What are the differences between curators and historians?
Curators and historians are both experts in the field of studying and maintaining works, events, and historical and artistic sciences. These two groups may have many similarities in some cases and even be considered as one, but they have fundamental differences in goals, work area, contacts, and required skills.
What are the characteristics of curators?
Collection of artistic and historical works: Curators are obliged to collect and preserve collections of documents, artifacts, works of art, electronic media, and other objects that are artistically, historically, and culturally important and need to be preserved. They are felt.
Evaluation and cataloging of collections: Evaluation, classification, and cataloging of art and historical collections are among the duties of curators. They may use some objects and items of a collection to form public exhibitions and store and preserve other items away from the public.
Researching and writing information related to the works: Also, when curators decide to set up an exhibition, they usually obtain information about objects and artistic and historical collections, so that the general public can access this information more easily. To interpret historical and artistic collections and learn about their importance.
Employment in exhibitions and museums: Curators usually work in galleries, museums, libraries, exhibitions, scientific institutions, and other places that are active in collecting and preserving art and historical collections.
Therefore, in general, curators are responsible for collecting, preserving, and displaying artistic and historical works in museums, galleries, and other cultural institutions. Their field of work generally includes activities such as acquiring new works, setting up exhibitions, and ensuring the care and maintenance of the collections.
Although curators may research historical and artistic objects, their main job is to keep collections safe, display them in attractive ways, and educate visitors.
What are the characteristics of historians?
Collecting historical information: A historian or historian seeks to collect information about important historical persons and events. to increase historical knowledge through it.
Writing scientific books and articles: After evaluating and interpreting the collected information, historians write articles and books to inform other people about the findings and achievements of their research.
Research use of historical and artistic works: Historians often use historical objects and collections collected and preserved by curators to advance their research. However they are only satisfied with writing information and reports about historical collections, and they do not try to preserve and maintain these collections, because, unlike curators, historians focus on understanding interpreting, and evaluating the historical importance of collections. And not protecting them.
Focusing on a specific time frame: historians often focus on specific times or events and use their research to write books, articles, and other forms of scientific reports.
Therefore, it can be said that historians mainly use research, analysis, and writing scientific reports to understand and interpret the past, and by examining the primary sources such as memories, letters, and photos to understand and analyze beliefs, values People’s experiences and experiences in different time and place are researched.
Who are the contacts of historians and curators?
Another fundamental difference between historians and curators is the employer and the audience.
Gallery vs University
As mentioned earlier, curators work in galleries, museums, libraries, etc., while historians mainly write for universities, scientific associations, and other fellow historians.
Normal people vs abnormal people
On the other hand, the audience of curators is the general public, so one of the duties of a curator is to show attractive and entertaining works of art and history, as well as be informative at the same time. Therefore, they are required to set up exhibitions that the general public and art lovers can understand and enjoy. If historians’ research is done for a specific audience, they do not focus on the audience’s enjoyment and try to be as accurate and scientific as possible to analyze the mystery of history.
In short, historians and curators both work with artifacts and documents of the past, but their roles differ in terms of their work focus, the people they work for, and their goals.
Conclusion
Curators and historians have similarities and commonalities and usually both have education and university degrees in fields such as history, art, museology, archeology, and other related fields.
The work and duties of curators and historians may overlap in many cases, but in general, curators focus on collecting, managing, and displaying art and historical collections, while historians and historians focus on research. and scientific research.
