As part of our 25th anniversary celebrations, we have been putting the spotlight on curators. To introduce the profession to a wider audience, we are currently releasing a series of videos illustrating the ‘25 essential skills for curators’. These very short, thirty-second clips provide a quick glimpse into the many facets that make up the work of a curator.

In the past thirteen videos, CODART members from museums in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany have explained the importance of curatorial skills such as handling expertise questions, staying with the times and using social media to engage with your public, as well as more practical aspects of the job such as couriering and visiting the museum storage rooms. With another twelve videos to go, there are still many essential skills left to cover, including topics such as provenance research and writing text labels.

In the latest video, Sarvenaz Ayooghi (Curator of Paintings at the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen) explains why giving guided tours is one of the most important and rewarding parts of being a curator.

The topics for the videos are based on the results of a brainstorming session CODART organized with its Program Committee. The selection is meant to give an impression of the many different tasks that might be expected of a museum curator and do not apply to every curator. Nor is this a complete or definitive list of the skills a curator should possess.

New videos are published weekly on this page and on our social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter).