I would like to highlight the importance of the position of the director of exhibitions, a professional profile that is still little recognized and different from the coordinator of exhibitions or the curator. The director of exhibitions—with adequate coordination support —…
• Leads the executive management of an exhibition project, having high decision-making capacity.
• Thoroughly understands all the phases of the development process of an exhibition, with a broad, global and integrating vision, and thorough knowledge of team work resources.
• Performs the functions of interlocutor with the strategic panel of the exhibition project, taking ownership of its communicative objectives.
• Holds the public representation tasks for the exhibition.
• Reports to the strategic panel regarding the evaluation of the communicative effectiveness of the exhibition, taking on the responsibility over it.
• And most especially, thoroughly masters the resources of the museographic language, leading the writing of the script.
Efficient exhibitions necessarily require a director, whose role, unless specifically appointed, will continue to be carried out de facto –as has hitherto commonly been the case–, by the designer, the curator, a coordinator, the producer or any other member —or members— of the team who, for whatever reason, are able to take the lead, despite possibly lacking the necessary global perspective, the appropriate training or dedication.1
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