Lydia Gatundu Galavu is an art curator at the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) in Nairobi. With a background in art education, exhibit design, and anthropology she oversees the care, presentation, and interpretation of artworks within the museum’s collection. Additionally, she spearheads the management of the museum’s contemporary art exhibitions calendar.

Galavu actively engages in various committees and initiatives, including her membership in the National Arts Committee, the curatorial team for the newly established Uhuru Gardens Heroes Museum in Nairobi and her involvement in organising the Pavilion of Kenya at the 57th Venice Biennale. She is also a key figure in planning the proposed National Art Gallery of Kenya and serves on the organising committee for The Kenya Museum Society’s annual East African Art Show, promoting artistic discourse within the region.

In 2021 she curated NMK’s module in the Invisible Inventories exhibition, a collaborative project involving various international institutions and artist collectives. Her recent writing includes a contribution to the exhibition Kenya Revisited: New Dreams of Gallen-Kallela’s Africa at the Gallen-Kallela Museum in Finland (2023). Currently, she is collaborating with NMK on establishing a traveling exhibition focused on the cultural significance of the Kanga cloth across East and Central Africa.

She is a member of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and a grantee of the Omooba Yemisi Adedoyin Shyllon Art Foundation (OYASAF) Scholar Fellowship Award.