Museum Curation

Museum Curation or Curatorial Practice refers to the processes of acquiring, conserving, researching and exhibiting objects from a museum’s collection. Curatorial roles can be wide-ranging and all-encompassing; their duties can stretch from acquiring new objects and cataloguing collections, to curating new displays and developing public engagement programmes.

The series of activities delivered during the Unearthing Futures event saw participants learn how to pack objects safely for long-term storage or short-range transportation, and how curators balance between keeping objects safe and how to continue to share them with the public. This session was led by Dr Kate Holden, Learning Manager for the Great North Museum, who introduced core curatorial and conservation principles to the participants on the day.

The Museum Curation module on this website will help you explore key aspects of museum curation and conservation of objects. It will overview the types of things which can damage or harm museum collections, known as Agents of Deterioration, which includes things like pests and handling.

Conservation

is about making objects safe from deterioration over time and other influence factors, e.g. handling. It is not the same as restoration, which focuses on trying to make an object to a previous state or ‘ideal’ appearance’. There are two main types of conservation work in museums:

Preventive conservation: This focuses on controlling the physical environment in which objects are stored to prevent them from deteriorating. It involves climate control, pest management, and monitoring sources of light, heat, and pollution.
Interventive conservation: This involves cleaning and repairing objects to restore them to their original state. It is also known as remedial conservation.

Acid-free

acid-free is a type of archival-grade material used in the safe housing of collections. It is better than ‘pH neutral’ as it means that acidic elements have been added into the making of that material. Acids, over time, can break compounds, especially organic matter, which is not good for museum collections especially works on paper or Natural History collections.

Pests

these are certain insects which are known to damage museum objects in some form. For example, carpet beetles (brown, varied and two-spot) consume organic materials like wool, fur, feathers, silk, leather and parchment, which are common items in museum collections.

SPECTRUM

is the UK collection management standard, which provides all museums with guidance and tried-and-tested advice for how to manage their collections, run by the Collections Trust. It must be adhered to by all Accredited museums and institutions.

Accreditation

museum accreditation is a formal process which recognises that a museum is responsible for caring for its collection following the standards in management, collections care and interpretation.

14 Apr 2026

Museum Curation Know-How - Debunking the lingo

Curatorial roles can often be very varied - whether you are a collections assistant, an assistant curator, project curator or an equivalent role, you will be expected to know and understand a vast range of collections care and management strategies.

14 Apr 2026

How to pack museum objects safely

In the in-person event, the participants learnt how to take what are known as ‘tissue puffs’ and ‘tissue rolls’, which are used when packing museum objects.

14 Apr 2026

Pest Management - pesky insects munching in our museums

Pests! What are they good for? Well, in terms of our environment and biodiversity, insects are extremely important for our planet. In museums, we understand this importance, which is why everything we do is about trying to prevent pests getting in. However, when this isn't possible or an infestation breaks out, our next priority must be the safeguarding of our collection.

Kate Holden

Kate Holden is the Learning Officer for North East Museums. She oversees the formal and informal learning programmes in the museum, catering for learners from birth to mature adulthood. She has been at the Great North Museum: Hancock for many years, and had volunteered in schools and worked in university outreach before that.

With a background in earth science, and PhD in geochronology (finding out how old different sediments are), Kate helped to develop a teacher CPD in conjunction with the Natural History Museum and funded by the Foyle Foundation, working with science leads in primary schools to transform their schools' approaches to science. She loves working within a university museum, being able to bring the collection and current research to schools and the public.

Is it recommended curators specialise in a period or sub field, and if so at which point in their career?'

I think this really depends on the kind of museum where you end up working. In a regional museum like the Great North Museum: Hancock, you are likely to find yourself working across a range of periods and subfields. Our two archaeology curators between them manage collections spanning prehistory, Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, Hadrian's Wall and the Roman Empire, Anglo Saxons and early Medieval and World Cultures. Within those, you'd obviously also be dealing with every aspect of the collections. In a national museum, you are more likely to specialise into a particular subfield and time period.

Dr Kate Holden

Learning Officer

Through attending/visiting (the) Unearthing Futures (webpage), I am knowledgeable on the key factors of museum conservation, including the 10 agents of deterioration and pest management.

I am committed to personal and professional development, as exhibited in my attendance/further research in/on the Council for British Archaeology’s Unearthing Futures, I am constantly eager to expand my knowledge of museological practice which will benefit me in this role because…

In September 2025, I attended the Council for British Archaeology’s Unearthing Futures at the Great North Museum: Hancock, which was an immersive day of learning hands-on skills such as zooarchaeology, archaeology illustration and curation. I took a particular interest in the museum curation activities, learning about how to pack objects safely, the outside forces which can damage museum objects, and how to balance this to ensure collections are accessible to the museum. I utilised my communication and networking skills to ask questions to the facilitator, Dr Kate Holden, and was able to learn more about the sector from a sector professional.

I have sought to further my understanding of core curatorial practice, and have independently completed resources and tasks on the Council for British Archaeology’s Unearthing Futures web page. This has allowed me delve deeper into not as well known or taught elements of museum curation, such as all the materials and names of materials which are used in packing objects for long-term storage, such as Plastazote and Tyvek.