On Wed, 18 Jun 2003 21:36:45 -0400, Amy West at Higgins Armory
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Just a "kind of wondering" question:
>
>What's the difference between being a "curator" of education as opposed to
>a "director"? Why the use of "curator" as a ranking in a hierarchy as
>opposed to a job description?
>
>---Amy
>
>------------------------------
>Look, I have ONE job on this lousy ship. It's STUPID, but I'm gonna do it,
>OKAY?
>- Gwen DeMarco in _Galaxy Quest_
>
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Good Afternoon Amy,
I remember back in the '60s that the term curator was beginning to be used
to place a specific (or comparable) position in a specific wage
classification/scale.  In other words the curators became managers of
various departments, those curators would share the same pay scale with the
academic curators.  We began having Curators of Education, Curators of
Exhibits,.....all having the same (or close to) pay grade as Curators of
Anthropology or Curators of Geology.  This usually meant a pay raise for
the Manager of Exhibits and the Manager of Education. This was a big deal
at the time since a significant number of the Curators of Education were
women and they would have pay equity with other managers who were men.
Today in certain government-run (or government-partner) museums the terms
Director or Administrator have very specific meanings.  As in my case
(Administrator of Programs) Administrators direct several department
Managers, who in turn manage Supervisors, who in turn supervise staff.
Directors direct two or more Administrators.  In some places (one being a
city government and other a state government) the term Director is used to
denote an appointed executive position.  That is to say that the Director
serves at the will of the Mayor or the Governor, and the Director's letter
of resignation (without a date) is on file with the Mayor/Governor.  All
the Mayor/Governor has to do is fill in the date and the rest......as they
say.....is history.
I hope this helps,
Wesley S. Creel
Administrator of Programs
Pink Palace Family of Museums
Memphis, TN 38111
U.S.A.
www.memphismuseums.org
telephone 901.320.6370

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