Long and Winding Road

Thinking lately about the distinctions between working in galleries vs. working in museums, my future career path has been very much on my mind. I like the work I do, but something keeps me scanning the job announcements. Partly it’s the frightening economy, but I guess I also have this instinct to keep moving, onward and upward. Is that just another one of my hopelessly romantic notions? From the job descriptions for museum registrar positions, it often seems like I have a more satisfying and varied workload. It’s relatively flexible. I have a lot of freedom and personal discretion, time that I can designate for my own research. That’s so important to me. I may not get that as a museum registrar. Entry level registrars seem to do a lot of condition reports and shipping arrangements and not a whole lot of collection management.

I’m doing everything I can possibly do in terms of career development – publishing, blogging, education, research, trying to network (something I can admittedly improve upon…I’m working on it). The idea of going back to grad school is to develop the academic credentials to be a professional who does more in-depth collection work, ideally curatorship, although now I’m also feeling a little ambivalent about that option. The discussion in my class this week brought up some issues related to professional museum work. My classmates who have worked in museums had rather cynical perspectives on the politics, bureaucracy, and corporatization involved in the larger institutions. The name recognition and résumé prestige also makes these positions extremely competitive. Supply and demand being what it is (and museum studies/art history programs continuing to churn out a glut of overeducated and under-experienced graduates for a dwindling number of jobs), they can afford to be demanding.

The irony is that the jobs that want all this experience and expertise often pay less than what I’m making now. That’s true of both libraries and museums. Even adjunct professors make peanuts. Honestly, that’s another reason why I’m pretty happy where I am right now. I’m paid to catalog art and do research. Three years ago, stuck in the quagmire that was Nebraska, I would have sold all my possessions to be in such a position and living in New Mexico (which I basically ended up doing anyway, but more because I decided to simplify my life…and UHauls are such a pain). I’m not going to retire rich, but I’m well-compensated for the work that I do. Unfortunately, that’s more than many of my friends in the art world can say.

~Heather