Royal Ontario Museum Announces Appointment of Associate Curator, Japanese Art & Culture

TORONTO, August 12, 2021 – Josh Basseches, Director & CEO and Dr. Chen Shen, interim Co-Deputy Director of Collections and Research of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Akiko Takesue as Bishop White Committee Associate Curator of Japanese Art & Culture. In this role, Dr. Takesue will develop and implement strategies to build, manage, and interpret the ROM’s world-class collection of Japanese art and culture through exhibitions and public programs.

“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Akiko Takesue to the ROM,” says Josh Basseches, ROM Director & CEO. “With extensive curatorial and research experience in Japanese art and culture, she will be responsible for raising the calibre and profile of the Museum’s extraordinary collection—one of the largest of its kind in Canada—as well as offering fresh perspectives on the impact and influence of Japanese art and culture on the contemporary world. We are grateful to the ROM’s Bishop White Committee for making this appointment possible with the endowment of this position.”

The Bishop White Committee Curatorship of Japanese Art & Culture was generously established in 2017 to inspire appreciation for Japanese art and culture in perpetuity.

The appointment of Dr. Takesue to the role represents a homecoming for the art historian, whose involvement with the ROM’s Japanese collections spans 20 years. She first joined the Museum two decades ago as a visiting scholar and then as Academic Advisor for the Prince Takamado Gallery of Japan. She has also held a curatorial fellowship at the ROM, among other positions. After the completion of her PhD in 2016, her career has taken her around the world, with positions at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and guest curator for the Gardiner Museum in Toronto. She holds a doctorate in Art History from York University and Master’s degree from University of Toronto and the University of New South Wales.

Dr. Takesue’s new role at the ROM will see her apply her expertise in art history, prints and ceramics to initiatives that build deeper connections with the public and Japanese communities locally and around the world, including exhibitions, publications, and public programs.

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For further information, please contact:

ROM Communications
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About the Bishop White Committee
The Bishop White Committee was founded in 1960 by a group of ROM volunteers led by Louise Hawley Stone (1904-1997) to promote the ROM's East Asian department. Named after Bishop William Charles White (1873-1960), former keeper of the ROM’s Chinese collections, the group promotes Asian art by organizing lectures and events, expanding the Bishop White Committee Library of East Asia, and raising funds for curators and new acquisitions. Since its inception, the Committee has generously donated more than $2.5 million to the ROM for the promotion of East Asian art, history, and culture.