Everyone is a curator.

Ever notice how everyone who puts something together in a list or show or event is now a curator? Curate, as a verb, is not even listed in my edition of the American Heritage Dictionary of the American Language. OK, it’s not the latest edition. Merriam-Webster defines the transitive verb curate: “to act as curator of; curate a museum: an exhibit curated by the museum’s director.”

Yeah, that’s the dictionary. But fuggetaboutit. Now, it’s journalese and all over the media, and usually not referring to the work of a curator at a museum or an exhibit. An example, which prompted this item, was in The Boston Globe, Feb 15, 2018, in a short review of a restaurant named ArtScience Culture Lab & Café, in where else but in Cambridge, Mass. The wine list there is reported as “co-curated” by the manager and the bar director.

File under: Curate this.