Meet Pola Durajska, Curator of Collections

Dr Pola Durajska is Trinity’s Curator of Collections, a new role at the College. She tells us about herself, what the job involves and why she is excited about the opportunity.

What does a curator of collections do?

The role of a curator revolves around safekeeping, researching and displaying collections. At Trinity, this includes pictures, sculpture, furniture, clocks, silver and archaeological artefacts.

I will be cataloguing these items, as well as auditing and managing our numerous loans to several Cambridge museums.

Another crucial aspect of the project will be to implement interpretations of our objects on display and involve various interest groups in that process. As curator, I will conduct  in-depth research into individual objects to further understand and contextualise them, working towards publications, online resources, and guided tours.

What are you looking forward to?

I look forward to exploring the ways in which various aspects of the College’s complex history manifested themselves in the paintings, furniture and silver that are now inextricable parts of its heritage, and to sharing these stories more widely.

This role gives me an exciting opportunity to get to know the current College community, and to work with students on various activities and future projects.

I will be thrilled to gradually expand the Trinity Collections with new acquisitions of historic importance, as well as to work with contemporary artists on commissioned artwork.

What did you do before coming to Trinity/Cambridge?

I ran the Pictures Department in the largest auction house in Devon, and before that worked for a private art collector in Paris and Rome.

Last year, I  co-curated an exhibition on the nineteenth-century open-air landscape oil studies of Frederic, Lord Leighton at Leighton House in London, which stemmed  from my doctoral research at the University of York.

What has caught your eye at Trinity?

Edward Lear’s panoramic view of Argos from Mycenae, purchased shortly after it was exhibited in the 1880s, is one of my favourite highlights from the collection. It represents my primary research interests, nineteenth-century landscape painting, as much as it showcases the diversity of the Trinity collections, otherwise predominantly associated with portraiture.