A Study on Curatorial Workers’ Work Experience and Job Recognition through In-depth Interviews: Focusing on the Professional Workforce Training Program for Private and Private University Museums(2007∼present) hosted by the Korean Museum Association

Abstract

This study discusses the characteristics of the work experience and job recognition of curators in some Korean private museums. To this end, in-depth interviews were conducted with 7 curators who participated in the Professional Workforce Training Program for Private and Private University Museums organized and hosted by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korean Museum Association. In the interviews, their processes of entering the curatorial profession, changes in job recognition, actual labour conditions, and curators’ opinions about organizing a labor union were dealt with. As a result, it was revealed that they have experienced job stress while working in difficult working conditions and environments, such as some unfair labor practices, working overtime, low wages, and job insecurity due to regulations restricting repeated participation in the program. In addition, it is notable that the poor treatment of curators was closely related to the institutional arrangements such as the regulations of the “Professional Workforce” Training Program as a direct job creation support initiative with internship opportunities and its goals, and the operational procedures etc. Despite these working environments and conditions, they expressed their intention to continue their careers in the curatorial field for self-realization and career development with a view to moving to a better job. However, some of the interviewees, including early career curators, due to such unsatisfactory working conditions, thought of quitting their curatorial jobs. The lack of policy considerations for the labor of workers in cultural and creative industry, the lack of voluntary organization established by curatorial staffs, and characteristics of private museums, which are mostly not-for-profit institutions with fewer than 5 employees and suffer from financial difficulties, were limiting factors that have prevented improvement of the treatment of curators working for the private museums. This study brings to the fore the specific problems experienced by curators in the workplace, and reveals that these problems have tended to be overlooked for a long time without improvement, and are intertwined with the government’s human resource policies. Through this, this study suggests that in order to restore the public functions of the private museums, it is necessary to seek specific policy alternatives to improve working conditions of curators in Korea.