‘The Museum in South Asia – South Asia in the Museum:  dilemmas and
opportunities in the display of the arts of South Asia.’

Deborah Swallow has been Märit Rausing Director of The Courtauld since
2004. Deborah took her BA (in English literature) at New Hall (now Murray
Edwards College), Cambridge, and her PhD in Social Anthropology at Darwin
College, Cambridge. She started her teaching career at Utkal University,
Orissa, India in 1969 (under the auspices of Voluntary Service Overseas) and
her career in curating at the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and
Anthropology. She subsequently worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum,
where she became the Keeper of the Asian Department and Director of
Collections. Her experience in India gave her a deep interest in the arts,
culture and religion of the Subcontinent, initially explored through the
discipline of social anthropology and subsequently as a curator within the
context of an art museum. Deborah oversaw the creation of the Nehru Gallery of
Art and a series of major exhibitions on the arts of different regions and
communities of the South Asian Subcontinent. She set up the Nehru Trust for the
Indian Collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum in New Delhi, and
established close working relationships both with the South Asian communities
in the UK and with institutions across India. She continues to work on issues
relating to the arts, museums and cultural heritage in contemporary India.
 

Date: Thursday 16 March 2017
Time: 7.30pm
Venue: The Great Hall
Cost: Free

 

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