Stop it. Just stop. Do you have a business card? Read it. Does it say “Curator” under your name? No? You are not a curator.
Harold Koda: Actual Curator
If anything has ever moved me to punch my fist through my computer screen, it is the recent gross misappropriation of the word CURATE, most particularly by a certain type of blogger. The flagrant misuse of this sacred (to me, and I assume to other curators) word has spread like wildfire through the precious world of home, craft and decor blogging and is infecting the internet like a virus.
The very meaning of the word is starting to change, and that makes me crazy.
What makes a curator? This seems to be up for interpretation. I have a masters degree in art history. I worked as an intern, as an assistant curator, at an auction house, as an art history instructor, and, finally, as a curator. I did not sit at my computer and passively click on images that appeal to me. I did not flip through a stack of shelter magazines and fold down the corners of pages that caught my eye. I did not write a blog post entitled “Things I want to buy!!!1!!” and include a list of links. The phrase “carefully curated” — oh yes, I understand the appeal of alliteration, for I was also an English major — makes every inch of my skin crawl. “Carefully curated” is redundant and implies there is such a thing as sloppy curating, which is ridiculous. Curating, by its very definition, is done carefully. Care is implied. MAKING A LIST IS NOT CURATING. Nor is it is filling your bookshelves with color-coded paperbacks and animal bones and jars of feathers you found at a thrift store. Oh my days, don’t even get me started on “curated thrift stores.”
Before we go any further I think we should back up and establish the true definition of curating. This excellent blog post by Elizabeth Brown establishes that definition better than I could, so I urge you to click through and have a read (the comments are spot-on, too). Ms. Brown manages to approach this issue with a genuine curious circumspection. I felt that way a few months ago, but lately my rage has started bubbling over into lunacy.
Will Kelly and I are on the same page. He writes, “I am all for changes in the English language as long as they are for the positive. What I am not in favor of is the hijacking of words to make something sound more important that it actually is.”
This article from 2010 makes a feeble stab at defending the word’s application in the fashion industry, but also includes this gem: “Harold Koda runs the Costume Institute at the Met, so he’s allowed to describe himself as a curator—it’s his professional title. For everyone else, though, it’s just a highbrow way of saying “one who picks things out,” which describes all style bloggers, retail buyers, and people who get dressed in the morning.“
The comments on that article include this apt reply from a textile historian: “I think the thing that annoys me about the use of this word is that the way it is used leaves off half of its job description. To curate doesn’t just mean to carefully select items, but also to look after and care for them. One who curates an exhibition is responsible for the preservation of the objects used while they are on exhibition and after (very few real curators would “curate” an exhibition in a window because of the effects of light). Someone dressing a store window is not charged with the same level of care.” Love it.
If you’ve read this far and still don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ve selected (CURATED?!) a list of the top offenders:
Pinterest: Oh, pinterest. The vessel for my fury. Pinterest is a way to collect the images you see online into one virtual “pin-board.” Each pin board you create has a title and a line that proudly announces: THIS BOARD CURATED BY ____. The site is host to millions of images, and at least fifty thousand of those are of hipster interiors. If I see one more pin board of cavernous concrete rooms punctuated by one mournful shell chair I will pull all of my hair out. I just… can’t. Anyways, all these collections are curated by somebody and they are usually named Xander or something.
Etsy: The Etsy Treasury is particularly vexing. Click through to view the “member-curated shopping gallery” where you can buy, and this is verbatim, “PURPLE GIFTS FOR HER BECAUSE EVERYONE LOVES PURPLE!!!” [Side note: one exclamation point will suffice, forever. But that is another post entirely.]
Design*sponge: A particularly noxious post includes this house tour where the owner states, “I like to think of decorating as curating.” See also this post on an “artfully curated bedroom.” (?!)
And finally, this post on younghouselove.com. You might say it was the final straw. The concept of “curating” an online sale is just the worst. THE WORST!
They seem like nice people, so… I don’t know. The whole thing makes my head hurt.
In sum: bandaging a wound doesn’t make you a doctor. Snapping non-digital photos of empty train tracks doesn’t make you a photographer. So, guess what? Assembling a group of tangentially related things and publishing them online does not make you a curator. So what does it make you? A blogger? A list-maker? An arbiter of taste? Sure, I’ll take any one of those. Just stop calling yourself a curator.
I understand the ways in which the internet has democratized art and design, and I applaud the application of new media to staid cultural institutions (i.e. museums and galleries). What I vehemently reject is the cheapening of a word that carries much more weight in the museum, gallery and library science fields.
I believe curating is the passing of a torch. It is the care and protection of cultural property. It is something not to be undertaken lightly, and it does not happen with the click of a mouse.
Now that you know (emphatically) where I stand, I would love to know your thoughts on this. What does curating mean to you?
Edited to add: I am happy to post comments that include an email address and/or a website. I will not approve comments posted anonymously.
Thanks for kind words! Looks like we may see many more interpretations of curation in the future….
Curators are the people I trust to care for the collection, interpret the objects, educate the Board, and tell me when I am wrong (that is in a very nice way). If you think the fast and free use of the word curator drives you crazy, then allow me to add that there is nothing quit like having an individual in possession of a recently acquired BA tell me that they feel ready to run a museum. Forgive me, I should have identified myself before I joined Lauren’s rant – I hold the title of Executive Director for the Hermitage Museum & Gardens (you can call me Melanie). Colin will likely feel my response is in harmony with Lauren’s anger – maybe just a little.
Do I sense a follow-up post from Melanie? YES!
Maybe. But in truth does anyone want to hear the rantings of a crazy director?
Thanks for picking up the fight!
I think it was a well-thought out and emotional piece that should be an op-ed piece in wide dissemination. Is there a place you could post it on Pinterest? I doubt it. It’s ironic, because that very site was suggested to a certain Mr. Perry Mathewes as a place where his youngest daughter might enjoy displaying her interests. I had not idea they tossed the word “curator” about so freely. Now I have something more for my despair about the language. I am still in the trenches, trying to get the to, two, 2 and their, they’re, there fights won.
Sure you can, scan it in a .jpg and you can upload it and pin it!
I once had the pleasure of breaking my fast at a nice diner where I was served a delicious slice of ham. I asked the waitress where the ham was acquired, and she said it was produced somewhere in the vicinity. Sensing my interest, she had the manager come over to speak with me. He explained that a farmer a few miles out of town raised free-range hogs, slaughtered and butchered them himself, mixed salt, sugar and pepper in perfect proportion, carefully rubbed the mixture into the hams and other cuts of meat, judiciously hung the meat in his smokehouse, and attentively exposed the meats to delicate wood smoke from a scrupulously-maintained fire for two months. I congratulated him on the fortuitous sourcing of that magnificent breakfast meat and told him it was the best curated ham I had ever eaten.
Seriously, though, nice article. I believe I agree entirely. In language as in all things, while not all change is decline, all decline is change.
Proofreader’s note: The parenthetical statement in the seventh paragraph should have “effects” instead of “affects”.
Thank you.
Brilliant. I didn’t know where you were going at first and felt a little nervous. I tip my hat to all curators of meat. Thanks for the editor’s note; a grievous error on my part.
just cool all the best
I found this by typing in curate and hipster. So totally agree. TOTALLY! Same thing happened with composer, which our post-post-critics have applied to anyone who writes music without words or makes god awful noise. And musician when they are talking about DJ. Or artisan when they are talking about… ugh. Save us from the simultaneous and contradictory hipster rejection of (beardo) and adoration (elevation of the mundane) of elitism.
Cheers, Minka! Glad you found us, even if it meant typing the word ‘hipster.’
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Thanks for this informed and impassioned contribution. I’m afraid I’m one of those who are currently using curation (as opposed to curator) in a slightly blase, all-encompassing way to describe what-people-do-with-’content’-on-the-internet. And worse still, I’m going to go on doing it. The main reasons are pragmatic. First, I’m trying to encourage a debate between media producers and arts and cultural organisations about how the two can collaborate to increase audience engagement with those organisations. There are arguments that the word ‘editor’ would be a better description for what-people-do-with-’content’-on-the-internet. But that assumes arts and cultural organisations need to understand what media producers do. I’d rather try to get media producers to try to get to grips with what arts and cultural organisations do. Secondly, lots of other people are using the term too – and wide usage (including “misuse”) helps engage people in a debate. Of course any good debate- especially one which draws together various areas of ‘expertise’ and people who participate as non-experts – will involve people pointing out where confusions can arise. And so, although I accept all the points you make, I still think curation is a term which can help us all understand what we are all doing- with-’content’-on-the-internet, even when there are significant substantive differences, as well as some formal similarities.
Thank you for this. I swear I read the word “curator” and it’s permutations at least fifty times in the last week alone, and I was prepared to explode in sheer frustrated rage. Your post deftly explains why I felt that way.
I’d like to propose another slant on this. I am not a museum curator but I work as a new media producer in an art museum and have been participating in social media efforts as a way of breaking down the 19th century sense of the museum as the only informed voice about our collection. Instead, I’m interested in promoting conversations with our curators and our visitors. I often use the term “citizen curator,” which I think is close to the meaning you object to. But here’s my take on it: we are trying to inform and bring our visitors into a productive dialogue. The more they understand about the process of curating, the easier it will be to connect with them, inform, and talk with them.
I see nothing wrong with using the term “citizen curator.” In fact, our Luce Foundation Center started a program a few years ago called “Fill the Gap,” where we asked our online constituents to help us fill an empty space in our open storage area when a piece was removed for exhibition or conservation. They had to consider the work adjacent to the space as well as the size of the space in order to make an informed choice.
I see the use of the word as a way to break down old hierarchical museum practice. Is it misused? Yes, of course. That’s what happens when you try to soften the lines. But rather than object wholeheartedly, I would suggest using your curatorial powers to help guide the discussions rather than simply reject it.
These are all great points. I should clarify that my objection is primarily with design and home bloggers using the term to describe the practice of making lists and “curating” online merchandise sales. I like the term “citizen curator,” and I agree with you: I think anything that encourages visitors to interact with a museum and its collection should be encouraged at every turn. My post has more to do with the misappropriation of the term outside of the museum world, and how it is being eroded by Etsy, pinterest, et al.
Oh heavens, and you got an MA and everything! This sounds like “First World Tragedies”…not enough deference for all that (3 yrs, 2?) work. Listen, curators are possibly the most neurotic, self-involved and visually impaired segment of the art world, yet figure the fancy cakes are all for them, calling an exhibition of art by others “their show”. No, they don’t “take care” of the art, conservators do. They don’t move it, art handlers do. They don’t organize the actual works, seeing that they actually get to the institution on time and in good shape, all the forms taken care of…registrars do that. What they do is spend three years playing with ideas, mostly others, attend meetings, having lunch and bitch about how hard they work. In the end, everyone else has to stand around while they finally figure out what goes with what, revealing their paucity of abilities which led them to become curators, rathre than artists, in the first place.
Commenting several months later, it might interest you to know that Pinterest doesn’t have “Curated by…” on its boards anymore. I haven’t been able to find the term at all in anything that the official site has put out. Not that other people don’t describe its users as curators, but the site itself doesn’t seem to.
http://www.thejealouscurator.com/blog/
Why are ‘curators’ so much more uptight about allowing a broadening of the term? Perhaps there is some underlying subconscious fear that what they do isn’t that much different than collecting pictures on a website?
I don’t see other professions taking a fault when a name is broadened. I’m an engineer by trade, but when I hear someone taking about engineering a insignificant thing in their kitchen, I don’t go on tirades about going to school for five years so I could call myself an engineer, while you are only a tinkerer.
Just because someone has a Pinterest account, doesn’t mean they’ll get a job at a museum anytime soon. So what do you care if they use your term? The automatic respect that comes with the word Curator is long gone. Let language take it’s course, and spend your time complaining about something else.
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I think there has been a lot of negativity drawn out of a blog post that didnt intend to have everyone’s personal feelings (probably derived from a negative experience with an art institution/curator). I know for a fact that the Hermitage Museum is a small non-profit where everyone that works there wears many hats. So while a curator for a larger and substantially endowed instutitions may in fact sit around and “play with ideas”, they frequently do everything within the museum. Registrar work, art handling, installations, grant writing… you name it. Not to say there are not curators that exist that are not worthy of the title, but I see this post as being proud of such a title and everything that is involved in working in a museum.
I agree in general that the term “curator” is often used inappropriately, but I also believe that is the case with many words in our language – the word “hero” for example, and the word “engineer” as described above by Zach. So, complaining too vehemently about it is not particularly useful.
Having said that however, I would also like to point out that what Clarke Bedford says in his unnecessarily angry and resentful rant is completely incorrect for every curator I know – I am a curator and know many other curators. So it is his characterization of what he thinks a curator does that makes me understand why the original complaint is necessary after all.
Mr. Bedford, perhaps you are unaware that the vast majority of museums in this country are small institutions which cannot afford registrars to do all the paperwork and art handlers to do all the hanging for exhibtis. In fact, I work at a museum with two full-time employees and 12 part-time employees and therefore I do everything that needs doing to curate five shows per year. I decide what the exhibits will be, research the information, find the objects to borrow, work out the loan details (yes, that includes doing the paperwork – our registrar is busy with other collections management issues). I also personally transport said objects, design the lay-out, paint the galleries, install the art and artifacts (which includes using my carpentry skills to make mounts or other pieces of exhibit furniture), write, print, and mount labels and text panels, and adjust the lighting – and probably a dozen other things that I don’t have room to include here.
From your tone I am assuming that you are resentful because you are a failed something-or-other (curator, perhaps?) and therefore feel the need to rant angrily at those of us who have actually spent time studying and thinking about history and culture and ways to help visitors understand it.
Jane, it sounds like our institutions (and job descriptions) are quite similar. Well said, thank you.
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Personally, I don’t think you should have pulled your post and here’s why:
http://peabodyslament.wordpress.com/2012/04/29/abusing-curators/
Looks as though I may be fanning the flames, but I have asked Lauren to repost. A colleague working in yet another type of museum – botanical gardens and arboreta – who also employs curators, recently read Lauren’s well written blog via an APGA listserve. After that circulation, others were seeking the blog and because the post had been pulled they could not find it.
It is a sad state of affairs when we fail to respect others for their talents, their knowledge, and even their personal/professional timelines. Our museum is staffed with 9 full-time people and hoards of volunteers. The work we do is amazing! Unfortunately, we work like crazy. We have three curators on staff: Curator of Collections, Curator of Interpretations, and Curator of Gardens. Not one of them has the luxury of focusing on just one element of the “job.” Outside of creating the works they “take care”, they really do everything else important to the care and well being of the objects (that includes plants).
I was one of the first people to reply to Lauren’s post, and I stand by what I wrote back in October,”Curators are the people I trust to care for the collection, interpret the objects, educate the Board, and tell me when I am wrong (that is in a very nice way).” But then again, I have faith in the decisions I make hiring the right people to do their jobs. By the way, I am the Executive Director of the Hermitage Museum & Gardens. (Now I possess a rather exhausted and misunderstood title, but it is the one I was given.)
I am thrilled with all the attention being directed toward the blog post, but am confused by the lack of netiquette. Comments meant to expand the conversation are welcome, comments meant to demean a person are unacceptable. Lauren’s conversation was painted with a broad brush, which does in a sense make her an “artist”. An artist, as I understand the term, is someone who masters their medium, and in this case you might say media. Getting this conversation out of archives and into the public forum was and is masterful.
RE “Our museum is staffed with 9 full-time people and hoards of volunteers.”
Surely not. You must let them out occasionally.
Nope!
You are truly a hoarder, then.
Yep! But they truly are our treasure!
Maybe it’s like the way someone can paint a wall or even a picture once in a while, and they can say they are painting or have painted but they are probably unlikely to describe themselves as a painter or an artist?
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The Clark in Williamstown is currently offering an online and in person experience with tablets and work stations in which the visitor can be the curator, choose art, hang, arrange and write statements. Since it is all digital, the care of the collection remains virtual. And you can do it from home and never even interact with the actual object. uCrate is a way that the “citizen curator” can curate and learn the concepts of making, defending and arranging choices from the collection.
http://remix.apps.clarkart.edu/#uCurate
uCrate is supposed to be uCurate
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I am neither curator nor pinterest-er, but the truth is, the people who need to understand your passion, and respect your education, profession, and perspective do not have the attention span or self restraint to read your entire article.
I found this article by doing a search on Google “what does curated articles mean?”
What sparked me to do this search was reading this tip in a newsletter: “Keep content fresh on your blog. Switch it up with interviews, guest posts, case studies, or a curated list of top articles about your industry.” I wanted to know the meaning of curated lists or curated articles because I keep hearing it over and used by most of the “blogging experts”.
I am so glad that I found this article because it cleared up exactly what I had suspected. My intuition told me that this was a word that was being thrown around used lightly as a “buzz word” in the blogging community. When I always heard the word curator or curated in the past, I would always associate it with a museum art curator or even curated meat. I can see how true curators would be outraged by the term being used recklessly and I don’t blame them. I definitely would not want to ignorantly make that mistake in the future myself, rest assured I won’t. I am even more inclined now to do more research on the topic. Great post.