Career: Exhibit Designers and Technicians
Visit the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. There you can step onto a 1950s-era bus and hear the driver tell you to move to the back. A statue of Rosa Parks sits at the front with her head held high. In the Maritime Museum of Barcelona, Spain, you can clamber aboard a full-scale reproduction of a sixteenth-century ship and watch projected images of the crew at their oars.
In a retrospective traveling from one museum to another, you can view the work of a single artist. As you pass before her paintings, you watch her mature through the decades and read about her influences. In zoos all over the world, you can view animals ranging from primates to panthers in exhibits re-creating their natural habitats.
Exhibit designers and technicians plan, design, and put together exhibits and displays in museums, galleries, zoos, and other cultural institutions.
Did You Know?
- A good portfolio -- a collection of your best work -- will be your ticket to the design world.
Are You Ready To...?
- Work with curators and staff to develop exhibit goals, budget, and design
- Use computers to plan and model designs
- Revise designs based on feedback from others
- Prepare layout and construction plans of proposed exhibits
- Gather the objects or animals to be displayed
- Hire outside contractors to build complicated exhibit structures
- Oversee and participate in the construction of exhibits
- Protect rare or valuable objects from damp, light, earthquakes, fire, vandalism, and more
- Design posters, paint murals, mold artificial trees, or create multimedia presentations
- Use hand and power tools
- Work on your feet
It Helps to Be...
Creative, flexible, good with your hands, and excellent at managing complex projects.
Make High School Count
- Get a good foundation in studio art and art history. Consider taking the AP® Art History exam.
- If you wish to work in a zoo, take challenging biology and chemistry courses.
- Make the most of class research assignments to build good library and online research skills.
- Take technical classes such as computer science, computer-assisted drafting, and technical drawing.
- Volunteer with local historical societies, art galleries, museums, or zoos, and get to know the ins and outs of these places.
Did You Know?
- Although museum studies programs are helpful, it’s a thorough knowledge of the museum’s specialty and museum work experience that employers really look for.
Outlook
Government economists expect jobs for exhibit designers and technicians to grow faster than the average for all careers through 2016.
However, that doesn't mean it will be easy to find a job -- far from it. Careers in museums, zoos, and archives are very popular, and there are not enough job openings for all qualified job hunters.
Compensation
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that designers of exhibits at museums, historical sites, and other similar institutions earned an average yearly salary of $43,890 in 2008. Museum technicians and conservators earned an average yearly salary of $40,750.
