Meher McArthur

Meher McArthur is Curator of East Asian Art at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, California, where she has been working since 1998. Meher has been a student of Japanese culture and art for twenty years. She has curated several exhibitions of Japanese art at Pacific Asia Museum and at other institutions.

Meher McArthur studied Japanese Studies at Cambridge University, and while a student spent several months in Japan learning about Japanese culture. She stayed with a family who made kimonos in the Nishijin Textile district of Kyoto and was first introduced to kimonos and Japanese pottery during that visit. After graduation, she spent two years in Oita prefecture in southern Japan working for the Japanese government as a Coordinator for International Relations, and in her free time studied pottery, Japanese traditional calligraphy and ikebana (flower arrangement). She returned to the UK, and after a short period as a business news translator, she decided to follow her heart and study Japanese art history and enrolled in a postgraduate course in Asian art run jointly by London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies and Sotheby’s, followed by a Master’s Course in Japanese art. After working for a London art dealer for a year cataloging Japanese books and prints, she was offered a position at Pacific Asia Museum, and moved to Los Angeles for the job.