Advancing the Practice: A Report of the US National Curator’s Committee Ethics Subcommittee on the 2014 Curatorial Survey and Core Competencies Projects
Alternately reviled and revered, curators retain an iconic role at the heart of museum activities. But what have they to do with museology? Curators are the intellectual, authoritative center of a traditional model whose very foundations have been destabilized by economic, technological and social c...
Spremljeno u:
| Izdano u: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/iss, |
|---|---|
| Glavni autori: | , , |
| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Jezik: | Anglais |
| Izdano: |
ICOFOM Study Series
2018
|
| Online pristup: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Sažetak: | Alternately reviled and revered, curators retain an iconic role at the heart of museum activities. But what have they to do with museology? Curators are the intellectual, authoritative center of a traditional model whose very foundations have been destabilized by economic, technological and social change. The role of the curator is challenged by the reductive, linear thinking that has accompanied the rise in computer technology (Doueihi, 2011; Marty, 2008), the dependence on attendance and popularity that now determines user-centric operations (Janes, 2009; Mairesse, 2005; Tobelem, 2010), and a general post-structuralist, anti-intellectual attitude (Bauman, 1987; Cameron, 2010; Mason, 2006). Are curators then the last bastion of old-guard Enlightenment intellectuals, or a stop-gap for the dissolution of culture in the face of radical egalitarianism in the Digital Age? To elucidate realities of the evolving role of curators and their relationship with museology, this paper will summarize and juxtapose two major projects of CurCom, the US National Curator’s Committee. In tandem, these projects – a survey of the education, experience and training needs of CurCom members, and the elaboration of Curators’ Core Competencies – illustrate the expanding and significant challenges, functions, and duties faced by US curators and the applied skills that they must all possess to be successful. Though museologists are not curators, many of the crucial questions that arise within the field are strongly related to curatorial activity. If museology is to be more than just irrelevant theory and more adequately address the theoretical and practical elements that have destabilized the traditional models (Gob & Drouguet, 2010), we must evolve how it contributes to its adherents and practitioners. When crucial museum issues rest at the heart of curatorial activity, and there is little intersection of curators with museology, what is the hope for evolving the museum? The summary of these national projects in this international forum is intended to invite comparison and provoke conversation. |
|---|