World Art & Culture

B.A. (Honours), Anthropology, McMaster University, 1976
M.A., Anthropology, McMaster University, 1996

Kenneth Lister received his B.A (Honours, 1976) and M.A. (1996) in Anthropology from McMaster University. He joined the Department of Ethnology at the ROM in 1978 and holds curatorial responsibility for several collections, including: Arctic, Subarctic, and Northwest Coast ethnographic collections of North America, the Native watercraft collection of canoes and kayaks, and the Paul Kane collection of sketches and oil paintings. Ken’s field research includes archaeological research in the Hudson Bay Lowland of northern Ontario, ethnographic research among the northern Ontario Cree and the Inuit of Baffin Island, and field studies relating to sites sketched by Paul Kane. The main focus of his work is oriented toward understanding the role of material culture within the context of traditional cultures.

Past Exhibitions

Canada Collects: Treasures from Across the Nation. (October 6, 2007–January 6, 2008). Garfield Weston Exhibition Hall.

Daphne Cockwell Gallery of Canada: First Peoples. Curatorial Coordinator. Permanent Gallery opened December 2005.

Tuugaaq: Ivory Sculptures from the Eastern Canadian Arctic. (October 12, 2002–March 31, 2003). Gallery of Indigenous Peoples.

Paul Kane: Land Study, Studio View. (August 5, 2000–February 20, 2001). Sigmund Samuel Canadiana Gallery Feature Exhibition Space and Portrait Gallery.

Wilderness to Studio: Four Views of Paul Kane. (November 11, 1998–May 1, 1999). Sigmund Samuel Canadiana Gallery Feature Exhibition Space and Portrait Gallery.

In the Time of the Kayak: Hunting in the Eastern Canadian Arctic. (February 1994–January 1996). Gallery of Indigenous Peoples (inaugural exhibition).

Western Woods Cree Snowshoes. (July 1993–June 1994). From the Collections Gallery.

Arctic Bay Kayak Frame. (March 1992–April 1993). From the Collections Gallery.

"I Took His Likeness": The Paintings of Paul Kane. (April 1985–April 1986). Canadiana Building. Joint curation with Honor de Pencier.

Wilderness to Studio: The Work of Paul Kane. (April–September 1984). 1B Terrace Galleries.

In the Department of World Cultures, Robert Little is the Mona Campbell Curator of European Decorative Art at the Royal Ontario Museum. Currently he dedicates his time developing the permanent collection of 20th Century Decorative Arts for the future Gallery of 20th Century Design, part of Renaissance ROM.

Before arriving at the ROM in 2003, Mr. Little was with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) for over 20 years, where he was the Curator of Non-Canadian Decorative Arts and Acting Curator of Antiquities, Asian Art, Islamic Art, African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian Art. While there, he curated over 30 exhibitions and secured grants from the Getty Trust and the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation.

Presently Mr. Little is writing a book on the homes and collections of Mr. J. W. McConnell, a Montreal financier and philanthropist who established Canada’s largest family foundation. The book contextualizes the McConnell homes within the Canadian and North American culture and architecture. Mr. Little is uncovering new information about the architects and designers who created these houses, and the fine and decorative art collections which filled each room.

B.A., Fine Arts, University of Toronto, 1974
M.A. Course Work, Museology, University of Toronto, 1974-1975

Brian Musselwhite has recently retired as Assistant Curator of the ROM's European department, but he still comes into the museum occasionally. He was primarily responsible for British and European glass and ceramics, his other responsibilities included research, acquiring and cataloguing artifacts, and identifying antiques and other heirlooms belonging to members of the public. His areas of specialization include: 19th and 20th century glass, portrait miniatures, English ceramics and silver, and 2Oth century design.

Mr. Musselwhite has lectured and published widely on various decorative arts topics. He is a professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design and teaches a course on the history of glass, ceramics and metals, ancient to present. He also teaches evening courses on the English decorative arts for the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Toronto. He has organized and produced a number of exhibitions at the ROM including Glass Worlds: Paperweights from the ROM’s Collection, which closed on May 4, 2008. He is co-author of High Style: Masterworks from the Bernard and Sylvia Ostry Collection in the Royal Ontario Museum.

Among his many projects Brian Musselwhite played an active role in the ROM's Annual Decorative Arts Symposium. The last Symposium, which took place April 10 to 12, 2008 entitled Silver and Gold: Treasures, Fakes and Forgeries was presented with the generous assistance of The Goldsmiths' Company of London, England.

B.A., Archaeology, Wuhan University, China, 1987
M.A., Archaeology, University of Tulsa, OK, 1992
Ph.D., Anthropological Archaeology, University of Toronto, 1997

Dr. Shen joined the ROM in 1997 as the first Bishop White Curator of East Asian Archaeology, an endowed curatorship, and began his Canadian-Chinese collaborative archaeological fieldwork in China. Currently, Dr. Shen is leading several projects in Pleistocene archaeology in Northern China - Nihewan, Luonan, and Shandong projects. His research focuses on human origins and lithic technology development in East Asia. These projects are supported by research grants from Canada's Social Sciences and Humanity Research Council, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (U.S.), the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the ROM Governors. The work of Dr. Shen’s team in East Asia has revealed the earliest hominid site, approximately 1.66 million years old. Since 2009, in collaboration with scientists from Beijing’s Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dr. Shen’s fieldwork involves excavations at the Zhoukoudian site, renowned for the discovery of the Peking Man fossils in the early 20th century as well as being a central location for the study of human evolution.

Dr. Shen is responsible for the development of the ROM's Chinese galleries, exhibitions, and collection management. His research focuses on the study of prehistoric stone tools and pottery, Bronze-Age archaeological materials including bone, jade and bronze artifacts, as well as coin and mirror collections. Dr. Shen has curated numerous exhibitions at the ROM, including the critically acclaimed Treasures from a Lost Civilization: Ancient Chinese Art from Sichuan (2002), and The Warrior Emperor and China’s Terracotta Army (2010).  Dr. Shen has also been integral in fostering working relationships between the ROM and numerous renowned museums in China, including the Palace Museum and the National Museum of China (both in Beijing), and Nanjing Museum (Jiangsu Province). 

Currently, he is involved in organizing workshops and symposiums on cultural heritage management and preservation in China. Dr. Shen is an Academic Trustee of the Archaeological Institute of America. Dr. Shen is a professor at the Anthropology Centre of the Eastern Asian Study Department at the University of Toronto, where he teaches courses in Art and Archaeology of Early China, and Technology and Material Culture in Ancient China. He is the author of Anyang and Sanxingdui: Unveiling the Mysterious of Ancient Chinese Civilizations and the senior editor of Current Research in Chinese Pleistocene Archaeology. Dr. Shen has published many academic papers in both English and Chinese languages.