At 02:06 AM 8/1/97 -0400, you wrote:
>I wonder if Julia Moore could elaborate a bit on what she means by curators'
>"allegiance to the profession"?  I'm not sure I agree with her hierarchy of
>allegiances.  I think a curator's first duty is to the collections in his or
>her care--from which the very name curator derives.  I think everything else
>follows from that.  Do collections fit under "the profession" or "subject
>matter"?  If the latter, I think the order is wrong.


By "the profession," I meant the highest generally accepted standards for
the care, maintenance and research of ANY collection.  I believe that
over-identification of the curator with a PARTICULAR collection can cause
havoc--it is very tempting for the curator to believe that the collections
"belong" to him/her after all that work has been put into them, and that
undermines the professional philosophy that we are caring for the
collections for the public.

Julia Moore
Indianapolis Art Center