Smithsonian Journeys Experts

Rita Freed received her B.A. from Wellesley College and her M. A. and Ph. D. in Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art and Archaeology from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.  She was Associate Professor of Art at the University of Memphis and founding Director of the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology before coming to the MFA, Boston, to head the Department of Ancient Egyptian, Nubian and Near Eastern Art, a position she now holds as Emerita.  She also teaches Egyptian and Nubian Art at Wellesley College and to underserved at risk high school students through the Seymour Institute.

Freed has excavated in Egypt at numerous sites from the Delta to Karnak as well as in Israel and Cyprus.  The exhibitions she has curated and co-curated include Egypt’s Golden Age, A Divine Tour of Ancient Egypt, Ramesses the Great, Pharaohs of the Sun, The Secrets of Tomb 10A and Ancient Nubia Now. 

Recently she was the Richard D. Cohen Fellow in Art History at the Hutchins Center, Harvard University, where she pursued research in Nubian art and developed methods to make it more widely available.  She is currently working on a book entitled Ancient Nubian Art:  A History.