>Subject: "Collectors" in Museum Jobs?


> I do not have a degree in anything even remotely related to museums, but
have an extensive library of museum->related handling and cataloging
procedures. I use these procedures on my own collection, which is
essentially its >own small museum. I rotate exhibits throughout my house and
invite colleagues to visit when they are in town.

May I suggest a kind of entrepreneurial approach here? You may not have a
museum studies degree (which, by the way, most museum professionals older
than, say, 45, don't have either) but you do have a unique kind of
expertise. That suggests to me exhibit development and consultation as your
professional goal, in the area of history of photography. Perhaps you can
find a museum that would like to branch out into this area or that has a
modest collection. Together you develop a plan to fundraise and develop an
exhibit (based around your collection?) or a permanent gallery. A travelling
exhibit, a book perhaps.  You develop your contacts within the museum world,
and eventually you are seen as the person to call on when topics in this
area come up in the collection or in exhibition. You develop your own
exhibit ideas and shop them around. (Your website - I looked - is a very
good start at showing your knowledge and your collection.)

I'm familiar with the quilt/museum world, where some of the most
knowledgeable and well respected people in the field come from collecting,
originally, back when there was little academic or museum interest in quilts
and quiltmaking. They may have added degrees since, or not, but being
collectors has not been a barrier to being academically and professionally
respected in organizing exhibits and publishing catalogs and other studies.

Good luck!

Carol Ely
Museum Consultant
Louisville

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