We are delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Olivia Horsfall Turner as Chief Curator, succeeding Charles Hind who will become Chief Curator Emeritus from January 2025, after 28 years at RIBA.
Olivia has spent the last 10 years at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), most recently as Senior Curator of Architecture and Design, where she was responsible for the collection of design and architectural drawings. She has published, curated, and broadcast widely on the history of architecture and contemporary practice. Previously, Olivia worked for English Heritage as an Architectural Investigator and the Survey of London as a Historian. Olivia studied History and History of Art at Cambridge and Yale and completed her PhD in Architectural History at UCL.
RIBA also takes this opportunity to express huge thanks to Charles Hind for his exceptional leadership and expertise that has grown and enriched the RIBA Collection over the past 28 years.
Reacting to the appointment, Dr Olivia Horsfall Turner, said:
"I am thrilled and honoured to be entrusted with the curatorial stewardship of the RIBA Collections. RIBA’s holdings of drawings, models, photographs, archives and rare books are of national and international significance; I am keen they should continue to grow and reflect the diversity of current practice. I am looking forward to working with the rest of the RIBA Collections team to ensure that these material records of architectural creativity realise their full potential for education, inspiration and enjoyment for as wide an audience as possible.”
Dr Adrian Steel, Director, Library and Collections, said:
“We are delighted that Dr Olivia Horsfall Turner is joining RIBA as Chief Curator. Olivia brings exceptional experience in curatorship and the history of architecture and considerable external profile to the role. Dr Horsfall Turner is joining at a time of great ambition for RIBA’s collections as it seeks to transform access for scholars, the public, RIBA members and future architects to its collections.
Since January 1996, RIBA has been fortunate to have Charles Hind’s expertise and leadership as our Curator of Drawings and Chief Curator. In the time that he has been with us, Charles’s contribution to the field of architectural history has been immense and his work will benefit the study of architecture and architectural culture for generations to come.”
Oliver Urquhart Irvine, Executive Director, Architecture Programmes and Collections, said:
"Dr Olivia Horsfall Turner, who brings with her very significant public facing, curatorial and academic leadership in architectural collections and history, is taking on the mantle of RIBA Chief Curator at an exciting moment when the next chapter in the history of RIBA’s world-class collections is to be written.
As we welcome Olivia, we also say goodbye to Charles Hind after 28 years at RIBA. Under Charles’s remarkable stewardship, RIBA’s collections have grown considerably as has their scholarly use and public enjoyment. Significant acquisitions made by RIBA, thanks to Charles’s energy and enthusiasm, have significantly enriched the collections and will form the bedrock of research and exhibitions for many generations to come. The partnership with the V&A was an extraordinary achievement for transforming access to the collections and Charles is passing on the mantle of Chief Curator at an exciting moment in the next chapter of RIBA’s world-class collections. Charles leaves an inspirational legacy for us all and for his successor.”
Reflecting on his time at RIBA, Charles Hind, said:
“Succeeding John Harris and Jill Lever as Curator and being part of the team that acquires, maintains and promotes the world’s most important collections relating to architecture has been a wonderful experience. So much has changed since I arrived in 1996 and I am particularly proud of my role in developing the V&A and RIBA Architecture Partnership and its Architecture Gallery, enormously expanding the type and size of archives we acquire, particularly those of Leslie Martin, Denys Lasdun, Sandy Wilson and M.J. Long and starting a new project to publish the RIBA’s Palladio Drawings Catalogue. Change though is continuous and there are certainly momentous changes ahead as we prepare the collections to move and it is time to pass on the baton, although even in retirement, I look forward to contributing.”
