The word sýningarstjóri, literally meaning exhibition director or exhibition manager, is used for curator in Iceland. It’s a word that ties curatorial practice to exhibition-making but doesn’t fully capture the broader responsibilities, methods and relationships that constitute the profession of a curator.
We propose the adoption of the word kúrator as an Icelandic professional term corresponding to the curator, while retaining sýningarstjóri as a specific designation for the person responsible for managing an exhibition. The verb (to) sýningarstýra, meaning to manage or direct exhibitions, could then describe work undertaken by both curators involved in exhibition production and exhibition or project managers.
During the 1990s and 2000s, the use of the word kurator within contemporary art became increasingly widespread across the Nordic countries, reflecting changes in the curator's role and professional identity. Yet the word itself is far from new. Derived from the Latin curator, associated with the verb curare, meaning to care for, attend to or oversee, it existed in legal, administrative and institutional contexts long before its contemporary artistic meaning became widespread.
As curatorial practice evolved beyond traditional exhibition-making, so did the language used to describe it. In Sweden, both curator and kurator came to be used within contemporary art, with kurator already carrying associations with social and welfare work. In Norway and Denmark, kurator became increasingly established as a professional designation alongside existing institutional titles, while the Finnish equivalent is kuraattori. Similar linguistic adaptations can be found across the Baltic countries, with kuraator in Estonia, kurators in Latvia and kuratorius in Lithuania. These developments did not follow a single timeline, but demonstrate how existing words can acquire new professional meanings in response to changing practices.
The word kurator is also not entirely new to Iceland. It appears in historical Icelandic publications where it was used in contexts outside contemporary art, in relation to social work and supervision. These earlier uses suggest that the term is not simply a recent import, but a word with an existing, if less familiar, history in Icelandic. Adopting kúrator as a professional designation would therefore give new relevance to a word that has already circulated in the language.*
These developments remind us that professional terminology is not static. Words acquire new meanings as practices change, and existing vocabulary can expand to accommodate different forms of work. The proposed Icelandic term kúrator connects to an internationally recognised profession while taking on an Icelandic written form. Rather than replacing Icelandic terminology with English, it would make room for a profession that already exists but is not fully represented by the language currently used to describe it. In doing so, it could also make space for different specialisations within curatorial practice, without positioning the exhibition as the defining feature of every curatorial role.
The introduction of kúrator doesn’t mean abandoning sýningarstjóri. Using both words could enrich Icelandic professional vocabulary by making it possible to distinguish between responsibilities that are currently grouped under a single title. Under this proposal, kúrator would refer to the broader curatorial profession, involving the development of artistic and cultural contexts, research, relationships and programmes. Sýningarstjóri could refer more specifically to someone responsible for managing, organising, coordinating or directing the practical realisation of an exhibition. These responsibilities often overlap, and the distinction is therefore not intended to establish a hierarchy between intellectual and practical labour, but to provide greater precision in describing different forms of expertise. Making these distinctions clearer could support the development of curatorial practice in Iceland, while better reflecting the different career paths that already exist within cultural production. This could also establish clearer expectations around curatorial labour and make visible the work that often remains poorly defined.
For a year now, we’ve been going on about curatorial practices in Iceland, and there's a reason it matters so much to us. Professional titles do more than describe existing responsibilities. They influence how work is understood and valued.
Recognising kúrator could make the breadth of curatorial practice more legible within Icelandic institutions, cultural policy, funding structures, educational programmes and professional discourse. It could also help distinguish between curatorial conception and exhibition production without treating these as mutually exclusive activities. The intention is not to declare sýningarstjóri obsolete, but to make room for a more expansive professional vocabulary that recognises curating across collections, publications, public programmes, archives, research, the public realm, alternative spaces and even uncharted discourses. The adoption of kúrator would therefore represent more than a linguistic adjustment. It would acknowledge that curatorial practice extends beyond the exhibition, and that the language used to describe cultural work should be capable of evolving alongside the profession itself. More importantly, it could foster greater solidarity between cultural workers across arts institutions and beyond, bringing together different areas of expertise through shared interests. A curator in a natural history museum, a curator of photography and a curator of public art could walk into a bar, find a sense of camaraderie, support one another and perhaps even dream up progressive collaborations.
During the symposium Kúrator? I don’t know them at the Nordic House on November 17, we are curious to hear how people like to define themselves within the work they do. Artist, artist-curator, curator with an artistic practice, curator, cultural practitioner, art worker, producer... What we’re trying to say is that there are innumerable ways to define the work we do within the arts, and by adopting kúrator into Icelandic professional vocabulary, we might open up possibilities for the profession that we have yet to see.
*https://timarit.is/page/4320498?iabr=on#page/n66/mode/2up/search/kurator and https://timarit.is/page/1325963?iabr=on#page/n14/mode/2up/search/kurator.
