The job of a museum curator has traditionally been to dispense knowledge about the artefacts under their care. That role is soon to be reversed as curators of the future become managers of information coming in from outside the museum, a symposium in Dublin heard today.
The symposium, entitled “Future Forecasting: The Challenges Facing Museums and Cultural Institutions”, was held in the National Gallery of Ireland and was attended by experts from around Europe.
Some of the central themes discussed throughout the day were the affects of the internet and social media on how the public expect to receive information, an increasingly aging European society and the growing difficulties for smaller museums to remain relevant.
Curator at the National Gallery or Ireland, Adriaan Waiboer, spoke about the changing role for the curator of the future as a public raised alongside the internet becomes accustomed to receiving specific information instantly.
Dr Waiboer said that people increasingly expected to know about what they are interested in, be it the story of how the painting came to Ireland, the story behind the picture itself or even about the fashion depicted in it.
The solution he proposed was electronic “portals” to online material produced by outside the museum as it would be unreasonable to expect a curator to posses, write and present such a plethora of information on every artefact in their care.
It would however require the curator to become a gate keeper of sorts, directing people to the relevant material.
“In addition to being a custodian to the collection, the curator of the future also has to be a custodian of all the outside opinions about the collection that they take care of.
“It will be the challenge of the future curator to channel this information [coming from the internet] and check it for accuracy,” he said.
In separate talks delivered throughout the day, a range of other issues facing museums of tomorrow were raised.
Sara Selwood an independent cultural analyst and consultant, spoke about the effects of the recession and how decreased funding in the United Kingdom has damaged the arts there, while Declan McGonagle, the director of the National College of Art and Design said that it was time for a “strategic resetting” of expectations.