Curators exist as the backbone of the exhibitions team. However, with just the backbone a museum would only be half of a skeleton! The museum also needs preparators, security, catalogers, and conservationists in order to keep work moving smoothly! Now we have a full skeleton!
Baltimore Museum of Art. (n.d.). Raúl de Nieves: and imagine you are here. Retrieved July 17, 2026, from https://artbma.org/exhibition/raul-de-nieves-and-imagine-you-are-here/
The Skeleton in the Closet!
Now the jobs within the exhibitions department are listed above but what exactly do these entities do for the museum? Well, the curator acts as the skull! The skull houses the brains of the operation. They come up with ideas for what to display. Security acts as the shoulder blades, they ensure the works are displayed in a safe setting and keep any issues from coming up. Preparators are the hands that care for the pieces of the exhibit as they move from the archives and into the limelight. Finally, the catalogers and conservationists maintain the works behind the scenes ensuring that they are able to find every piece and keep those pieces safe and well kept.
Technology in Displays
With a rise in digital curation the need for an easily accessible website is key! Many institutions are now creating digital exhibits out of their digital archives and all exhibits, future, current, and past, can be located via these archives online. Some museums like the Chrysler, BMA, and MOCA in Virginia Beach, even have back catalogs of exhibitions that predate their digital archives but still contain images from the original display. In the below photo you can see an image from the MOCA exhibition that first got me interested in museums!
Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art. (n.d.). Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose. https://virginiamoca.org/exhibitions/turn-the-page-the-first-ten-years-of-hi-fructose/
Here’s and IDEA
Since the exhibitions team decides what items are displayed and how they present them it is crucial that this team works with the community to gauge the needs of the people in the area as well as work closely with the education department to develop the key information and takeaways that the exhibits team wants from the display.
Baltimore Museum of Art. (n.d.). Raúl de Nieves: and imagine you are here. Retrieved July 17, 2026, from https://artbma.org/exhibition/raul-de-nieves-and-imagine-you-are-here/
