Online book helps aspiring curators seeking jobs

By Michelle Hershman, L'07

When Elizabeth Schlatter decided she wanted to become a full-time art curator, she not only read the classifieds and sent in applications, but also decided to write a book about the subject. While finishing her e-book, Become an Art Curator, she landed her current job as deputy director and curator of exhibitions at University of Richmond Museums.

“I guess my wish was self-fulfilling,” Schlatter says.

Prior to writing the book, Schlatter noticed that Fabjob.com was looking for online career guides about interesting jobs not already published. She knew that people entering the museum field regularly sought a curator’s position and pitched the idea to Fabjob, which thought the book might sell well and agreed to publish and promote it.

The e-book includes information on what curators do, how to prepare for and locate a job and how to be a free-lance curator. Schlatter describes curating as researching a topic, selecting and locating related artwork, and writing about the artwork in exhibition panels. Curators also guide the collecting of artwork and help interpret art and objects for the public.

“They are critical to how a museum establishes its mission and public dimension,” Schlatter says.

Schlatter plans to update the online publication every two to three years with new resources, Web sites and links. Customers can order it either as a PDF file or a CD. Unlike most published materials, the book sells on an as-needed basis, and buyers must print the material themselves for a hard copy.

Become an Art Curator is assigned to museum studies classes at several universities.

“My book is really targeted to people interested in or just starting their museum careers,” Schlatter says. “I know it can be frustrating for a student or recent graduate trying to  figure out what being a curator entails.”

At Richmond, Schlatter gives some of her student assistants the chance to curate exhibitions. 

“Getting that first exhibition under your belt is challenging,” says Schlatter, who began work at the University in June 2000. “Some of our students leave with this experience, which helps set them apart from other students applying to graduate school or for museum positions.”

Before moving to Richmond, Schlatter worked as an exhibitions project director at the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service in Washington, D.C. She also free-lanced for various nonprofit art spaces in D.C. and the Mid-Atlantic.

“I was looking for a job that offered me more opportunities to curate exhibitions as well as grow my management and leadership skills,” she says. “When I saw the job listing for University of Richmond Museums, it seemed like a perfect fit.”

Richmond has three museums: the Joel and Lila Harnett Museum of Art, Joel and Lila Harnett Print Study Center, and Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature. Schlatter’s typical day now includes such duties as giving an exhibition tour, meeting with a Richmond graduate student who is researching prints, talking to artists and gallery dealers about lending artwork to an exhibition, writing a grant proposal and attending a donor event.

Currently, Schlatter is working on several projects. Along with the entire museums staff, she helped plan the installation of a large winter-spring exhibition. “A Slave Ship Speaks: The Wreck of the Henrietta Marie,” presents artifacts from the 17th- and     18th-century slave trade. Schlatter also is curator of “Leaded: The Materiality and Metamorphosis of Graphite.”

“The exhibition features artwork by artists who use graphite in nontraditional ways, such as in painting or sculpture,” she says. “I’m working with professors in the Department of Art and Art History to use the exhibition in their classes to show students different approaches to making contemporary art.”