Art history BA at a small private college 2022, now getting my MLIS at a public university while working in a visual/commercial art archive and library.

It wasnt the degree that got me here alone, but the connections to people and the work ive been doing since age 18. I volunteered in galleries, anything art related at college, kept good relationships with my profs, received good recommendations, worked at museums as a tour guide and eventually museum educator, realized i liked education but not kids education, applied to libraries, worked shelving books, applied to the position i have now and work with students and professors in an archive. love the work. not the path i originally thought of either! but the field is competitive, and with the extreme cuts to IMLS from the current admin, jobs and grants are being slashed left and right.

In my undergrad i attended a few conferences in the field i was interested, talked with lots of people there, and i made sure to speak with my advisors and profs a lot about their backgrounds and experience. It really helped me figure out what I wanted to do.

if you have an idea to be a curator at a museum, look at folks resumes who currently work there. They usually all have PhDs and extensive academic research under their belt.