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

TORONTO, January 29, 2019— Josh Basseches, Director & CEO and Mark Engstrom, Deputy Director for Collections and Research, Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Rosina Buckland as Bishop White Committee Curator of Japanese Art & Culture. Dr. Buckland will be responsible for developing and implementing strategy to build, manage, and interpret the ROM’s world-class collection of Japanese art and culture, the largest collection of its kind in Canada.

“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Rosina Buckland to the ROM,” says Josh Basseches. “With more than 15 years of curatorial experience, Rosina brings deep-rooted expertise and scholarship in both traditional and contemporary Japanese art and culture to the Museum. Her passion for activating collections in new and engaging ways will help us further enhance the profile of Japanese art and culture with our audiences. We are grateful to the ROM’s Bishop White Committee for making this appointment possible with the endowment of this position.”

In this role, Dr. Buckland will lead strategic acquisitions and advance original scholarly research. Her responsibilities also include developing public programs, exhibitions, and initiatives that foster greater engagement with the public and building deeper connections with the Japanese community in Ontario and across Canada. Dr. Buckland joins the ROM from the National Museum of Scotland where she was responsible for the institution’s East and Central Asia section and was the project lead on the museum’s newly established permanent East Asia gallery. Previously, she was a curator of the British Museum’s Japanese Section.

Dr. Buckland holds a doctoral degree in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She received her MA in the History of Art and Archaeology from the University of London and a bachelor’s degree in Japanese Studies from the University of Cambridge. She has also published a number of books including Kabuki: Japanese Theatre Prints (National Museums Scotland, 2013) and Painting Nature for the Nation: Taki Katei and the Challenges to Sinophile Culture in Meiji Japan (Brill, 2013).

Dr. Buckland is joining the ROM at a dynamic time as the Museum charts a new course for the future, developing and delivering relevant and high impact programs and exhibitions in art, culture, and nature to audiences at home and around the world. She will begin her new role at the Museum later in 2019.

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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 Far Eastern 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 East Asian library, 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.

ABOUT THE ROM
Founded in 1914, the Royal Ontario Museum showcases art, culture and nature from around the world and across the ages. Among the top 10 cultural institutions in North America, Canada’s largest and most comprehensive museum is home to a world-class collection of 13 million art objects and natural history specimens, featured in 40 gallery and exhibition spaces. As the country’s preeminent field research institute and an international leader in new and original findings, the ROM plays a vital role in advancing our understanding of the artistic, cultural and natural world. Combining its original heritage architecture with the contemporary Daniel Libeskind-designed Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, the ROM serves as a national landmark, and a dynamic cultural destination in the heart of Toronto for all to enjoy.