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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [log in to unmask] | Hey, y'all, I'm actually in Nap-town MA Program in Public History | until I drive to the land of infinite Indiana University- | dairy products on June 30 to visit my Purdue University at ü beloved sister. (( )) Indianapolis | Back July 5 or thereabouts. ~\o o/~ _____________________________ ü________________________________(..)_moo_