Find out the top 10 core skills you need to master as an exhibits curator and what hard skills you need to know to succeed in this job.

An Exhibits Curator is primary responsible for assembling, cataloging, and managing all displayed artistic and cultural collectibles and artifacts. He or she manages all items within an art gallery or exhibition center. He or she will work to ensure that all information and data related to the collectibles are available on various platforms for easy referencing.

Other associated responsibilities include; organize exhibition functions; identify, collect and record artifacts; handle any inquiry related to the exhibits available; organize for funding and grants; maintain all records for the collectibles; undertake extensive research work on the collectibles and conduct interviews for hiring new staff.

Core Skills Required to be an Exhibits Curator

Core skills describe a set of non-technical abilities, knowledge, and understanding that form the basis for successful participation in the workplace. Core skills enable employees to efficiently and professionally navigate the world of work and interact with others, as well as adapt and think critically to solve problems.

Core skills are often tagged onto job descriptions to find or attract employees with specific essential core values that enable the company to remain competitive, build relationships, and improve productivity.

An exhibits curator should master the following 10 core skills to fulfill her job properly.

Knowledge of Company Processes:

Knowledge of Company Processes is the in-depth understanding of a collection of related, structured activities that serve a particular goal for a group of customers or clients who are valuable to the enterprise.

An Exhibits Curator ought to maintain consistency across the daily processed while keeping a keen eye on the overall plan of the organization by ensuring the company processes are performed and followed.

Delegation:

Delegation is assigning responsibility or authority to another person a junior or subordinate to carry out specific activities while remaining accountable for the outcome.

An Exhibits Curator must be equipped with skills on how to make the delegation work correctly to save the organization time and money and to allow the subordinate make wise decisions, skills, and motivation to become better and grow the company.

Planning and Scheduling:

Planning and Scheduling are the act of establishing a plan for a set of tasks that needs to be completed and including when they should be done.

An Exhibits Curator needs creativity in balancing both planning and scheduling by clearing defining what and how activities will be carried out by when and who in particular to ensure there are a clear flow and accountability to every staff.

Enthusiasm:

Enthusiasm is an intense enjoyment or a lively interest in a certain thing with a zest and a strong belief that can be felt by those around you.

An Exhibits Curator ought to be enthusiastic as well as create a friendly atmosphere that makes the staff comfortable with the surroundings, with the other employees to create a less passive working place.

Self Confidence:

Self Confidence is the ability to know who you are and what you are capable of doing which shows in your behavior, your body language, how you speak, etc.

An Exhibits Curator must be confident enough to inspire confidence in others while encouraging them to handle daily tasks and their personal lives with self-confidence that will, in turn, produce a well-rounded individual.

Conceptual Thinking:

Conceptual Thinking is the ability to recognize a situation or problem by identifying patterns or connections while addressing the underlying issues.

An Exhibits Curator must be a conceptual thinker who has a keen understanding of why things have to be done the way they are; he has to think at an abstract level and apply his insights to the situation across all facets to compete in the diverse and growing economy.

Practical Thinking:

Practical Thinking is the skill to think creatively about projects or work that requires your full attention to be completed and to bring great results.

An Exhibits Curator must ensure the decisions he makes are well sought after using professional characteristics for employees with high-level responsibilities to feel included and to allow growth for everyone in a constantly changing world that requires creativity.

Using Common Sense:

Using Common Sense is the ability to see what is missing in a situation or a project and supplying it without necessarily being assigned or asked to do it.

An Exhibits Curator needs to creatively train his employees always to see the missing element that is typically crucial in any workplace or project and take the opportunity to do business out of it.

Long Range Planning:

Long Range Planning is setting long-term goals and objectives for your business or project to ensure its growth and sustainability is reached by all the employees.

An Exhibits Curator needs creativity in defining long-term goals that ought to be proactive, putting together a full employee focused management strategy that analyzes the major initiatives and translates them into functional goals that employees handle.

Organizational Skills:

Organizational Skills is the ability to make use of time, energy and resources available in the most efficient manner to achieve their goal.

An Exhibits Curator should organize the work for the employees to ensure overall organization, planning, time management, scheduling, coordinating resources and meeting deadlines is handled most efficiently by each employee for both personal and professional growth.

Hard Skills Required to be an Exhibits Curator

Hard skills are job-specific skill sets, or expertise, that are teachable and whose presence can be tested through exams. While core skills are more difficult to quantify and less tangible, hard skills are quantifiable and more defined.

Hard skills are usually listed on an applicant's resume to help recruiters know the applicant's qualifications for the applied position. A recruiter, therefore, needs to review the applicant's resume and education to find out if he/she has the knowledge necessary to get the job done.

An exhibits curator should have a good command of the following hard skills to succeed in her job.

Exhibits Curator: Hard skills list

Academic Research Data
Accounting
Administrative
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Photoshop
Analyze documents and manuscripts
Appraise Artifact Value
Archaeology
Archival Science
Art Objects
Art Theory and History
Budgeting (develop budgeting)
Business
Catalog artifacts (Analyze describe and catalog artifacts)
Social Trend Awareness (maintain Social Trend Awareness)
Collection and museum strategies
Communication
Computer Aided Drafting Software
Curriculum (develop curriculum)
Database software
Design Art
Email software
English Literature
Film production techniques
Fund Raising
Grant Proposals (write grant proposals)
History
Human Resources
Index Systems
Insurance (Analyze insurance needs)
IT
Layout and composition techniques
Marketing and PR
Materials Testing Procedures
MS Excel or spreadsheet
MS Word or word processing
Multi-media Technology (Educational and library settings)
Museum Collections and Items (restore Museum Collections and Items)
Museum or Museum Exhibits
Organization
Photographs (Restore Photographs)
Planning
Presentations
Press Releases (write press releases)
Project Management
Public Relations
Purchase requisitions
Research
Teaching
Technical Papers (write technical papers from original research)
Technical Sales
Tourism
Tour Guide or Guided Tours
Web Design
Workplace Policies and Procedures
Writing

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