Write/present project descriptions for the organization. Write accessible gallery wall texts and captions. 3.Administration and management
• • • •
cooperation with different people. The emphasis of the curator is moving away from a purely academic research function towards
a broader-ranging career which sets foot in many different fields, such as education, entertainment and communication.
Supervise junior staff as line manager.
Form the paragraph above, in order to help understand the term
Give expert advice to external bodies.
for the contemporary arts, but it is really difficult to define the
Supervise interns or volunteers.
Take on administration-related tasks and projects.
In general, the above job descriptions show all duties of a
contemporary art curator who is no matter working for an
organization or working independently. It helps to demonstrate the purpose of a curator’s job, which is to devise, develop and deliver exhibitions and collection displays and to contribute
intellectual, art historical and curatorial expertise to all through research, curating and writing. In addition, to research and
propose acquisitions within organizations’ acquisition strategy is required. From the job descriptions, it can be seen that there are
many essentials of a curator: he or she must be a specialist being knowledgeable for his or her job, and must have great writing
and research skills, and also must be good at communication and
of ‘curator’, I wanted to find out a legible definition of ‘curator’ word ‘curator’. However, I still tried to discuss about when the curator appeared, what the role of the curator is and how a
curator works, so it proves the reason that why the ‘curator’ is
so hard to define is because the ‘curator’ plays many different
roles and holds many different responsibilities at the same time.
However, some essential elements and principles of the curators have been mentioned, and I would try to give a definition of the
contemporary art curator for this study: the definition of ‘curator’ is an open concept. A contemporary art curator is working with
an art organization or working independently to apply his or her expertise, creativities and activities to research and develop the
collections and concepts, meanwhile organizing and delivering exhibitions or events in order to be affluent in intellectual, art historical and curatorial knowledge to human beings.
The origin of the artist curator lies in the 1830s in Paris where it was a manifestation of protest.
“French Artists were placing themselves in the curatorial role in fringe independent gallery exhibitions such as the ‘Salons des Refusés’, produced by artists who were refused by the Paris Salon academia. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, artists such as Édouard Manet and Pierre-Auste Renoir showcased their work by artist run organisations, such as Société des Artistes Français, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and Salon d’Automne. Across the Atlantic Artists like Marcel Duchamps wished to break away from the norm when his work ‘Nude Descending on a staircase No.2’ was featured in The First Armory Show in New York in 1913 (Pierce, 2011). These artist led Curatorial practices successfully challenged the art establishment, as artists began to take charge of how their work was displayed, moving away from the boundaries of the frame or wall and set the groundings for what was to follow.” —Matthew Nevin.