Vicky Avery

Keeper of Applied Arts, Fitzwilliam Museum


Victoria Avery (BA, MA, PhD, Cantab) has been Keeper of Applied Arts at the Fitzwilliam Museum since 2010, prior to which she was Associate Professor in the History of Art Department, University of Warwick (2005-10) and Rush H. Kress Fellow at Villa I Tatti (Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies; 2004-05). Her field of particular expertise is European sculpture: she has researched, lectured and published extensively on Italian Renaissance sculpture, most recently, Michelangelo, Sculptor in Bronze (PWP, 2018).

Vicky has also published and lectured on many aspects of British and European decorative arts, from arms and armour, clocks and watches, fans and textiles, furniture and ceramics, glass and metalwork. She has curated numerous permanent gallery displays at the Fitzwilliam Museum, and co-curated several ambitious and critically acclaimed interdisciplinary exhibitions, including, Treasured Possessions from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment (2015), Madonnas & Miracles: The Holy Home in Renaissance Italy (2017), and Feast & Fast: The Art of Food in Europe, 1500–1800 (2019-20).

Meet Our ‘Celebrating Black History in Cambridge’ Interns

by , and | 14.04.23

Jade Pollard-Crowe and Selena Scott spent February and March 2023 working on a project called Celebrating Black History in Cambridge as part of the University of Cambridge Museums’ (UCM) ongoing work connected to the forthcoming exhibition, Black Atlantic: Power, People, Resistance (Fitzwilliam Museum: 8 September 2023 – 7 January 2024). Funded by Arts Council England and Legacies project funds, they… Read full article

Making a Masterpiece: Reza Aramesh’s Action 125

by | 11.03.21

I’m often asked how pieces of sculpture in the Fitzwilliam Museum were made, and so here’s an exclusive, step-by-step guide as to how Action 125: Tikrit city, Iraq. Monday, April 14, 2003 came into being. I’ve chosen to focus on this visually stunning piece of polychrome wood sculpture because we’ve just purchased unique version 3/3, the last of the three… Read full article

Powerful, Provocative & Profound: Sensual/Virtual Sculpture at The Fitz

by | 30.10.20

As a curator, I want to make visitors stop in their tracks, look, think, and engage. I want to confront, critique, and challenge. High ideals for sure but great art is powerful, provocative and profound, and has the ability, especially when mediated through careful curation, to transcend and transform. Sensual/Virtual: Two Coloured Sculptures juxtaposes two masterpieces of carved and painted… Read full article