Curating Islamic Art Worldwide: From Malacca to Manchester

168 Pages·2020·2.743 MB·English

by  Jenny Norton-Wright

HERITAGE STUDIES IN THE MUSLIM WORLD
Curating Islamic
Art Worldwide
From Malacca to Manchester
Edited by
Jenny Norton-Wright
Heritage Studies in the Muslim World
Series Editor
Trinidad Rico
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ, USA
The series Heritage Studies in the Muslim World invites a break away from
disciplinary legacies that are involved in the study of ‘Islamic heritage,’
drawing from scholarship that is often located at the margins of disciplines
and domains. Contributors to this series recognize the Muslim world as a
diverse and fluid territory where Muslim and non-Muslim communities
engage with Muslim and non-Muslim heritage constructs. In this aim, the
series welcomes a broad representation of disciplines and voices that
intersect to address heritage discourses and practices, considering the
natural and built environment, material culture, traditions, performances,
technologies, discourses, and other political and legal instruments that are
associated with heritage.
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15128
Jenny Norton-Wright
Editor
Curating Islamic Art
Worldwide
From Malacca to Manchester
Editor
Jenny Norton-Wright
British Library
London, UK
Heritage Studies in the Muslim World
ISBN 978-3-030-28879-2 ISBN 978-3-030-28880-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28880-8
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to
the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.
This Palgrave Pivot imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
A
cknowledgements
I would like to thank all those colleagues in Manchester and around the
world who played a part in delivering the Ellerman Project, as well as all
the speakers at the conference and contributors to this publication.
Grateful thanks are also offered to the John Ellerman Foundation for the
funding, which made this entire project possible, and to the Barakat Trust,
which provided additional support that facilitated the preparation of
this volume.
v
c
ontents
1 Introduction 1
Jenny Norton-Wright
Part I Theoretical Approaches to Exhibiting and Interpreting
Islamic Art 13
2 Objects, Storytelling, Memory and Living Histories:
Curating Islamic Art Empathically in an Era of Trauma
and Displacement 15
Nancy Demerdash-Fatemi
3 Labelling Islam: Structuring Ideas in Islamic Galleries in
Europe 31
Klas Grinell
Part II Case Studies: New Exhibitions Worldwide 45
4 Not Malacca but Marege: Islamic Art in Australia
(or, ‘What Have the Umayyads Ever Done for Us?’) 47
Sam Bowker
vii
viii CoNTENTS
5 From Mosque to Museum: The Museum of Islamic and
Near Eastern Cultures, Be’er Sheva, Israel 63
Sharon Laor-Sirak
6 Display of the Sacred Relics Gallery in the Museum of
Turkish and Islamic Art, Istanbul 73
Beyza Uzun
7 In Pursuit of Islamic Art in Moscow 83
Galina Lasikova
8 Representing the Bangsamoro in an Exhibition of
Ethnography at the National Museum of the Philippines 95
Ana Maria Theresa P. Labrador and Cyril A. Santos
9 Displaying the Cultures of Islam at the British Museum:
The Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic World 107
Venetia Porter and William Greenwood
Part III Communities, Audiences and Education 117
10 Islamic Art and Saudi Arabia: Reconnecting Communities
with Collections 119
Idries Trevathan
11 Exploring World Faiths in Museum Collections: The
Example of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin 135
Jenny Siung
12 Curating Islamic Art in the Central United States: New
Approaches to Collections, Installations and Audience
Engagement 145
Kimberly Masteller
Index 157
n c
otes on ontributors
Sam Bowker is the Senior Lecturer in Art History and Visual Culture at
Charles Sturt University, Australia. Beyond developing Australia’s leading
‘Islamic art and design’ subject for university students, he has curated
diverse exhibitions and published widely on the history of khayamiya
(Egyptian tentmaker appliqué).
Nancy Demerdash-Fatemi is an Assistant Professor of Art History in the
Department of Art and Art History at Albion College. She holds an
SMArchS degree from the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a PhD in Art and
Archaeology from Princeton University. Her doctoral research and forth-
coming book project focus on post-war reconstruction and development
in Tunisia against the political backdrop of decolonisation.
William Greenwood is Curator at Zayed National Museum, Abu Dhabi,
United Arab Emirates. He was previously Albukhary Foundation Curator
of the Islamic World, British Museum, London, working on the major
project to reinstall the museum’s Islamic collections. He has also been
Curator for Central Islamic Lands at the Museum of Islamic Art in
Doha, Qatar, and has worked in several other areas of the art world—
including journalism, auctions, museum consultancy and lecturing.
Klas Grinell is Associate Professor in the History of Ideas at Gothenburg
University, Director of the Centre for European Studies, Gothenburg
University (CERGU) and Culture Strategist at the Department for
ix
x NoTES oN CoNTRIBUToRS
Cultural Affairs, City of Gothenburg, Sweden. Formerly, he was curator of
contemporary global issues and research coordinator at the National
Museums of World Culture, Sweden.
Ana Maria Theresa P. Labrador is a social anthropologist and the
Deputy Director for Museums of the National Museum of the Philippines
(NMP). As its chief curator and head of collections management, she
ensures public access to the National Collections in the 4 Manila flagship
NMP museums and 15 facilities throughout the country.
Sharon Laor-Sirak is Curator of the Museum of Islamic and Near
Eastern Cultures in Be’er Sheva, Israel. She established the museum’s per-
manent display and has curated six exhibitions. Laor-Sirak holds a PhD in
Islamic Art from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has taught in
universities in Israel and was a tenure-track professor in the United States.
Galina  Lasikova is an art historian and Curator of the Mardjani
Foundation’s collection of Islamic art based in Moscow, Russia. Previously,
she served as the carpet curator and researcher in the State Museum of
oriental Art in Moscow, and then as Curator for Textiles in the Museum
of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar.
Kimberly Masteller has been the Jeanne McCray Beals Curator of South
and Southeast Asian Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art since 2008.
Masteller earned her PhD in the History of Art from ohio State University
and has curated numerous exhibitions, authored publications and
taught Asian and Islamic art history.
Jenny Norton-Wright is Arabic Scientific Manuscripts Curator at the
British Library, London, and a PhD student at the School of oriental and
African Studies, London. Her research investigates Islamic manuscripts
from South-East Asia digitised by the British Library’s Endangered
Archives Programme. She previously worked as Early Career Curator for
Islamic and South Asian Art at the Manchester Museum Partnership, fol-
lowing earlier roles with the Islamic Manuscript Association and the UK’s
Subject Specialist Network for Islamic Art and Material Culture.
Venetia Porter is Curator of Islamic and Contemporary Middle East Art at
the British Museum. She was the lead curator for the Albukhary Foundation
Gallery of the Islamic World. Her PhD from the University of Durham was
on the medieval history and architecture of Yemen, and her research and
publications range from Arabic inscriptions to Middle Eastern art. In 2012,
she curated Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam at the British Museum.