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How to become a curator

Official title: Curator

Also called: Art curator, Art gallery and museum curator, Humanities curator, Curator Māori, Natural science curator, Exhibitions curator, New Zealand and Pacific curator

Curators select, organise and maintain collections of artwork or historical or valuable items for places like museums, galleries and universities.

Main tasks

How to become one

You usually need a qualification and experience to become a curator. You usually need NCEA Level 3 or University Entrance to do the study or training for this job. Other requirements: a New Zealand Certificate in Museum Practice (Level 4); a bachelor's degree in visual arts, art history or similar area; a postgraduate certificate or diploma in curation or similar area; experience in similar work.

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Ways in

Pay · Past change · AI and this job

Who does this work

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Questions people ask

How do I become a curator?

You usually need a qualification and experience to become a curator. You usually need NCEA Level 3 or University Entrance to do the study or training for this job. Other requirements: a New Zealand Certificate in Museum Practice (Level 4); a bachelor's degree in visual arts, art history or similar area; a postgraduate certificate or diploma in curation or similar area; experience in similar work.

How much does a curator earn in New Zealand?

The Tertiary Education Commission estimates median pay at $83,000 a year, before tax. Most common pay is $63,000 to $103,000 a year.

Has the number of people working as a curator grown in New Zealand?

It has grown: TEC records an increase in the number of people doing this job between the 2018 and 2023 Censuses. This is past change, not a forecast.

Will AI change the work of a curator?

Generative AI could change many tasks in this job, which usually reshapes the work more than it replaces it, by the ILO's global estimate.

Sources

This content is sourced from the Tertiary Education Commission through the Tahatū Career Navigator website (www.tahatu.govt.nz) and used under the CC BY 4.0 licence. All or some of the information has been modified by Peernovo. TEC has not approved, endorsed or tested these modifications. TEC will not be held accountable for any errors within this content.

Qualification information from NZQA, used under CC BY 3.0 NZ.

This work is based on/includes Stats NZ's data which are licensed by Stats NZ for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. Census data via Figure.NZ.

Includes information from O*NET OnLine by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

Sources: Tertiary Education Commission, Tahatū Career Navigator (career ideas, pay estimates, entry requirements and study options, CC BY 4.0, modified by Peernovo); Stats NZ, 2023 Census (via Figure.NZ) and the National Occupation List (CC BY 4.0); NZQA qualification information (CC BY 3.0 NZ); O*NET interest scores (CC BY 4.0); ILO global generative AI exposure index (CC BY 4.0). Links between career ideas and ANZSCO groups, degree fields and broad job groups are Peernovo's.

These results are not official statistics. They have been created for research purposes from the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), which is carefully managed by Stats NZ.

Graduate outcomes: these results are not official statistics. They have been created for research purposes from the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), which is carefully managed by Stats NZ.

Updated 4 October 2026