide project information on exhibitions
Provide information on the preparation, execution and evaluation of exhibitions and other artistic projects.
- Communicate in English at a competent user level
Competent use of English; R351refers to level C1 in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).
- Apply strategic thinking
Apply generation and effective application of business insights and possible opportunities, in order to achieve competitive business advantage on a long-term basis.
- Interact with an audience
Convey the artistic values of the art form(s). Respond to the reactions of your audience and involve them.
- Use ICT recources to solve work related tasks
Ability to choose and use ICT recources in order to solve related tasks
- Advertise an art collection
Write catalogues, research documents, articles, reports, policies, standards and project grant proposals.
- Cope with challenging demands
Maintain a positive attitude towards new and challenging demands such as interaction with artists and handling of artistic artefacts. Work under pressure such as dealing with last moment changes in time schedules and financial restraints.
- Plan resource allocation
Plan future needs of various resources such as time, money and specific process resources.
- Coach employees
Maintain and improve employees' performance by coaching individuals or groups how to optimise specific methods, skills or abilities, using adapted coaching styles and methods.
- Evaluate art quality
Correctly evaluate the quality of art objects, artefacts, photographs and documents.
- Meet deadlines
Ensure operative processes are finished at a previously agreed-upon time.
Optional knowledge and skills
evaluate cultural venue visitor needs support public access to exhibitions natural history advise museum director anthropology liaise with financiers archaeologyCommon job titles
- Program assistant
- Curatorial assistant
- Manager of museum collections and exhibitions
- Curatorial assistant
- Assistant director
- Curatorial/administrative assistant
- Curator of exhibitions and programs
- Paleontology collections manager - registrar
- Assistant curator for animal ambassadors
- Head of interpretation