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On Security Guards in Museums

On Security Guards in Museums

If you are wondering why there are security guard job listings on this GLAM board, here are some reasons (and here's a link to the current Security roles we have listed):

  • Security guards play multiple roles across GLAM spaces. They are guest / visitor experience professionals, as well as safety and security ones.
  • Guards probably spend the most time with the art than anyone else. As a result, they likely have thoughts, feelings, perspectives, comparisons, and more to share.

Even before I decided on highlighting jobs in GLAM, there were many examples - real and imagined - where security guards and officers in museums had interesting perspectives, and in many ways were artists themselves. 

Here are a few - but not the only - examples worth sharing:

Please Do Not Touch. Into the Worlds of Museum Guards (2020) by Christa Nemnom

In this research paper taking an oral history approach, Christa conducts oral interviews with museum security guards at the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) and suggests "two collaborative projects, curatorial and organizational, in an effort to provoke reflections on inclusive and progressive solutions to longstanding systems of marginalization within art museums." It is great to see examples of what Christa recommends happening in other parts of the world, and I've shared 2 examples below of guards and officers who have their work featured, and become curators.

I particularly like "This project also has the potential to expand beyond museum guards and include the perspectives of installation and media technicians, or janitors and cleaners, to name a few."

Photo - National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON / Maman, Louise Bourgeois (1999) © Christa Nemnom

The Museum Guards Curators, Baltimore Museum of Art (2022)

In 2022, the Baltimore Museum of Art gave their security guards the opportunity to curate an exhibition. Hearing the stories of the different guards, all of whom are artists in their own right. How amazing. The ended up creating an exhibition, Guarding the Arts!

Armia Malak Khalil, Security Officer and His Art @ The Met (2025)

In Meet me at the Met, "a series in which celebrated guests visit the Museum to share what they think and feel about their favorite works of art", the work of Armia Malak Khalil,  Hope–I Am a Morning Scarab (2024) was on display as part of Flight into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876–Now. The encounter that led to this was a chance one and it transformed his life.

Movie - Night at the Museum (2006)

And for the imagined, top of my head is the movie, Night at the Museum (2006). The storyline sees a security guard, Larry Daley at the Natural History Museum in New York City discover that under the cover of darkness, the exhibits come alive.  You can watch it here

And the not so laudable example:

I also came across a case of a Museum Security Guard adding eyes to a faceless painting, essentially defacing it!

Other reads

And honestly, there's a wealth of perspectives and features on museum guards - check it out.

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