Skip to main content
curatorial

curatorial

4 8.1
Relating to choosing, caring for, and arranging items in a museum or gallery
  • adjective
  • /ˌkjʊəˈreɪtəriəl/
  • Specialized
: curatorial
  • The curatorial team at the museum organized an impressive exhibit on ancient artifacts.
  • curatorial team
  • curatorial staff
  • curatorial position

So in some cases I might want people to be able to say I want to hear only comments that museum visitors have made versus curatorial comments.

Examples

  • For two weeks this past summer, there had been construction in the curatorial offices at the museum.

    Fiction book (1995)
  • What was most admirable about Enwezor's curatorial vision was not simply its ambitious scope but its trust in the viewers.

    Academic text (2002)
  • Who will be hired for museum curatorial positions, and how will they learn on the job?

    Academic text (2003)
  • Federal agencies and most state agencies will live up to their curatorial responsibilities.

    Academic text (2005)
  • The successful candidate will have extensive curatorial experience as well as strong leadership and interpersonal skills.

    Blog text (3)
  • Also changed was the curatorial thinking about the presentation of non-Western art in museums.

    Academic text (2004)
  • Artists in particular point to the gap in available art media as proof of inequities in curatorial selection and chances for visibility.

    Academic text (2008)
  • But the two paths, scholarly and curatorial, have not always been synchronized.

    Academic text (2011)
  • Heye hired Pepper and Harrington as curatorial assistants while his collections were at Penn.

    Academic text (2006)
  • Within the sprawling hodgepodge of the Arsenale, Tawadros's project has garnered praise for its tight curatorial focus.

    Academic text (2003)

Antonyms

116 4.7

Not organized and full of confusion

37 3.1

Not in a clear order or plan

Surface Forms

curatorial positive

Morphology

curatorial = curator (transparent) = curator + ial

Formed by adding the adjective-forming suffix '-ial' to 'curator', so the meaning directly relates to the work or role of a curator.

Etymology

The word curatorial comes from curator, from the Latin root curare meaning 'to take care'. So curatorial work is about caring for a collection and choosing how to display its objects.