Museum/gallery curator : Career development

There are 1,500 museums in the UK ranging from large government-funded museums, to university museums down to small, volunteer-run, charitable trust museums, in which over 5,000 professionals work.

There is now a real need for museum staff to manage their own careers which, given appropriate experience and contacts, may include freelance and consultancy work. Staff may also move between sectors, particularly at senior managerial or specialist technical level. Ongoing promotion is likely to be into broader-based management roles, such as director of leisure or cultural services.

There is also a trend for senior management posts to be filled from outside the museum sector and this has undoubtedly been the case for some service and commercial posts. Management responsibilities are often wide-ranging and may include publicity and promotional activities as well as human resource functions such as recruitment and the supervision and training of staff.

In addition, budgeting, financial management and income generation through fund-raising, entry fees and retailing, can all be essential aspects of a promoted post. While many museums do not make a charge for entry, the value for money they give in terms of cost per visitor per year is subject to careful scrutiny.

Further gaps have been identified as the need for museums to develop and extend links with higher education institutions and university museums. Future museum curators will need to develop the professional skills and competencies which will enable them to develop these links and promote collaborative research projects.