curator

American  

[kyoo-ray-ter, kyoor-ay-, kyoor-uh-ter] / kjʊˈreɪ tər, ˈkjʊər eɪ-, ˈkjʊər ə tər /

noun

• curators
  plural

1. the person in charge of a museum, art collection, etc.

2. a person who selects content for presentation, as on a website.

3. a manager; superintendent.

4. Law. a guardian of a minor or any other person who is unable to care for their own affairs, especially with regard to their property.

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curator British  

/ kjʊəˈreɪtə /

noun

1. the administrative head of a museum, art gallery, or similar institution

2. law a guardian of a minor, mentally ill person, etc

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• curatorship
  noun
• subcurator
  noun
• subcuratorship
  noun
• curatorial
  adjective
• subcuratorial
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• curators
  plural

Etymology

Origin of curator

First recorded in 1325–75; from Latin, equivalent to cūrā(re) “to care for, attend to” ( see cure) + -tor -tor

Explanation

If you are the curator of the school art show, you choose which pieces will be in it and decide how they will be displayed. A curator is someone who manages an art collection or exhibit. The kind of artwork a curator manages does not have to be the visual kind. You can curate a series of readings by selecting which authors read in it and who reads together. A curator is the person who gives the overall shape and feel to an art exhibit. In law, if you are the curator of someone's estate, you have been given legal power to manage it for someone who is too young or mentally unable to do it themselves.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

curator curators

"It's been this open debate for a century," said Neill Wallis, curator of Florida archaeology, bioarchaeology and the Ceramic Technology Laboratory at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026

That’s likely because Asco’s early performances, as the art historian and curator C. Ondine Chavoya points out in the film, emphasized procession, mobility, mobilization and occupation, marking sites of political violence.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026

According to chief curator Joes Segal, the exhibition dedicates two sections to authoritarianism — one to the cult of personality and the other to the act of resistance.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026

The 30-year-old curator at the Art Gallery of Ontario had been scrutinizing a portrait of a young Black woman bedecked in jewels and wearing a shimmering blue gown with pearls around her neck and wrists.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026

In Paris that evening, a phone call interrupted a Louvre curator at dinner.

From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day

Lacking the necessary technology and expertise to answer that question, museum curators stored the mysterious fragments while competing explanations remained unresolved.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026

Above all, though, the commission’s recommendations faced resistance among the museum’s curators to the sort of great-man-of-history approach that Brooks and others were hankering for.

From Salon ● Sep. 25, 2026

Williams College Museum of Art curators did not respond to requests for comment.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026

According to the show's curators, elements of Flaxman's sketches can be seen in Turner's painting called Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus – Homer's Odyssey, including outlines of horses in the sunset and the shadow of a cyclops.

From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026

Under the careful eye of the curators, Dr. Galaburda x-rays, photographs, and remeasures the skull.

From "Phineas Gage" by John Fleischman

Related Words

• administrator
• conservator
• custodian
• director
• manager