I have to disagree with this:
 
> For me, the 'subject' is not an issue and far easier to learn about 
> and interpret than would be to have to learn the museum part. I see 
> both as being a process -we're always going to learn something new. A 
> knowledge/skill set for collections care and interpretation can be 
> applied to most any subject. A skilled interpreter can take the most 
> mundane of objects, put a story to it and turn it into something most 
> fascinating.
>  

The "subject" is indeed an issue!  Why would anyone hire a curator at an 
art museum who doesn't know anything about art?  Why hire an interpreter 
at a science museum who doesn't have a solid background in science?   
Why would you be a better person to hire than someone with background in 
the museum's subject?  I could just as easily reverse the formula: 
someone with subject matter background can always learn museum practices 
on the job.  That's what lists like this and conferences and workshops 
are for. 

It's a lot easier to teach a person with a biology degree how to be an 
interpreter than it would be to teach me, for example, enough biology to 
be a competent interpreter in a science museum.  [I say this as a person 
with a lot of teaching experience on both the secondary and college 
level, but not in the sciences]  How can you possibly interpret what you 
do not know? 

I've noticed that some of the non-curators on the list gleefully predict 
the increasing irrelevance of curators whenever the job market comes 
up.  Sure, there are less curators per capita than educators and 
marketers, but we are by no means irrelevant.  Despite what you see in 
the movies, we don't sit in our offices in Armani suits, sipping 
champagne and gazing thoughtfully at our latest acquisition, nor do most 
of us jet around the world courting donors.  In the last month I've done 
everything from check in crates and haul art to appearing on local radio 
and television to promote exhibitions to writing exhibition text and 
editing publications.  I consider myself an essential and relevant part 
of the team at my museum, and I'd like to believe my coworkers would 
agree. 

My own take on the museum studies degree or certification is that, like 
an MBA, it is most useful combined with an academic specialty.   You 
really need to have two kinds of training to be a good job candidate, 
because, guess what?  You're competing with a lot of people who have 
both.  In my case, my art history training was far more advanced than my 
museum background when I got my first full-time museum job, but a few 
internships, a few part-time museum jobs while in school, and a few 
museum studies courses gave me the foundations I needed to step into 
curatorial practice. 

Jill R. Chancey, PhD
Curator
Lauren Rogers Museum of Art
www.LRMA.org

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).