Name: Adera Causey
Position: Curator of education
Location: Hunter Museum of American Art
First job: Girl Friday in an obstetrics and gynecology office
Favorite thing: “No two days are the same. I’m constantly meeting new people and getting to learn from new people, whether it’s in the galleries or planning a program. There’s just such wealth of excitement in this city. With the Hunter, there’s so much we’re always doing, that I get to tap into so many resources in the city.”
Least favorite: “Vines are growing outside my window. I work a lot of hours, but that’s because I love it. The challenges are finding ways to connect the art to people who don’t traditionally feel that this is the place for them, and it’s not necessarily for socio-economic or heritage reasons, but it could just be because it’s not in their family tradition. That’s a perpetual challenge for any art museum and particularly here in Chattanooga.”
Best advice: “Nothing ends up the way that it starts, and you’re always better for it. You’ve just got to go with the flow. If you hold too tight to an idea, it never gets to reach what it could be.”
How do you make a career of it? Causey has a Ph.D. in art history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but said there are several different paths to becoming a museum curator, including studying either education or museum studies. A master’s degree, she said, is typically the minimum education level required, however, spending time at museums as a volunteer or intern is to be expected. And the timid need not apply. “If you’re not an extrovert,” she said, “it’s probably not ideal.”
— Compiled by staff writer Holly Leber, hleber@timesfreepress.com