Dr. Rebecca Hall is the Curator at the USC Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, CA. She has been in this position for two and a half years after originally beginning a relationship with the museum as an independent curator for textile exhibition in 2016. Hall earned a B.F.A. in Fiber Art from the Kansas City Art Institute, an M.S. in Historic Costume and Textiles from the University of Rhode Island, and a Ph.D. from UCLA in Southeast Asian Art History. This background in Asian Art is what initially brought her to the collection, as she was interested in the diversity of the collection. She finds that getting to work at a museum dedicated entirely to the Asia Pacific world is really unique and wonderful.

     For Hall, the average day looks like lots of meetings with student workers, interns, coworkers, and artists who will be in upcoming exhibits. She also is able to spend time researching the collection and developing upcoming programs. Currently, the museum is working on redeveloping its Silk Road interactive gallery, so she is frequently coordinating with coworkers on that project.

     Dr. Hall is the only curator at the museum, something which brings unique challenges. “I think being the only curator at the museum is one of the most challenging parts of my job. I really enjoy working with other curators and developing ideas and discussions together,” she said. “Unfortunately, because I am the only curator at the museum, I do not have as much time to research our permanent collection objects, which I really enjoy doing. I love developing exhibitions and was pleasantly surprised at how much I loved putting together our current exhibition We Are Here: Contemporary Art and Asian Voices in Los Angeles. The seven artists who contributed to the exhibition were delightful and brilliant and I loved working with each of them. The exhibition opened only two days before Los Angeles went into lockdown for the coronavirus, so it has only been viewed online. I look forward to our museum opening to the public again so these things can be viewed in person.”

     In October 2020, Dr. Hall was featured in a Dress & Drinks webinar that can be seen on our YouTube channel. You can check out all of our Curator Profiles by clicking here.


~Profile written by Lauren Clark

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