A cultural specialist at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Anna Fariello is an adjunct Associate Professor with the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies where she has taught courses in museum studies and material culture. An independent curator with Curatorial InSight, she is former director and curator of the Radford University Museum and has held previous positions with two state museums, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and Science Museum of Virginia. Fariello spent semester as a research fellow under the auspices of the U.S. Fulbright Commission where she conducted a country-wide museum assessment of more than a dozen government-run museums for the Panamanian National Institute of Culture and taught Collection Management at two Latin American museums.

Currently, she is exhibition review editor for the Southeast College Art Review, visual arts editor for the Encyclopedia of Appalachia, member of the curatorial committee for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, and member of the advisory board for the National Park Service's Blue Ridge Music Center. She is former research fellow with the Smithsonian Institution (1999-2000), director of an American Association of Museums accreditation self-study (1996) and Institute of Museum and Library Services assessment (1993).

Under Curatorial InSight contracts she served as project director for various technical assistance grants to regional non-profits funded by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the development of an exhibition on African American education with support from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Click here for a list of completed projects.

Fariello is author of 25 articles, 14 catalogs, and 20 conference papers, and curator of 20 exhibitions. She has taught Museum Studies for 13 years and has 15 years work with state museums. She holds an M.F.A. from James Madison University, and an M.A. in Art History/Museum Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University. She holds professional memberships in the College Art Association, the American Association of Museums, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts.