Melinda McCurdy

Melinda McCurdy, curator of British art at The Huntington, received her Ph.D. in art history from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She curates exhibitions and writes and lectures on historical British and European art from an interdisciplinary perspective, examining the political and social forces that shape visual culture of the past. Much of her work at The Huntington has focused on its world-renowned collection of 18th-century British portraiture, including Thomas Gainsborough’s The Blue Boy. McCurdy is a firm believer in the relevance of the humanities beyond academia, and many of her projects emphasize the meanings and continuities of the historical in contemporary life.