As a history student, you may become increasingly interested in a certain time period, artistic movement, or just fall in love with cultural studies and wish to share that with the world. If you are honing your artistic eye and want to connect your vision with other people, you may be interested in becoming a museum curator!
Here’s a quick breakdown of the job:
- Skills: art history knowledge, budgeting and finances, networking, personal connection
- Tasks: researching pieces, speaking with artists or collectors, negotiating budgeting and loan prices, ensuring pieces are transported and stored safely, overseeing any necessary restoration, installing the collection, running events and promotions for the collection
- Salary: £25000-£43000
Here’s a career progression that you can follow while being an undergraduate history student:
1. First Year: Volunteering or part-time work with a museum/heritage site
This will familiarize yourself with the working environment you plan to spend your career in, so you can understand if you enjoy the space. It can also help you get your foot in the door at a certain museum you may be interested in. CV experience at other cultural institutions like libraries or botanical gardens or with charities will also be helpful.
2. Second Year: Internships
This is what can really solidify further progression with museum work. You may be offered a position back or be able to move up at a new museum. In any case, make sure to check the websites of museums frequently for information on their internship programs.
3. Third Year: Apply to masters programs
Most museum curators have masters degrees, so you will want to start applying at this stage. You can go a very traditional route with a masters in museum studies or art history, but can also go for the type of history you want to specialize in, philosophy, classics, or natural sciences. You can also go a more business route and apply for a masters in marketing, finance, or fundraising.
4. Graduate with your BA in History
Now that you’ve graduated, really think about what you want to build collections in and how you can apply your knowledge going further in your academics and your career.
5. Work as a curatorial or collections assistant
This is the first step in the ladder to becoming a full time curator. This is a great time to network with certain museums and higher-ups to secure a place for your ideas of collections.
6. Graduate with your chosen masters
At this point, you will need to decide if your chosen specialty requires a PhD or not. A more contemporary specialty may not require this, but a more historical study where it is necessary to understand a large breadth of a time period or culture is more likely to require a PhD.
7. Work as a museum’s public engagement liaison
There are many types of work experience to have alongside your studies, but working both behind the scenes and with the public will show that you have a diverse skill set that is valuable to any museum position.
8. Optional: Graduate with PhD
With the knowledge a PhD brings, you may be called in as a historical consultant for museums before you start your own curation.
9. Network and connections
Start connecting with artists, archeologists, archivists, and collectors to put together a contact list for your future collections.
10. Apply for a curator position!
You can start small at less famous museums outside of major cities and hopefully this will land you your first curator position where you can work up to more prestigious institutions.