Museum Curator Job Description

Museum Curator Job Profile and Description

A Museum Curator has basically to administer the museum for its collections such as natural, historical and cultural artifact collections in a museum. The number of curator depends upon the museum whether it is large or small. Small museums have one curator to manage its collection while larger museums often employ a team of curators specializing in certain types of collections such are war artifacts, burial artifacts, coins and jewelry artifacts, furniture artifacts, arts and culture artifacts, etc. so basically has to care and manage the collections of a museum.

Museum Curator Duties and Responsibilities

There are a number of duties and responsibilities of a music curator which has to be fulfilled and here are the some important, as follows:

  • A museum curator has to first of all develop the museum catalogue for the assigned artifacts of the museum.
  • He or she will also have the duty to oversee the staff and then will have to manage the staff of the museum.
  • He or she will have to mentor the staff members in the histories behind exhibited artifacts as they should know that.
  • He or she will have to always try to raise the growth of the museum so will have to source and acquire items to augment and enrich museum collections in their areas of expertise (natural history, arts and culture, political historic, technology, etc.)
  • He or she will have to maintain the coordination and management with the archeologists, historians and other pertinent experts in determining authenticity of newly acquired artifacts of the museum.
  • He or she should always try to protect the collections of the museum so it is necessary to maintain the coordination withthe security so that they will be able to design and develop the best technologies to secure and protect specific and overall museum collections safely.
  • A museum curator should make the catalogue first of all for his or her knowledge so that will be able to classify artifacts and the collections.
  • It is also the duty to prepare then maintain complete records of the collections of the museum.
  • There are the many other works which a museum curator has to do such as coordinating with relevant experts in the restoration and preservation of delicate and valuable museum artifacts and collections.
  • He or she will have to do the organization for the display of artifacts then also has to supervise them.
  • A museum curator also has to ensure safety of traveling displays of the collections.
  • He or she should be always active in the promotion of the collections so for that will have to oversee production of museum promotional and informational literatures properly time to time.

Museum Curator Skills and Specifications

It needed a lot of skills and specifications for the job and here are some of the attributes:

  • Candidate must have the required skills such as strong interpersonal, diplomatic and negotiation skills
  • The most important requirement for the job is the knowledge so candidate must have the extensive and thorough knowledge in the specific curator ship assignment (natural history, martial artifacts, burial customs, etc.)
  • The candidate should have the communication skills which is an important requirement both written and verbally.
  • As it is the requirement to prepare the records so excellent computer literacy is needed.
  • He or she should be able to use the museum database systems.

Museum Curator Education and Qualifications

  • As it is the job of historic so candidate should have a BS degree in history, archeology or any of the social sciences
  • A master’s degree in the antiquities is preferred in the candidate.
  • The candidate having the 5-7 years of past experience in related curator ship discipline is an advantage

Museum Curator Salary

  • The median annual salary depends up on the size of the museum whether it is large or small.
  • It also depends up on the experience the candidate has.
  • The salary of Museum Curators and Administrators in 2008 was at $47,300 with the middle 50% earning between $34,900 and $63,900. The lowest 10% took less than $26,900, and the highest 10% received about $83,300.