Rebecca Birrell

Formerly a Curator in the Department of Paintings, Drawings and Prints at the Fitzwilliam, Dr Rebecca Birrell is currently a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at the University of St Andrews. As a Research Affiliate for the Fitzwilliam Museum, Rebecca continues to play a key role in the research, interpretation and output for two major displays: the Founder’s Galleries redisplay (opening in February 2024) and the temporary exhibition Real Families: Stories of Change (6 October 2023 - 7 January 2024).

Rebecca has occupied curatorial positions at the Jewish Museum London, The Department of Prints and Drawing at The British Museum and at The Charleston Trust. In 2018 she undertook a fellowship at the Yale Center for British Art. While finishing her PhD at the Edinburgh College of Art, she worked on the photographic archive at The Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust. Her first book, This Dark Country: Women Artists, Still Life and Intimacy in the Early Twentieth Century, a blend of collective biography and art criticism, was published by Bloomsbury in August 2021.