Top 12 Curatorial Assistant Skills to Put on Your Resume

Landing a coveted role as a curatorial assistant means showing a nimble mix of scholarly rigor, hands-on care, and clear coordination. A resume that foregrounds both the artistic and administrative sides of the job—research, collections, public engagement, logistics—can lift you above the pile.

Curatorial Assistant Skills

1. Cataloging
2. Research
3. Archival
4. Photoshop
5. InDesign
6. Collection Management
7. Exhibition Planning
8. Art Handling
9. TMS (The Museum System)
10. Conservation Techniques
11. Educational Programming
12. Grant Writing

1. Cataloging

Cataloging, in a curatorial setting, means building accurate, consistent records for each object—description, condition, provenance, media, rights, and location—so the collection stays findable, reliable, and cared for.

Why It's Important

It underpins everything: loans, research, exhibitions, conservation, and reporting. Clean data protects institutional memory and speeds every workflow around it.

How to Improve Cataloging Skills

Improve accuracy, consistency, and access. Try this:

1. Standardization: Work to CCO and Dublin Core guidelines; align with controlled vocabularies from trusted sources.

2. Training: Schedule regular refreshers and peer demos; learn from AAM committees and Library of Congress practices.

3. Digital Tools: Use robust collection systems such as PastPerfect or CollectiveAccess; document local data rules in a quick-reference style guide.

4. Collaboration: Compare approaches with colleagues and professional networks; trade templates, field maps, and troubleshooting tips.

5. Quality Control: Build peer review into your workflow; run routine audits for missing fields, typos, and duplicates.

Consistency today prevents confusion tomorrow. Your future self will thank you.

How to Display Cataloging Skills on Your Resume

2. Research

Research for a curatorial assistant means hunting down credible sources, synthesizing arguments, and building context that deepens interpretation—artist histories, provenance trails, comparative works, cultural touchpoints.

Why It's Important

It keeps exhibitions honest and alive. Accurate, nuanced research informs labels, catalogs, grants, tours, and programming—so audiences leave with more than they arrived.

How to Improve Research Skills

Sharpen both process and judgment:

1. Stay Organized: Use a simple system (Trello, Notion, or a spreadsheet) for sources, notes, and deadlines.
2. Go Scholarly: Search JSTOR and Google Scholar; follow citations backward and forward to fill gaps.
3. Cross-Verify: Corroborate dates, attributions, and provenance across multiple reputable sources.
4. Network and Collaborate: Ask curators, registrars, and archivists; professional groups can surface hidden leads.
5. Practice Critical Reading: Question assumptions, bias, and scope; summarize findings in plain language.

Good research is a habit, not luck. Build the habit.

How to Display Research Skills on Your Resume

3. Archival

Archival work means collecting, preserving, describing, and providing access to records, images, and objects so they remain trustworthy and useful over time.

Why It's Important

It safeguards institutional history and cultural heritage. Without archival systems, memory frays and opportunities for scholarship fade.

How to Improve Archival Skills

Tighten structure and care:

1. Digitization: Scan or photograph fragile materials; store master files with clear naming, checksums, and backups.

2. Metadata: Apply standardized schemas such as Dublin Core; use controlled vocabularies and authority files.

3. Conservation Practices: Use archival housings, stable environments, and careful handling; document condition changes.

4. Access Policies: Write clear, equitable access rules, including any restrictions and request procedures.

5. Collaboration and Training: Learn with peers in ARLIS/NA and allied groups; shadow conservators and registrars.

6. Tools: Manage finding aids and records in platforms like ArchivesSpace; version your documentation.

Small, steady improvements compound into lasting access.

How to Display Archival Skills on Your Resume

4. Photoshop

Photoshop supports accurate imaging, color correction, and layout assets for catalogs, labels, and digital platforms—without misrepresenting the work.

Why It's Important

High-quality visuals are your shop window. Clean, color-true images strengthen publications, marketing, and documentation.

How to Improve Photoshop Skills

Focus on the fundamentals that matter most in museums:

1. Layer Management: Name, group, and order layers; keep edits non-destructive.

2. Color Accuracy: Learn color profiles, white balance, and tone curves; use adjustment layers.

3. Selections and Masks: Refine edges; work with masks to target local changes precisely.

4. Retouching with Restraint: Remove sensor dust or background noise while preserving the artwork’s integrity.

5. File Prep: Export to correct specs for print and web; embed profiles; keep masters separate from derivatives.

6. Asset Management: Organize with Adobe Bridge or a DAM; consistent filenames, versions, and metadata.

7. Keep Practicing: Regularly test new features and shortcuts; build a personal checklist for repeat tasks.

Precision beats flash. Fidelity first.

How to Display Photoshop Skills on Your Resume

5. InDesign

InDesign is the backbone for catalogs, gallery guides, labels, brochures, and digital PDFs—where typography, grids, and images meet clarity and rhythm.

Why It's Important

Professional layouts amplify scholarship and brand. Good typographic hierarchy helps audiences absorb complex ideas without friction.

How to Improve InDesign Skills

Build craft, then speed:

1. Core Skills: Master styles (paragraph, character, object), grids, and master pages.

2. Typography: Learn kerning, tracking, leading, and OpenType features; set type for legibility at label distances.

3. Templates: Create reusable, branded templates for labels and didactics; reduce one-off formatting.

4. Interactive PDFs: Add navigation, alt text, and links for digital guides and educator packets.

5. Workflow with Photoshop/Illustrator: Keep linked assets organized; use color profiles consistently across apps.

6. Preflight: Use preflight profiles and packaging to prevent print surprises.

7. Keep Learning: Follow communities like InDesignSecrets and practice on real projects.

Structure first. Then refine the micro-typography.

How to Display InDesign Skills on Your Resume

6. Collection Management

Collection management covers documentation, care, storage, environmental controls, access, and movement. It’s planning and stewardship in one.

Why It's Important

It protects objects and time. Reliable data, safe handling, and good environments reduce risk and speed decisions for loans, exhibitions, and research.

How to Improve Collection Management Skills

Systematize and strengthen:

1. Digitize: Move paperwork into a searchable system; attach images, rights, and condition notes.

2. Implement a CMS: Use tools like TMS, PastPerfect, or CollectiveAccess; document local fields and workflows.

3. Standardize Language: Adopt Getty vocabularies and internal style guides for consistent terms.

4. Routine Audits: Inventory regularly; reconcile locations and condition reports; track discrepancies.

5. Preservation and Security: Monitor climate; improve storage supports; document integrated pest management; refine access controls.

6. Professional Development: Learn with ARCS, AAM, and peer networks; share checklists and forms.

7. Peer Exchange: Engage with groups like Collections Trust; benchmark policies and metrics.

Measure, adjust, repeat. That’s how collections stay healthy.

How to Display Collection Management Skills on Your Resume

7. Exhibition Planning

Exhibition planning blends concept development, curatorial selection, spatial design, scheduling, lenders, shipping, budgets, interpretation, and evaluation.

Why It's Important

Without a strong plan, even brilliant art stumbles. Good planning protects objects, clarifies the story, coordinates people, and lands on time.

How to Improve Exhibition Planning Skills

Think end-to-end:

1. Concept and Research: Frame a clear thesis; reference scholarship via Google Scholar and JSTOR’s image collections (formerly Artstor).

2. Project Management: Organize milestones in tools like Trello or Asana; keep a single source of truth for tasks and dates.

3. Communication: Maintain concise updates to artists, lenders, and vendors; track approvals and conditions.

4. Design and Layout: Mock the gallery in SketchUp or scale drawings; test sightlines, ADA access, and lighting.

5. Budget Discipline: Track estimates and actuals in a shared spreadsheet; include contingency.

6. Marketing: Coordinate assets for email, website, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter); align copy and imagery with curatorial intent.

7. Evaluation: Gather visitor and stakeholder feedback with short surveys; debrief what to keep, tweak, or cut.

Plan tight. Leave space to breathe when reality shifts.

How to Display Exhibition Planning Skills on Your Resume

8. Art Handling

Art handling is the careful movement, packing, installation, and storage of artworks—choosing the right materials, tools, and methods to avoid harm.

Why It's Important

One slip can be forever. Proper handling preserves condition, value, and trust with artists and lenders.

How to Improve Art Handling Skills

Precision over speed:

1. Learn Materials: Understand media sensitivities and hardware; consult conservation guidance and internal SOPs.

2. Use the Right Gear: Clean gloves, proper carts, glass suckers, rigging where needed; archival packing supplies only.

3. Plan the Route: Measure doorways and turns; clear obstacles; brief the team; assign roles.

4. Condition Reports: Document before and after transport or install; include photos and precise notes.

5. Safe Techniques: Two-person lifts, slow movement, secure hardware; never rush.

6. Keep Learning: Attend trainings with ARCS or local conservators; shadow experienced technicians.

Careful is a skill. Practice until it’s instinct.

How to Display Art Handling Skills on Your Resume

9. TMS (The Museum System)

TMS is a comprehensive collections management platform that supports cataloging, loans, exhibitions, media, and reporting—all in one place.

Why It's Important

It centralizes knowledge. With strong data and smart configuration, TMS speeds curatorial research, exhibition planning, and daily operations.

How to Improve TMS (The Museum System) Skills

Think data, process, people:

1. Training: Schedule regular refreshers; document institutional conventions and shortcuts.

2. Data Quality: Enforce entry standards; follow CCO-style descriptions and controlled vocabularies.

3. Customization: Tailor fields, forms, and views to your workflows; simplify what staff see and use.

4. Integrations: Connect TMS with DAMs, publishing, or analytics tools where appropriate; reduce duplicate entry.

5. User Feedback: Collect pain points; iterate configurations and training based on real use.

6. Backup and Security: Confirm backup schedules, permissions, and audit trails; review them routinely.

Good configuration turns a database into a living system.

How to Display TMS (The Museum System) Skills on Your Resume

10. Conservation Techniques

Conservation techniques are methods that slow deterioration and, when necessary, stabilize or restore artworks and artifacts while respecting original intent and materials.

Why It's Important

Preservation sustains cultural memory. Even basic literacy in conservation helps you handle, display, and store works responsibly.

How to Improve Conservation Techniques Skills

Prioritize prevention and informed action:

1. Stay Current: Read conservation journals and case studies; follow the work of the Getty Conservation Institute and similar bodies.

2. Professional Development: Attend AIC workshops; debrief insights with registrars and facilities teams.

3. Use Technology: Employ condition imaging, color targets, and data loggers; consider 3D documentation when helpful.

4. Collaborate: Consult conservators early; share environmental data and exhibition plans for input.

5. Preventive Care: Control light, temperature, humidity; plan mounts and supports; document all materials used.

Prevent first. Intervene only with expertise and care.

How to Display Conservation Techniques Skills on Your Resume

11. Educational Programming

Educational programming turns exhibitions into learning experiences—talks, tours, workshops, kits, and digital content for varied audiences.

Why It's Important

It widens the circle. Programs translate scholarship into approachable, relevant encounters that stick.

How to Improve Educational Programming Skills

Design with empathy and purpose:

1. Know Your Audience: Map needs by age, background, and access; build multiple entry points to the content.

2. Make It Active: Use hands-on prompts, inquiry-based discussion, and digital interactives to spur participation.

3. Partner with Educators: Align with curricula; co-create lesson plans; pilot with teachers and docents.

4. Leverage Technology: Offer hybrid formats, accessible PDFs, and short videos; caption and describe visuals.

5. Evaluate: Gather quick feedback; iterate materials and facilitation based on what you learn.

6. Keep Growing: Follow AAM education networks and peer communities; exchange program outlines and rubrics.

Clarity, relevance, and play—aim for all three.

How to Display Educational Programming Skills on Your Resume

12. Grant Writing

Grant writing means researching prospects, aligning projects to a funder’s goals, and crafting proposals that are clear, credible, and measurable.

Why It's Important

Funding fuels exhibitions, conservation, acquisitions, and outreach. Strong proposals expand what your institution can do for the public.

How to Improve Grant Writing Skills

Write for the reader, and prove the impact:

1. Research Fit: Use resources from Candid to identify prospects; match mission, scope, and eligibility before drafting.

2. Be Plain and Precise: Follow plain-language principles; define outcomes, timelines, and roles without jargon.

3. Align Goals: Make the funder’s priorities visible in your narrative; connect project outcomes to community benefit.

4. Budget Clearly: Tie line items to activities; include indirects and in-kind support where allowed; check the math twice.

5. Review Ruthlessly: Peer review for clarity, completeness, and compliance; proofread everything.

6. Follow Up: Submit on time; confirm receipt; send updates and final reports that shine.

7. Learn by Example: Read winning proposals; track feedback from rejections; iterate templates.

8. Training: Take workshops via Candid Learning or local nonprofit centers; practice on small grants first.

Tell a grounded story, show the plan, prove you can deliver.

How to Display Grant Writing Skills on Your Resume