It turns out you, too, can be a curator.
At the Museum of Fine Arts, where bucking tradition is something of an art form itself, curators for the Impressionist gallery recently invited members of the public to go online and vote for their favorite paintings, with the top voter-getters earning a spot in an upcoming special exhibit, “Boston Loves Impressionism,” featuring works from the MFA’s vaunted collection.
The crowdsourcing event and the resulting exhibit, which opens on Valentine’s Day, is being shepherded by Emily Beeny, the MFA’s assistant curator of European paintings. And while it has drawn a great deal of public feedback, with more than 10,000 people voting in the third round, which concluded Sunday night, Beeny doesn’t see the event as a threat to curators’ jobs.
“I think a lot of people voting are probably regular visitors. So I have faith in their judgment,” Beeny said. “Ours is an extraordinary