Kip and his career
Kip has the potential to have the wildest stories. I headcanon he's in museum education post-grad in public as it makes the most sense given he's in academia/GLAM.
that means he works either with a government funded institution like the Historic House Trust of New York City or one with a private-public model that receives grants and fundings but relies on donations. These differ from private like the Frick museum which primarily relies on either donations, endowments, galas or often times the non-profit that runs it generally with a board of directors. If they do get grants, it's generally to support preservation not for exhibitions or events.
Public institutions' mandate generally steer towards education while private institutions generally mandate to protect the legacy of its founder/family. Private institutions in this field might not even be traditional galleries it could be auction houses or anywhere with a collection that needs management which doesn't necessarily have mandates (but Kip probably won't be found there given he is in academia)
A mandate is basically the institutions core beliefs, it guides the direction the institution heads and its operations, basically a statement that reflects its goals, mission and responsibilities as some may be bestowed on by the goverment. I say education a lot but it's generally broad, some institutions may focus on children education and you see it in kid themed activities, festivals and summer camps. Others may focus on immigration education and that can be seen in more prioritizing of interpreters and multilingual events. It differs from institution but at an honest one you can see in what they offer the guests.
New York in particular is also very fascinating as it has a large amount of private institutions founded not by artists but by rich patrons (the richer ones like the Van Gogh museum is privately funded while smaller but still impactful artists rely on the private-public model with a non-profit above).
Anyways that's basically the rant you need to know about the gist of the cultural sector without the politics (unions/artist groups having disputes with institutions over political matters, governments passing legislations that impact funding due to rancid beliefs, inequal funding that makes modern preservation more difficult etc)
I do think Kip will get a PHD in the future and probably become a curator at around 50 at best with a focus on American Civil warfare but he and Ilya meet up whenever he's in New York to rank his top 10 wildest guests of the year lmao. Kip definitely gets into boating after meeting a marina owner and her partner who speaks with him for half an hour about wines while his partner takes in the exhibitions (true story from me) but I don't think he'll have any wild wedding stories if he works in a war museum. Ilya loved the wine suggested during that conversation.
