Curators are usually employed by art museums and they have a number of responsibilities. First they must be on the lookout for high quality pieces of art that fit with the mission of the gallery in which they work. Once they locate such works of art they make arrangements to acquire them. Then they catalogue the pieces and decide how best to display them as well as how to preserve their identity and store them safely. In addition curators often write brochures or develop catalogues about art exhibits and they send out invitations and give talks to museum attendees or in some cases to the public about the significance of the art.
The website careers.stateuniversity.com states that curators often specialize either in a certain form of art (sculpture painting antique furniture or photography) or in art from a specific historical time period. Curators can work on acquisitions and displays for the museum's permanent collection or they can gather pieces and organize them for temporary exhibits.
In addition they often seek donors for the museum's permanent collection or they encourage businesses to make contributions to help fund special exhibits. In general curators need master's degrees in subjects related to art history or archeology. However larger and better-known museums as well as natural history and science museums usually require their curators to have a doctorate.
The employment outlook is good and the median annual salary is approximately $44000.