In 2013 Dr Elizabeth Cumming gave a fascinating illustrated talk on Arts and Crafts design in Scotland "Tradition and Modernity" showing how those two were combined creatively. Dr Cumming is an independent art historian, curator, and an Honorary Fellow (History of Art) at the University of Edinburgh.

Elizabeth is a historian and curator who writes on Scottish art and design since 1870. Her career has taken her from being a junior researcher on the national survey of Pictish symbol stones to being the first Keeper of Edinburgh's City Art Centre where she compiled the catalogue of the city's fine art collections and organised its early exhibitions. She concurrently began to document the life and work of the artist Phoebe Anna Traquair (1852-1936), to become the subject of her doctorate awarded by this university. This widened her interest to include the applied arts, especially the Arts and Crafts movement, and she remains intrigued by the interface between art and design which particularly defines Scottish Arts and Crafts. Invited to write The Arts and Crafts Movement (with Wendy Kaplan) in the World of Art series (Thames & Hudson: 1991), she subsequently taught at this university and held a lectureship in design history at Edinburgh College of Art for nearly ten years and enjoyed working with students in jewellery, ceramics, glass, textiles and furniture especially.

As a freelance curator, Elizabeth's early exhibitions included Glasgow 1900: Art & Design for the Rijksmuseum Vincent Van Gogh in Amsterdam. She has contributed to a number of exhibitions organised by the National Galleries of Scotland, notably Phoebe Anna Traquair (1993), the recent series on the Scottish Colourists (2012-13) and Modern Scottish Women Artists (2016). She has represented the UK at design symposia in Norway, Japan and the USA. In 2003 she was invited to be a Visiting Fellow at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and to give a lecture series to inaugurate the new Christchurch Art Gallery. As an adviser, she has also served on the committees of many cultural institutions over the years, and is currently a trustee of the Mansfield Traquair Trust and the Scottish Stained Glass Trust.

See Volume 12 of the Journal for an article based on her presentation.