Birkbeck Arts Professor re-appointed a Trustee of the Victoria & Albert Museum
Professor Lynda Nead will be serving a second term on the Board of Trustees of the V&A - the statutory body which is responsible for the Museum and its collections under the terms of the National Heritage Act 1983.
Professor Lynda Nead, Pevsner Professor of History of Art at Birkbeck, has been re-appointed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson for a second term as a Trustee of the Victoria & Albert Museum for another four years.
The Victoria & Albert Museum is the world’s leading museum of art, design and performance and is a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, governed by a Board of Trustees appointed by the Prime Minister. Professor Nead first took up her appointment on 1st January 2017.
The Board of Trustees of the V&A is the statutory body which is responsible for the Museum and its collections under the terms of the National Heritage Act 1983. The main functions of the Board are:
- To care for, preserve and add to the objects in the collections.
- To secure that the objects are exhibited to the public.
- To secure that the objects are available to persons seeking to inspect them in connection with study or research.
- To generally promote the public’s enjoyment and understanding of art, craft and design, both by means of the Board’s collections and by such means as they consider appropriate.
Professor Nead's research on the history of British art and culture intersects closely with the work of the museum. She has published widely on the history of British art, including books on Victorian London, the relationship of art, photography and early film and, most recently, art and culture in post-war Britain. Professor Nead has continuing interests in the histories of design, dress, photography and film and was a founding director of the History and Theory of Photography Research Centre at Birkbeck.
As well as sitting on the Board of Trustees at the V&A, she chairs the Trustees’ Research Committee and is a Member of the Trustees’ Collections Committee.
Speaking about her re-appointment, Professor Nead said: “It has been such a privilege to serve as a Trustee of the greatest museum of applied and decorative arts in the world. Every time I go there I feel excited and awed by the beauty and scope of the collections. 2020 has been extremely challenging and it has been awful to experience the periods of museum closure. But we’re open again now and there is a great new exhibition called ‘Bags – Inside Out’ and I can’t think of a nicer place to visit over Christmas!”
Professor Anthony Bale, Executive Dean of Arts and Professor of Medieval Studies said, “All of us in the School of Arts are thrilled for Professor Nead on her reappointment to this prestigious and exciting role. It not only demonstrates her brilliant research and intellectual acumen but also the close relationship between Birkbeck and the cultural institutions that make London such a wonderful city for the arts.”
Professor Nead also currently serves on the Advisory Boards at the Museum of London, Tate, the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and the Foundling Museum and has been a member of the Leverhulme Trust Research Awards Advisory Council. She is currently also a member of the Modern and Contemporary Advisory Group at the National Gallery, London.