There was a recent posting from a non-museum person asking what exactly
a curator does, because he couldn't tell from the discussion flying back
and forth.  Can anyone throw out a decent definition for him? (Besides the
standard dictionary spiel)
 
As an audience researcher/museum educator of sorts, I am not surprised that
the curatorial response to the misconceptions of the public has generally
been bemusement without making any further attempt to explain the job of
a curator to people who see a museum as some sort of monolithic whole (if
they ever see museums at all).
 
Does anyone out there have programs/exhibits in their museums which explain
how their institutions function?  It seems like curators only make the news
when they are called on to explain some particulary bizarre or arcane object
in their collection or when they get caught stealing from said collection.
 
In the history profession, the idea that history museum curators might be
historians in their own right has not caught on much in the world of academic
history (which seems to make history curators all the more uptight about
producing exhibits which aren't academic treatises).
 
I just had to throw my two cents in before I went away on vacation, so if
I set off a flurry of complaints/comments I am well out of the way!
 
Carolyn Brady
 
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