I'd say don't get too hung up on textbook job titles.  Decide what the
museum needs to accomplish and if the budget only allows for one person to
be hired then create one job description.  It doesn't matter whether you
call in Director or Managerial Curator.  If your job description doesn't
quite seem to fit either one, then make up a new position and give it some
new name.  You can do that.  Job titles are a convenient way of
communicating the parameters of a particular museum position, but in the
real  world the boundaries of responsibility are not always so clear --
especially in smaller museums where budgets often require that individual
employees wear a number of "hats."



>    Recently my classmates and I in the Museum Management and
>Curaorship Programme at Sir Sandford Fleming College  were
>discussing the differences between the role of a Managerial Curator
>and that of a Director. As many of us are relatively new to the
>museum field we found ourselves in confusion over which of the two
>would best suit a community museum environment. We found ourselves
>duplicating the repsonsibilities of each and found it difficult to
>identify them in terms of their individual job descriptions.
>
>    Could anyone help clarify my novice confusion? Are the
>administrative responsibilities different between the two? Which
>would you prefer to hire in a community museum with a small budget?
>
>thanks in advance!
>Neil J. Parry
>Sir Sandford Fleming College
>Peterborough, Ontario

Stephen Nowlin
Vice President
Director, Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery
Art Center College of Design
1700 Lida Street
Pasadena, California 91103  USA
(818)396-2397vox (818)405-9104fax
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