Beth McKillop
BETH McKILLOP, Director of Collections and Keeper of the Asian Department, Victoria and Albert Museum, London SW7 2RL
Education
- MA (Glasgow) Italian and English, 1972
- MA (Cantab) Chinese Studies, 1975
- Certificate of Postgraduate Studies (Peking University) (British Council Scholar), 1977
- MSc Information Science, University College, London, 1999-2004
Previous Employment
- BBC Monitoring Service, editor, Summary of World Broadcasts, 1978-80
- London University, Sotheby’s Institute of Art and the British Museum Occasional lecturer ‘Arts of Asia’ courses, on the book history of Korea, 1995-present
- British Library
- curator of Chinese , 1980-1990 (collection development, cataloguing, reference work)
- curator of Korean, 1985-present
- curator of the Samsung Gallery of Korean Art, Victoria & Albert Museum, 1990-93, (curating a gallery and building a database of the museum’s Korean collection)
- exhibitions and loans officer for Oriental Collections, 1996-2004
- budget manager, 1995-2004
- Head of East Asian Collections, Asian, Pacific and African Collections, 2001-43
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Guide to the British Library's Korean Collection, 1986
China (Great Civilisations series), Franklin Watts, 1988
Translation of "The Graduate" by Lu Wenfu in The Gourmet and Other Stories, Readers International, 1988
Contributor to Dunhuang Manuscripts in British Collections, Sichuan People's Press, China, 1990-95
Travellers' Chinese (phrasebook), Pan Books, 1991
Korean Art and Design, Victoria and Albert Museum Publications, 1992
Korean Material Culture (Papers of the British Association for Korean Studies, 5) 1993 (editor, with G.L Barnes)
‘Books and prints, Korea’ (co-author, The Dictionary of Art, 1996)
‘A Korean Buddhist Illuminated Manuscript’ British Library Journal (24:1) 1998
‘Presentations of odes, gifts of cloth and a banquet in 1809’ in Patrons and Art in Korea, Pak and Whitfield ed. London: Saffron Books, forthcoming
Joint editor and contributor for ’North Korean culture and society’ British Museum Research Publication 151, 2004
Contributor, exhibition catalogue, Chinese Printmaking Today. London: British Library, 2004
EXHIBITIONS
- V & A Museum, Korean Gallery, 1992
- British Museum, 1997 and 2000, substantial sections on books, maps and manuscripts in the Korea Foundation Gallery of Korean Art, permanent display
- British Library (King’s Library and St Pancras), exhibits and displays about China, Korea and the Oriental and India Office Collections, including the 1997 photographic exhibition ‘Tomb Paintings of Koguryo’ in the King’s Library, and co-ordination of Oriental and India Office Collection exhibitions in the British Library and at external venues
SELECTED CURRENT PROJECTS
- With Professor Fujimoto Yukio, describing and researching early Korean books in the British Library, to produce the first systematic survey of the BL’s Korean holdings, completing in 2007.
- Leading the Asian Department’s contribution to a new V & A sculpture gallery project, in the garden galleries, planned for 2008.
- Korean ceramics research for the V&A Ceramic Galleries renovation, completing Phase One in 2009.
- Editing the exhibition book China Design Now, Victoria and Albert Museum Publications, 2008.
REPRESENTATION
- Secretary and past president of the Council of the British Association for Korean Studies
- Convenor of the Korea Library Group
- Member, British Council-sponsored delegation to libraries and museums in Peking, Chengdu and Kunming, 1982
- Council member and secretary, including conference organiser, for the British Association for Chinese Studies, 1985-88
- Member of British Museum and Library joint delegations to the DPR Korea, March 2001, May 2002; editor of papers from conferences arising from these visits
- Guest lecturer, British Museum Traveller group to Korea, September 2001, and to China, October 2004.
