2. The Curator 1
History of the role

4. The Museum
The past:
the museum primarily a place of aesthetic contemplation and collection-centred expertise
The present:
the museum as communicator and partner to various audience constituencies
cultural climate which questions the legitimacy of the museum’s authority

5. UK Historical Context
Mid-nineteenth century social history context of philanthropy and self-improvement
1845 Museums Act - public money given to national museums, enabling local authorities to levy rates to build new museums and charge admission. Museums expected to play a significant role in the life of the nation.
Education and curating were seen as part of the same task.

6. Punch Magazine, 1891

7. Education and the Curator
1870 Education Act – raised profile of museum education and raised key questions about education and care of the collections
The South Kensington (now the Victoria and Albert) Museum and the Natural History Museum had explicit educational aims - the ‘object’ lesson, i.e. artefact-based learning.
Who should be delivering these lessons? Several national museums employed educators specifically for this purpose – first lecturer at Tate appointed in 1914
Curators free to devote their time wholly and autonomously, to care of and developing scholarship about the collection.

8. Curators increasingly withdrew from a direct relationship with the visiting public, to the field of curating exhibitions and maintaining the collection.
Strong arguments were put forward for the value of collections per se, and museums were perceived as centres of research about their respective collections

9. May 2000, the DCMS policy document ‘Centres for Social Change; Museums, Galleries and Archives for All’ set an access standard for the cultural sector
Museums should provide access for many not just for the enlightened few: museums should be about collections, but for people.

10. May 2000 the Peer group, an amalgam of artists, curators, cultural commentators and philosophers (Mark Wallinger et al), published Art for All? Their Policies and Our Culture
Signalled a profound concern about the greater involvement of the state in shaping the activities and responsibilities of the art museum in relation to its publics.
Anxiety about the dilution and undermining of expertise and scholarship

11. The Curator 2
The present

12. Warhol at Tate
This exhibition was organised by the Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, where it was curated by Heiner Bastian. The Tate Modern presentation is curated by Donna De Salvo.

13. Tate Modern Baker, Simon, Curator (Photography and International Art)
Barson, Tanya, Curator (International Art)
Bingham, Juliet, Curator
Candela, Iria, Assistant Curator
Comer, Stuart, Curator (Film)
Coxon, Ann, Assistant Curator
Cullinan, Nicholas, Curator
Dickson, Amy, Assistant Curator
Gale, Matthew, Head of Displays / Curator (Modern Art)
Godfrey, Mark, Curator
Greenberg, Kerryn, Curator (International Art)
McDonald, Kyla, Assistant Curator
Morgan, Jessica, Curator (Contemporary Art)
Morris, Frances, Head of Collections (International Art)
Noble, Kathy, Curator, Interdisciplinary Projects
Polkinhorn, Maeve, Assistant Curator
Redzisz, Kasia, Assistant Curator
Sainsbury, Helen, Head of Exhibitions Programme Manager
Taylor, Rachel, Assistant Curator
Wagstaff, Sheena, Chief Curator
Wood, Catherine, Curator (Contemporary Art & Performance)

14. The ‘Superstar’ Curator
‘A curator can know even more than an artist can’
– Peter Weibel

15. The Many Faces of Hans Ulrich Obrist , Charles Gute, 2003