School of Traditional Arts contributes to new gallery at British Museum

We are honoured to have contributed to the new Albukhary Foundation Islamic Gallery at the British Museum.

The new gallery opened on October 19th and has received outstanding reviews.

On the opening weekend, alumna Yasmin Maksousa was joined by the public in the great court to create a large scale geometry inspired by the Kashan tiles in the British Museum collection. Alumnus Samiur Rahman demonstrated the various stages of writing Arabic calligraphy and allowed visitors to try their hand at writing.

Inside the gallery, in the book arts section, alongside Riza Abbasi’s masterpiece 'Seated youth reading’ you will see a painting by alumna Farkhondeh Ahmadzadeh that illustrates the various stages painting a miniature composition, as well as the remarkable skills of contemporary artists who work in the continuing tradition of the Islamic arts of the book. The full painting process is shown in one of the in-gallery videos.

As part of the ‘Arabesque’ exhibition - a temporary display of masterpieces from the Islamic Museum Malaysia - we contributed a short film about the design principles behind the creation of an Arabesque composition.

The gallery also integrates five handmade window screens designed and created by alumnus Ahmad Angawi, made using the traditional techniques of Mangour. School staff, students and alumni contributed to the making of the screens. We are sure you will enjoy the beautiful ambience they create in the gallery.

The School of Traditional Arts thanks Syed Al Bukhary, Dr Heba Barakat and the British Museum for the opportunity to participate in this historic event.