Ann Yonemura, Senior Associate Curator of Japanese Art.

Curatorial Research

Curators at the Freer and Sackler Galleries oversee the museums’ outstanding collections, which include works from China, Japan, Korea, South and Southeast Asia, the ancient Near East, the Islamic world, and the United States. Research into these objects—their original contexts and uses, how they were made, and the artists who produced them—is a significant part of the curators’ role.

Curatorial research may focus on the permanent collections or be undertaken in preparation for a special exhibition. In addition to studying the objects themselves, curators’ research takes them into the library and the archives, as well as far afield to examine other collections. Their work is generally interdisciplinary, carried out in close collaboration with conservation scientists, historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, and other specialists.

Freer and Sackler curators are involved in dozens of ongoing research projects, often with colleagues from institutions around the world. The results of their work can be seen in a variety of published formats, including exhibition catalogues, scholarly publications, and online publications.

Learn more about our current research »