Jobs / Education and social services / 25-4012.00
Curators
Administer collections, such as artwork, collectibles, historic items, or scientific specimens of museums or other institutions. May conduct instructional, research, or public service activities of institution.
- US jobs
- 12,150
- Median wage
- $63,420 a year
- Job family
- Education and social services
Can agents do the work of curators?
We read the evidence at the level of the job family, Education and social services:
- Task levelUnexploredNo task-level benchmark in our collection tests teaching, counseling, or casework.
- Project levelPartialThin, adjacent evidence only. GDPval, which spans 44 occupations, is the one benchmark in our collection mapped here. OpenAI reports that GPT-5.5's deliverables won or tied against professionals' work in 84.9% of comparisons across all GDPval occupations. No benchmark tests work with students or clients.
Benchmarks for the job family
These cover work in education and social services, not always this occupation's tasks.
Typical tasks
From O*NET 31.0. Core tasks first. Few of these tasks have a benchmark today.
- Plan and organize the acquisition, storage, and exhibition of collections and related materials, including the selection of exhibition themes and designs, and develop or install exhibit materials.
- Develop and maintain an institution's registration, cataloging, and basic record-keeping systems, using computer databases.
- Plan and conduct special research projects in area of interest or expertise.
- Provide information from the institution's holdings to other curators and to the public.
- Negotiate and authorize purchase, sale, exchange, or loan of collections.
- Study, examine, and test acquisitions to authenticate their origin, composition, history, and to assess their current value.
- Inspect premises to assess the need for repairs and to ensure that climate and pest control issues are addressed.
- Write and review grant proposals, journal articles, institutional reports, and publicity materials.
- Design, organize, or conduct tours, workshops, and instructional or educational sessions to acquaint individuals with an institution's facilities and materials.
- Attend meetings, conventions, and civic events to promote use of institution's services, to seek financing, and to maintain community alliances.
- Train and supervise curatorial, fiscal, technical, research, and clerical staff, as well as volunteers or interns.
- Confer with the board of directors to formulate and interpret policies, to determine budget requirements, and to plan overall operations.
Other job titles for this occupation (33)
Collections Curator · Collections Manager · Curator · Education Curator · Exhibitions Curator · Exhibits Curator · Museum Curator · Photography Curator · Vertebrate Zoology Curator · Art Curator · Art Handler · Coin Collector · Content Curator · Data Curator · Digital Curator · Educational Institution Curator · Educational Resource Coordinator · Field Collector · Herbarium Curator · Metadata Curator · Museum Coordinator · Museum Educator · Museum Manager · Museum Registrar · Museum Specialist · Natural Science Curator · Numismatist · Old Coin Dealer · Philatelist · Photography and Prints Curator · Preparator · Preservation Specialist · Stamp Collector