Not too many people know the work of a curator or the word itself is just very much strange to almost everybody. I still encounter many people who doesn't know what is a curator; if you would say that you work in a museum as a curator they would say "ah, caretaker". I do believe that in Philippine setting a curator is a developed skill through time and acquired by beginning a museum career from the least position to the top because there is no definite degree in college for curators. We will never understand or know this sort of work or learn the various aspect of it if we will not visit an actual museum. This work needs a lot of patience and passion and to further understand a curator's job let us note its meaning from the wikipedia:
" A curator (from Latin: cura meaning "care") is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution (e.g., gallery, museum, library or archive) is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material. The object of a traditional curator's concern necessarily involves tangible objects of some sort, whether it be inter alia artwork, collectibles, historic items or scientific collections. More recently, new kinds of curators are emerging:curators of digital data objects, and biocurators.
In smaller organizations, a curator may have sole responsibility for the acquisition and care of objects. The curator will make decisions regarding what objects to collect, oversee their care and documentation, conduct research based on the collection, provide proper packagingof art for transport, and share that research with the public and scholarly community through exhibitions and publications. In very small volunteer-based museums, such as local historical societies, a curator may be the only paid staff member.
" A curator (from Latin: cura meaning "care") is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution (e.g., gallery, museum, library or archive) is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material. The object of a traditional curator's concern necessarily involves tangible objects of some sort, whether it be inter alia artwork, collectibles, historic items or scientific collections. More recently, new kinds of curators are emerging:curators of digital data objects, and biocurators.
In smaller organizations, a curator may have sole responsibility for the acquisition and care of objects. The curator will make decisions regarding what objects to collect, oversee their care and documentation, conduct research based on the collection, provide proper packagingof art for transport, and share that research with the public and scholarly community through exhibitions and publications. In very small volunteer-based museums, such as local historical societies, a curator may be the only paid staff member.
In larger institutions, the curator's primary function is as a subject specialist, with the expectation that he or she will conduct original research on objects and guide the organization in its collecting. Such institutions can have multiple curators, each assigned to a specific collecting area (e.g. Curator of Ancient Art, Curator of Prints and Drawings, etc.) and often operating under the direction of a head curator. In such organizations, the physical care of the collection may be overseen by museum collections managers or museum conservators, and documentation and administrative matters (such as insurance and loans) are handled by a museum registrar."
As we read further, we come to understand the real meaning of this job, a job which nobody will give interest for all they know, a curator's work is boring. It is dull as a common feeling for curators, firstly the impression of silence likened to library that only reading and viewing is allowed inside a museum. Secondly, that what we see on TV, a curator reads and checks too many relics and to add more, a curator is basically old and wearing her eyeglasses and she is essentially confined in her office.
In my personal experience, a curator is a manager, a leader, a custodian; we manage our collections (relics or memorabilia), we manage & lead our staff, we initiate activities which will define the significance of our mission as a historic site, we make sure that the museum is presentable through its cleanliness and well presented exhibition, we assist tourists (local and foreign to VIPs) researchers and students, we make sure to give the correct information to interviewers (students, researchers/ media), we connect with people (NGO, GOs, private sector & POs) to help us with the agency's endeavor/ act as public relations officers, we lead our staff to see our agency's vision.
Being a curator is not actually a boring profession but it is highly exciting for we are able to initiate, invent, innovate and to be creative in our style of leadership.
In my personal experience, a curator is a manager, a leader, a custodian; we manage our collections (relics or memorabilia), we manage & lead our staff, we initiate activities which will define the significance of our mission as a historic site, we make sure that the museum is presentable through its cleanliness and well presented exhibition, we assist tourists (local and foreign to VIPs) researchers and students, we make sure to give the correct information to interviewers (students, researchers/ media), we connect with people (NGO, GOs, private sector & POs) to help us with the agency's endeavor/ act as public relations officers, we lead our staff to see our agency's vision.
Being a curator is not actually a boring profession but it is highly exciting for we are able to initiate, invent, innovate and to be creative in our style of leadership.
A very specialized work that no one would know much about its functions not unless you come and experience the actual work.
Mass Media Arts and Sciences students of Mapua Institute of Technology listened to my lecture about this job and they were so amazed to learn what is meant to be a curator...
0 comments:
Post a Comment