Emily Fuggle

Profile

Emily Fuggle is a Collaborative Doctoral Award PhD Researcher at Ben Uri Gallery & Museum and Queen Mary, University of London, funded by the London Arts and Humanities Partnership. Her research explores the history of the Ben Uri through the women who shaped it, from its founding in 1915 as an arts society supporting Jewish artists fleeing persecution in the Russian Empire through its period as a cultural centre for emigré(e)s from Nazi Europe, and beyond. Her research examines the activities of women administrators, curators, donors and collectors involved in the Ben Uri, including Liba Zarchi, Ethel Solomon, Erna Auerbach, Alice Schwab and Agi Katz.  

The impact of women on modern art history and curatorial practices in Britain is to date still little understood, still less the role of women émigrées who had arrived in Britain as refugees.  Emily’s project reveals the central role which these individuals played in defining and gendering Jewish and émigré artistic heritage, enlarging understandings of modern British art; activating the modern art institution in service of humanitarian activism and developing a participatory arts practice.  Her thesis challenges the marginalisation of women from discourses on modern art and recovers the contributions of those who fought to rehabilitate their artistic and curatorial careers in exile. Ultimately women at the Ben Uri reimagined the possibilities of the gallery from the margins, making the art institution activist, refugee-inclusive and socially-engaged. 

Emily has a particular interest in cultural history and museum practice in relation to exile and displacement. Her previous roles include curatorial and exhibitions positions at the Imperial War Museum (IWM), the Jewish Museum New York and the Huguenot Museum. Emily was Curator of the history of Nazi persecution and the Holocaust at the Imperial War Museum and Project Manager and Researcher working on Whose Remembrance? – IWM’s first AHRC project as an independent research organisation, exploring the experiences of people in the British Empire during two world wars. Emily holds Associateship (AMA) and is a Mentor for the Museums Association. In Spring 2025, Emily was a Teaching Associate in the School of History at Queen Mary for the module, London and its Museums. In 2025-26, she is LAHP-funded Researcher in Residence at Bow Arts Trust, looking at the history of socially-engaged gallery practices through the case study of the Ben Uri.  

Emily holds a MA in History of Art (modern art) from the Courtauld Institute of Art (Distinction) and a MA in Cultural Heritage Studies from UCL (Distinction). 

Research

Research Interests:

• History of museums and galleries 
• Women curators 
• Exile studies 
• History of collecting 
• Modern art in Britain and Central Europe