Curators With and Without Collections : A Comparative Study of Changes in the Curator’s Work at National Museums in Finland and in the Baltic States

Abstract

Traditionally, the curator's work has been in close connection with the main functions of the museum -preservation, research, and communication. The changes that have occurred at museums over the past few decades have also influenced the profession of curator. Specialisation has taken place inside the museum, and so the curator's functions have also changed. This article focuses on the curator's field of work at national museums in Finland and in the Baltic states. The analysis is mainly based on interviews conducted with curators and other museum professionals at the Estonian National Museum, the Estonian History Museum, the National History Museum of Latvia, the National Museum of Lithuania, and the National Museum of Finland. Emanating from the PRC model provided by the Reinwardt Academy as well as the global changes induced by the new museology, the focus is on the curator's connection with museum collections. The analysis shows that the curator's role is not similar in all the museums under discussion; there are regional differences in structure, curatorial duties, and priorities. While at some museums the curator is regarded as a collection keeper who can also do some research, at others they are rather researchers and have only infrequent contact with collections. KEYWORDS: museum • collection keeper • researcher • new museology • curator I N T R O D U C T I O NThroughout history the classical role of museums has been the preservation and supplementation of collections as well as research into them and their popularisation. Initially, these functions were all fulfilled by the curator -it was the first profession at the *

Who Is Leading the Project? A Comparative Study of Exhibition Production Practices at National Museums in Finland and the Baltic States

“…Most of the interviewees (N=25) were those whose work contains research capability in a discipline related to their museum's collections, and the questions were concerned with a wide range of their tasks (collections' management, exhibition-production, communication and research). As the job titles are different in the museums under study (see Reidla 2018), the title 'curator' marks a museum-working researcher in the role of an (exhibition) curator. In addition, I interviewed other professionals, such as managers, exhibition organizers, designers and educators (N=15), in order to learn about their points-of-view to gain a better understanding of the background.…”

“…2 Since the 2000s, the emphasis of museums in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania has become more educational and has focused more on community engagement, involving a revival of activities relating to tourism and the development of information technology, which began mainly after these countries joined the European Union in 2004 (See Kuutma and Kroon 2012;Keršytė 2016;Lotina 2016). Although the hiring of marketing and education staff increased in Finland from the 1990s (Pettersson 2011: 281), structural changes supporting communication and audience involvement only began in Estonia and Finland from the late 2000s and continued into the 2010s (Reidla 2018).…”

Identity and the Controversial Experiences of Museum Researchers: The Case of the National Museums of Finland and the Baltic States

“…Of the interviewees, 25 were researchers, 3 of whom three were also managers. In the countries under study research staff's job titles are varied: 'curator', 'researcher', 'researcher-curator', 'museum professional' (see Reidla 2018). The term 'curator' usually has the narrow focus of exhibition maker, and therefore the term 'researcher' is used in this paper as a generic denominator to professionals with a research capacity.…”

“…(Kahn et al 1964;Schmidt et al 2014;Campbell 2018) The museums studied do not form a homogeneous group. Different types of organisation structure are represented, as a result of which there are variations in the production of exhibitions and the management of collections, communication and research (Reidla 2018). The analysis will focus on three key topics, which emerged from the interviews linking the role and identity of the researcher.…”

From connoisseur to the good manager. Perspectives in managerial curatorship from Canada and Brazil

“…Some focused on the importance of situating managerial curatorship within the history and development of North American – and especially Quebec – museology (Bergeron & Baillargeon, 2018). Others emphasized the changing role and enduring importance of curators in museums (Ayélé Durand, 2018; Reidla, 2018). These developments also follow renewed interest in the shifting roles of museum curators and curatorial leadership (Ewin & Ewin, 2016; Gray, 2015; Macdonald & Morgan, 2019; McCall & Gray, 2014; O’Neil, 2016; Paquette, 2015; Reidla, 2020; Tobelem, 2017: 117–120).…”