Museum Curator
Curate your future with this month’s Career of the Month: Museum Curator! May marks ‘Local and Community History’ month, a time that aims to increase awareness of local history, promote history in general to the local community and encourage all members of the community to participate. If you’re passionate about looking back at where we’ve been and exploring the time that has led us to this point. Go down in history as a Museum Curator!
Job Description
Salary: £33,000 (Avg.)
You can work your way up from Assistant Curator, earning between £18,000 to £25,000, to more senior roles with lead curators earning £50,000+. As a museum curator, your role will vary each day. Your main focus will be around research and preservation of various artefacts. One day you could be researching and documenting different collections and sharing your findings with other historians. The next day you could be organising exhibitions and educational programmes or setting up displays for the artefacts.
Qualifications and Skills
To become a Museum Curator, it’s recommended to study History at A-level. Advancing from this, you typically need a relevant degree to enter into this field of work. However, the subject of the degree can vary:
- archaeology or ancient history
- anthropology
- classics
- education
- fine art
- history or history of art
- museum/heritage studies
- natural sciences
You may also be able to enter this role with an English Literature, Language or Science degree.
You can extend your education further by gaining a master’s in museum studies.
What can you be doing now
Exhibit your passion! Explore historical topics that inspire you to help determine your area of interest early on. Another great way you can kickstart your career would be through work experience. Volunteering or internships at museums, archives, or heritage sites can help you get your foot in the door. Some additional skills that would be beneficial to hone, would be strong research, organisational, and communication skills are essential for managing collections and engaging with the public.
Go down in history as a Museum Curator and bring the past to life!
