The word curator is derived from the Latin word curare, which means “to look after.” A curator is someone who is in charge of looking after and/or supervising something or a group of things. Curator jobs can be found in a variety of locations and involve the care and supervision of a wide range of items.
Jobs as a curator can be found in museums, historical sites such as museum villages and landmarks, and positions in local, state, and federal government. They may also work in educational institutions such as colleges and universities, or in botanical gardens, aquariums, zoos, and nature centers, caring for live animals. Documents, such as transcripts, photographs, and records; artifacts, such as stamps, textiles, musical instruments, and coins; artwork, such as paintings and sculpture; plants and animals, both alive and preserved; buildings; and entire sites are among the items that they curate.
Curators have the opportunity to care for the items in their care in a variety of ways as part of their job. They may catalog items in order to keep a record of them, carefully describing them. They can also examine their collection and arrange items from it for exhibits, as well as organize the entire exhibit. Curators, along with conservators and technicians, may assist in the upkeep of the collection under their care and supervise storage arrangements.
A museum director is a curator who manages the museum and, in a large institution, may be responsible for overseeing other curators as well as marketing the museum to the public in order to increase attendance and solicit donations. Each division of the collection may be overseen by a specialist curator in a large institution. In a small institution, however, a single curator may be responsible for multiple tasks or all of the curator responsibilities.
Acquisitions may be a specialty for some curators. In this case, the curator may be asked to travel to locate and appraise items that their institution is considering purchasing. Curators may also conduct research in order to support upcoming exhibits or learn more about the items in their collections.
The curator may also serve as the museum’s public face, interacting with visitors in person and via the museum’s website. Another area in which the curator might work is if the museum makes a portion of its holdings available for online viewing.