What does an assistant curator do?
Assistant Curators primarily assist the chief curators in their tasks at museums. The curators maintain art collections, perform research, and educate the public about art in different settings. They help research, plan, and implement new exhibits for the museum. This job may ask them to oversee permanent galleries, provide support to the restoration work, and establish guides for educators. Also, they may serve as supervisors to the employees of museums and teach art students.
Assistant curator responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real assistant curator resumes:
- Review and edit listing photography and source photographers in various markets to capture unique accommodations and cover special assignments worldwide.
- Fashion and coordinate historical costumes for first person interpretation
Assistant curator skills and personality traits
We calculated that 13% of Assistant Curators are proficient in Art History, Museum Exhibits, and Collections Management. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Computer skills, and Customer-service skills.
We break down the percentage of Assistant Curators that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Art History, 13%
Organized, researched, and managed the art and art history department's digital image collection.
- Museum Exhibits, 13%
Worked with Executive Director, Chief Curator and Master Exhibit Builder in order to organize and set up museum exhibits.
- Collections Management, 11%
Lead collections management, volunteer programs, oral history projects, and administrative responsibilities of museum operations.
- Educational Programs, 11%
Assisted in educational programming on weekends and evenings.
- Photography, 8%
Managed the Museum's photography archive and facilitated research related to reproduction, loans and purchasing of art works.
- Curate, 5%
Manage and curate the art for the Blue Dahlia Bistro.
Common skills that an assistant curator uses to do their job include "art history," "museum exhibits," and "collections management." You can find details on the most important assistant curator responsibilities below.
Analytical skills. One of the key soft skills for an assistant curator to have is analytical skills. You can see how this relates to what assistant curators do because "archivists, curators, museum technicians, and conservators must explore minutiae to determine the origin, history, and importance of the objects they work with." Additionally, an assistant curator resume shows how assistant curators use analytical skills: "cataloged digital images into a filemaker pro database implementing cco guidelines. "
Customer-service skills. assistant curators are also known for customer-service skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to assistant curator responsibilities, because "archivists, curators, museum technicians, and conservators work regularly with the general public." An assistant curator resume example shows how customer-service skills is used in the workplace: "preform educational talks for the guests of the aquarium about the animals, answering questions, and providing a memorable experience. "
Organizational skills. For certain assistant curator responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "organizational skills." The day-to-day duties of an assistant curator rely on this skill, as "archivists, curators, museum technicians, and conservators store and easily retrieve records and documents." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what assistant curators do: "develop educational content for organizational website and social media. "
The three companies that hire the most assistant curators are:
- Columbus Zoo and Aquarium4 assistant curators jobs
- The Field Museum3 assistant curators jobs
- Ahmad, Zavitsanos, Anaipakos, Alavi & Mensing P.c. Or Aza3 assistant curators jobs
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Compare different assistant curators
Assistant curator vs. Historic sites supervisor
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of an assistant curator are more likely to require skills like "art history," "museum exhibits," "collections management," and "anthropology." On the other hand, a job as a historic sites supervisor requires skills like "gift shop sales," "cultural resources," "blog posts," and "historic properties." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
The education levels that historic sites supervisors earn slightly differ from assistant curators. In particular, historic sites supervisors are 5.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than an assistant curator. Additionally, they're 2.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Assistant curator vs. Director of exhibits
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, assistant curator responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "art history," "museum exhibits," "collections management," and "anthropology." Meanwhile, a director of exhibits has duties that require skills in areas such as "event management," "photoshop," "trade shows," and "contemporary art." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Directors of exhibits earn similar levels of education than assistant curators in general. They're 4.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 2.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Assistant curator vs. Curator of photography and prints
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, an assistant curator is likely to be skilled in "art history," "collections management," "educational programs," and "anthropology," while a typical curator of photography and prints is skilled in "historical research," "lightroom," "design logos," and "sales floor."
When it comes to education, curators of photography and prints tend to earn lower degree levels compared to assistant curators. In fact, they're 15.4% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 2.2% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Assistant curator vs. Collections and archives director
Even though a few skill sets overlap between assistant curators and collections and archives directors, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, an assistant curator might have more use for skills like "art history," "museum exhibits," "collections management," and "educational programs." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of collections and archives directors require skills like "research materials," "database management," "organizational structure," and "art collections. "
In general, collections and archives directors hold similar degree levels compared to assistant curators. Collections and archives directors are 4.6% more likely to earn their Master's Degree and 2.2% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of assistant curator
Updated January 8, 2025
