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First Court Magdalene College Cambridge

Duncan Robinson Curatorial Studentship for Art Historians

The College would like to create a lasting memorial to Mr Duncan Robinson CBE, former Master of Magdalene, by establishing the Duncan Robinson Curatorial Studentship for postgraduate Art Historians in his honour.

We are seeking to raise £175,000 to fully endow this fund and to ensure that a Duncan Robinson Curatorial Studentship will be awarded to a postgraduate Art Historian every year in perpetuity.

Duncan was a leading authority on modern British art, and a much-loved teacher, colleague and Master. A graduate of English from Clare College Cambridge, he began his career as an Assistant Keeper in the Department of Paintings and Drawings at the Fitzwilliam Museum between 1970 and 1976 and was then appointed Keeper of Paintings and Drawings. From 1981 to 1995, he was the Director of the Yale Center for British Art, adjunct professor of art history at Yale University, and Chief Executive of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art in London. He was appointed Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1995 and until his retirement in 2007. He generously served as an affiliated lecturer in the Department of History of Art at Cambridge as well as supervising numerous graduate students. In 2002 he was elected Master of Magdalene College, and, despite his demanding schedule, he served as Director of Studies in History of Art for Magdalene, and Clare College too, until he stepped down in 2012.

We are enormously grateful for all Duncan did for Magdalene during his decade as Master, for History of Art at Cambridge for over a quarter of a century, and for generations of students who remember him with lasting gratitude and admiration.

Supporting future Art Historians

Recipients of the Duncan Robinson Curatorial Studentship will be actively engaged with the Robert Cripps Gallery, a purpose-built, museums-standard gallery space in the Magdalene New Library, an award-winning new addition to the College which owes much to Duncan’s vision.

The College aims to have three major Exhibitions per year (November-December, February-March and summer). The Gallery is overseen by a College Management Committee chaired by a Fellow Gallery Registrar; Gallery operations are assisted by a part-time Gallery Administrator and an invigilation team. The Curatorial Studentship will be linked to the Robert Cripps Gallery management team, making input into the choice of Exhibitions and their curation, exploring links with other Cambridge galleries and assisting with the promotion, invigilation, installation and de-installation of exhibitions.

Supporting the Duncan Robinson Curatorial Studentship

The donation form below is to make a gift in US Dollars ($), should you wish to make a gift in UK Pounds (£) please use the UK Duncan Robinson Curatorial Studentship for Art Historians donation page.


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