The epistemology of the basement: a queer theoretical reading of the institutional positionality of art museum educators

Figures & data

Table 1. Gendered art museum work hierarchy.

Education/Female Audience-oriented	Curatorial/Male Object-focused
Scheduling and organizing tours, events, & teacher professional development, both on and off-site.	Identifying works of art for exhibitions or galleries; conferring with other curators and scholars; creating checklists.
Planning and executing programs, speakers, public engagements.	Planning and executing in-house and traveling exhibitions.
Meeting with teachers, educators, and colleagues at community service organizations.	Meeting with artists, collectors, board members, and current/potential donors.
Researching exhibition-specific information (broad/generalist).	Researching in-depth art-historical and contextual information (specific/specialist).
Selecting speakers, artists, musicians, activities to complement exhibitions, engage visitors, and connect communities.	Selecting objects from permanent collections and/or other art museums and donors for display.
Developing interpretive strategies and programs related to exhibitions.	Developing thesis/conceptual framework of exhibitions.

Traditional responsibilities for art museum educators and parallel responsibilities for curators that may be considered epistemically charged pairings. This list is meant to be generative and does not encompass all of the responsibilities of art museum educators or curators.