The Curator: Erica Gangsei, Manager of Interpretive Media at SFMOMA

What exactly do you do all day?
"
It's such a cliché to say this, but there really is no typical day. I do go to a lot of meetings — collaborative brainstorms and media-review sessions. I work really closely with a team of three other people, finding out more about exhibitions, and planning audio and video projects. When artists are in town we try to interview them, or sometimes we'll pile into a car with a bunch of film gear and go to a local artist's studio. Sometimes I'll take a break and spend an hour going through visitor response postcards."

What would you consider your big "break"?

"
You know, I'm lucky that I've had a lot of ‘breaks’ in this job over the years, including opportunities to interview artists I admire, like Will Rogan, create inventive video content like these Skype chats, and produce rad audio tours like one on Victorian-era science photography. But, I'd have to say my big break recently has been ArtGameLab — an exhibition of crowd-sourced games I curated at the museum. Yep, I got to curate a show! Games are pretty hot right now, and the response from the gamer and avant-garde art communities has been fantastic!"

How many hours do you put into your job daily?
"I try to keep it to 7 to 8 hours, but there can be times when it's all-consuming. Intensive content projects, like scripting artist videos, tend to happen for me in college-finals-week-style marathons."

Photographed by Anna-Alexia Basile