Charles Hind

Charles Hind worked for the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) from 1996, initially as Curator of Drawings and subsequently, in addition, as Head of Special Collections, roles that were later consolidated under the title of Chief Curator. He was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Drawings, Archives, Photographs and Rare Books Collections and line-managed the curatorial team. He was also the senior staff member responsible for the general management of the V&A+RIBA Architecture Partnership, an agreement with the Victoria and Albert Museum that led to the RIBA’s Drawings and Archives collections and staff being resident at the Museum from 2004. RIBA cooperated and collaborated closely with the Museum in promoting their joint collections through study room access, learning programmes and exhibitions.

A particularly significant part of his role was the acquisition of material for the collections, ranging from individual items to complete archives of architects, architectural historians, photographers and the papers of related organisations. These were acquired primarily by gift, but also by purchase, for which he led fundraising efforts. Charles curated numerous exhibitions, most recently Palladian Design: the Good, the Bad and the Unexpected at the gallery at RIBA’s headquarters in London (2015–16), and he later worked on a display for the V&A Architecture Gallery on cenotaphs, A Century of Change (working title), planned for 2018–19.

He is now Chief Curator Emeritus, Royal Institute of British Architects.