null Virginia Anderson
Photo by Christopher Myers

Virginia Anderson

Curator of American Art and Department Head of American Painting & Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Curatorial

Virginia Anderson (she/her) is the Curator of American Art and Department Head of American Painting & Sculpture and Decorative Arts. Since arriving at the BMA in 2018 she has organized five exhibitions, reconceived and reinstalled the American Modernism galleries in the Dorothy McIlvain Scott American Wing, and has recently begun a major initiative to catalogue the department’s collection of painting, sculpture, and American decorative arts objects with funding from the IMLS to ensure broader public access to the BMA’s collection.

Virginia received her BA in government from Harvard University and her MA and PhD in art history from Boston University. She is a scholar of American painting from the 18th century to the present, and her research interests include the intersection of private collecting and identity. She is an appointed Adjunct Professor in the Program in Museums and Society at Johns Hopkins University, and has taught courses on modern and contemporary art at Boston University and the Maryland Institute College of Art. From 2005 to 2010, Virginia was the Michael and Diane Maher Assistant Curator of American Art at the Harvard Art Museums.