Perspectives | America 250: Dr. Virginia Anderson

Join us for a series of in-gallery conversations reflecting on America’s 250th anniversary—an observance that invites us to consider the histories of the people who stewarded the land before the nation’s founding, and the events that have shaped this country since. In these weekly interactive conversations, a guest speaker will explore the themes of liberty, justice, humanity, and equality through the lens of art.
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Free. Registration required.
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About the Presenter
Virginia M. G. Anderson (she/her) is a scholar of American art from the colonial era to the present, with a focus on American modern and contemporary painting. At the BMA, her exhibitions have included By Their Creative Force: American Women Modernists, Free Form: 20th-Century Studio Craft, Beatrice Glow: Once the Smoke Clears, Art/Work: Women Printmakers of the WPA, and Fratino and Matisse: To See this Light Again, among others. Her upcoming exhibition, Tempting to Touch: Surface and Substance in 20th Century American Art, will open at the BMA in May 2027, with a catalogue published by MIT Press.
Virginia received her B.A. in Government from Harvard University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Art History from Boston University. Prior to the BMA, she was the Diane and Michael Maher Assistant Curator of the American Art at the Harvard Art Museums, where she co-edited American Paintings at Harvard, Volume Two: Paintings, Watercolors, Pastels, and Stained Glass by Artists Born 1826-1856. She has served as an appointed adjunct professor in the Program in Museums and Society at Johns Hopkins University, and as an adjunct professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She is a member of the American Art Curatorial Committee at the Harvard Art Museums and is a trustee of the Park School of Baltimore.