Dr Venetia Porter
Dr Venetia Porter
Venetia Porter is an Honorary Research Fellow at The British Museum and The Courtauld Institute of Art.
She was formerly Senior Curator for Islamic and Contemporary Middle East art at The British Museum.
Born and brought up in Beirut, she studied Arabic and Persian and Islamic Art at the University of Oxford.
Her PhD, from the University of Durham, is on the history and architecture of Medieval Yemen.
She was the lead curator for the Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic World, which opened 2018.
Her research and publications range from Yemeni history through Arabic inscriptions and amulets to contemporary art.
Her exhibitions and accompanying publications include Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East (London 2006, Dubai 2008), Hajj: journey to the heart of Islam (2012), Reflections: contemporary art of the Middle East and North Africa, with Natasha Morris and Charles Tripp (London 2021), Amakin, 21,39 Jeddah Arts, 9th edition, with Laura Edgerton, (Jeddah and Dhahran 2022), Maqam: Hashel Al Lamki with Laura Cherrie Beaney, (Abu Dhabi 2023) and Artists making books: poetry to politics (London 2023).
Other publications include her mother’s autobiography Thea Porter’s scrapbook (Unicorn Press 2019).
She is a Trustee of the Honor Frost Foundation and the Arab British Centre and on the Board of Visitors of the History of Science Museum, Oxford. She is also on the Advisory Board of the Islamic Arts Biennale, Jeddah, January 2025.
