Venetia Porter

Assistant Keeper (Curator)

Islamic and contemporary Middle East

Department: Middle East

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7323 8843
Email: vporter @ thebritishmuseum.ac.uk

Venetia is a curator responsible for the collection of Islamic art, in particular of the Arab World and Turkey as well as the collection of the modern and contemporary art of the Middle East. She was previously curator of Islamic coins in the Department of Coins and Medals. She studied Arabic and Islamic art at Oxford University and obtained her Ph.D on the medieval history and architecture of the Yemen from the University of Durham.

Her particular areas of research and interest are Arabic inscriptions, amulets and seals, ceramics and contemporary Middle Eastern art which are the focus of her lectures and publications.

Current British Museum projects

  • Completion of publication of Arabic and Persian seals in the British Museum
  • Salcombe Cannon site, with Susan La Neice and others

Previous British Museum projects

  • Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East. Exhibition and book for Dubai, February 2008
  • Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East. Exhibition at the British Museum May –September 2006

External fellowships/ honorary positions/ membership of professional bodies

  • External examiner, University of Oxford Mst Islamic art
  • Committee member the Iraq school
  • Committee member Seminar for Arabian Studies
  • Fellow Royal Asiatic Society
  • Secretary Leigh Douglas Memorial Fund

Publications

V. Porter, Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East, Catalogue of the exhibition at the British Museum (British Museum Press London 2006)

V. Porter, Mightier than the Sword, with Heba Salih Catalogue of the exhibition at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur 2004)

V. Porter, ‘Inscriptions of Companions of the Prophet in the Merv oasis’ in Islamic Reflections Arabic Musings: Studies in Honour of Alan Jones, ed. R. Hoyland and P. Kennedy, (Oxford 2004)

V. Porter, 'The architectural decoration' and with Y. al-Nasiri ‘The inscriptions’, in al-Radi, S. The 'Amiriya in Rada', Oxford Studies in Islamic Art XIII, 1998

V. Porter, Islamic Tiles, London, (British Museum Press 1995, reprinted most recently 2005)

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