ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at how working in art museums can undertake research. It discusses the position that museum professionals doing research is a positive thing, for the individuals, for the institution and even for society. The art museum today is a sophisticated organisation endlessly balancing diverse and at times conflicting agendas. Museum professionals service the needs and negotiate the requirements of artists, the public, the collections, funders and others continuously. Curators have operated with considerable autonomy within the art museum, developing exhibitions and displays according to their deep academic knowledge and skills in making judgements about art and artists. The museum professional’s reliance on and valuing of practical and propositional knowledge and their commitment to practice informs their motivations for doing research. Francesca Bewer exemplifies the cross-disciplinary, multi-faceted scholar who happens to be a museum professional. The Scholar Practitioner model outlines what constitutes expertise in ways that resonate with the experience of the museum professional.
