Katherine Anne Paul, Ph.D.
The Virginia and William M. Spencer III Curator of Asian Art
Katherine Anne Paul was appointed the Virginia and William M. Spencer Curator of Asian Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art in 2019 and Lead Curator in 2020. In her curatorial practice she works to promote the riches of both classical and contemporary art originating from Asia and its’ layered intersections with art of the greater world. Since arriving in Birmingham, she has published three collection catalogues Silver & Ceremony from South & Southeast Asia, 1830-1930 The Harish K. Patel Collection at the Birmingham Museum of Art (2025); Handheld Landscapes: The Four Seasons in Chinese Paintings from the Birmingham Museum of Art (2023), and Expanding Darshan: Manjari Sharma, To See and Be Seen (2022).
Dr. Paul has curated traveling exhibitions including Expanding Darshan: Manjari Sharma, To See and Be Seen, Loving Devotion: Visions of Vishnu, and Wondrous Worlds: Art & Islam through Time & Place as well as numerous special exhibition such as Ming to Modern: Elevating the Everyday in Chinese Art, Tiaras to Toe Rings: Asian Ornaments, Red Luster: Lacquer and Leatherworks of Asia, Why the Wild Things Are: Personal Demons and Himalayan Protectors, and Gilding the Lotus: Enriching the Himalayan Collection. She has thematically re-installed more than twenty permanent galleries of the arts of Asia over the course of her career.
Although she is a specialist of Himalayan art, she lectures and publishes widely. Additional select publications include Beyond Zen: Japanese Buddhism Revealed (2021), Arts of South Asia: Cultures of Collecting (2019), Implements for Enlightenment: Tibetan-Buddhist Ritual Arts (2019), Extending Enlightenment: Buddhist Art of Meiji and Edo Japan (2019), Wondrous Worlds: Art & Islam through Time & Place (2018), Connecting to the Cosmos: Jewelry of the Himalayas and Mongolia (2018), and Korea: Highlights of the Newark Museum’s Collections (2016).
Paul has held posts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, the Textile Museum in Washington, DC as well as the Newark Museum of Art (formerly the Newark Museum). She holds a B.A. in Art History from Reed College and a Ph.D. and M.A. in the Languages and Cultures of Asia from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A Fulbright scholar, she has performed field research in twenty-eight nations.