Yuhua Ding, Ph.D. '19, appointed as Kemper Assistant Curator of Collections at Davis Museum, Wellesley College

Davis Museum at Wellesley College Names Yuhua Ding Assistant Curator of Collections

From Davis Museum Announcement:

WELLESLEY, Mass. – The Davis Museum at Wellesley College is pleased to announce that Dr. Yuhua Ding has been appointed the Kemper Assistant Curator of Collections, effective August 15, 2022. As an integral member of the curatorial team, Ding will serve as a liaison between the Museum and the academic community at Wellesley College. Ding will also develop and maintain an active schedule of collections-based installations and temporary exhibitions, publications, and programs.

“A specialist in Chinese art who has published extensively in both Chinese and English language publications, Yuhua has taught and curated artworks from across Asia—and indeed the world,” said Amanda Gilvin, the Davis Museum’s Sonja Novak Koerner ’51 Senior Curator of Collections and Assistant Director of Curatorial Affairs. “With her simultaneous depth and breadth as a scholar, she will bring important perspectives to the Davis collections, teaching, and exhibitions, especially its Asian art collections. In her years of experience at academic museums, she has proven herself to be an inspiring educator, original curator, and generous collaborator: in short, an ideal Kemper Curator.”

Dr. Ding comes to the Davis from the Harvard Art Museums, where she served as Gregory and Maria Henderson Curatorial Fellow in East Asian Art. In this capacity she conducted scholarship on the Philip Hofer Collection of Chinese art at the Harvard Art Museums, organized rotations of East Asian painting and decorative art galleries, and contributed to the special exhibitions Earthly Delights: 6,000 Years of Asian Ceramics. She also worked to strengthen the museum’s ties to various groups both inside and outside the university community through presentations, art talks, and gallery tours. She previously held a curatorial assistant position at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University and curatorial researcher position at Liu Haisu Art Museum in Shanghai. Major exhibitions she organized at the Johnson Museum include Debating Art: Chinese Intellectuals at the Crossroads and Tradition, Transmission, and Transformation in East Asian Art.
Ding received her bachelor’s degree from East China Normal University and her doctoral degree from Cornell University. Her 2019 dissertation, Chamber with Winds and Rains: On the Collecting Practice of Deng Shi and His Contemporaries enriches views of the late Qing national essence scholars and positions their generation as pioneer art promoters and collectors in the framing of our present-day understanding of Chinese art.

ABOUT THE DAVIS MUSEUM
A vital resource for communities on the Wellesley College campus and beyond, the Davis Museum is one of the oldest and most acclaimed academic fine art museums in the United States. Its signature Rafael Moneo building houses collections that span the history of art worldwide, from antiquity to the present. Guided by commitments to diversity and inclusion, excellence and innovation, and access for all, the Davis is at the core of Wellesley’s liberal arts mission of educating women to make a difference in the world. With exceptional encyclopedic holdings, rotating special exhibitions, and enriching public programs, the Davis warmly welcomes all visitors, including scholars and students of all ages. For visitor information: https://www.wellesley.edu/davismuseum/visit/directions.

ABOUT WELLESLEY COLLEGE AND THE ARTS
The Wellesley College arts curriculum and the highly acclaimed Davis Museum are integral components of the College’s liberal arts education. Departments and programs from across the campus enliven the community with world-class programming—classical and popular music, visual arts, theatre, dance, author readings, symposia, and lectures by some of today’s leading artists and creative thinkers—most of which are free and open to the public.
Since 1875, Wellesley College has been the preeminent liberal arts college for women. Known for its intellectual rigor and its remarkable track record for the cultivation of women leaders in every arena, Wellesley—only 12 miles from Boston—is home to some 2,400 undergraduates from 49 states and 58 countries.

Davis Museum Announcement

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Photo Credit: Yuhua Ding
Yuhua Ding Courtesy Yuhua Ding
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