The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), Neighborhood Jameel, and Artwork Jameel marked on Sunday the twentieth anniversary of The Jameel Gallery on the V&A, celebrating 20 years since its opening, creating an area which has reworked the presentation, interpretation, and public understanding of Islamic artwork.
Neighborhood Jameel marked The Jameel Gallery’s anniversary with a particular reception hosted on the V&A, attended by Prince Turki Al-Faisal, Prince Abdullah bin Khalid bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the UK and Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel KBE, Founding father of Neighborhood Jameel, in addition to Fady Jameel, Hassan Jameel, Hisham Hamza, and Ghada Alsammanoudi.
On the occasion, George Richards, Director of Neighborhood Jameel, introduced that The Jameel Gallery anniversary celebration had been designated the inaugural occasion within the official lead-up to the 2029 UK-Saudi Yr of Tradition.
Opened in July 2006 following a significant refurbishment supported by the Jameel household, The Jameel Gallery has revived the V&A’s internationally famend assortment of Islamic artwork from the Center East. The Gallery launched a brand new method to show and interpretation, combining up to date exhibition design, bespoke instances, lighting, and multimedia sources to assist guests interact extra deeply with one of many world’s most important collections of Islamic artwork.
The Jameel Gallery’s assortment on the V&A consists of greater than 400 objects spanning ceramics, textiles, carpets, metalwork, woodwork, glass, and manuscripts, together with the Ardabil Carpet, the Minbar of Sultan Qaytbay, and a Fatimid rock crystal ewer. By the Gallery, these works are introduced not solely as historic objects, however as a part of a wider story of creative alternate, craftsmanship, and creativity throughout the Islamic world.
Throughout the Gallery’s refurbishment, the Jameel household supported a global touring exhibition of highlights of the V&A’s assortment, to deliver them to a wider world viewers. Between 2004 and 2006, the exhibition, Palace and Mosque: Islamic Artwork from the Victoria and Albert Museum, travelled to the Nationwide Gallery of Artwork in Washington, DC; Kimbell Artwork Museum in Fort Value, Texas; Setagaya Artwork Museum in Tokyo, Japan; and the Millennium Galleries in Sheffield, England.
Over the previous 20 years, the partnership between the Jameel household and the V&A has grown past the everlasting Gallery to help up to date commissions, acquisitions, fellowships, analysis, public programmes, and digital initiatives aiming to attach historic collections with up to date creative observe and new audiences.
A central a part of this collaboration is the Jameel Prize, established in 2009 by the V&A as a global award for up to date artwork and design impressed by Islamic tradition, historical past, society, and concepts, organised in partnership with Artwork Jameel. Throughout seven editions, the Jameel Prize has exhibited the work of 63 artists and designers from everywhere in the world, and toured to 22 venues globally. The Prize demonstrates the persevering with affect of Islamic cultural traditions on up to date artistic observe.
Moreover, the Jameel Fellowship Programme offers artists, designers, architects, photographers, and researchers with alternatives to undertake sustained analysis with the V&A’s collections. Residencies are provided to each native and worldwide artists from the Center East and the diaspora, and provides them the chance to go behind-the-scenes of the museum, look intently at objects and archives, and develop new traces of enquiry of their observe. Fellows have shared their work by means of shows, performances, and symposia, in addition to the Hidden Gems movie collection, which invitations them to debate a favorite object in The Jameel Gallery. Present Fellow, Adam Rouhana, is engaged on the V&A’s giant assortment of pictures from Palestine.
The Jameel Gallery has additionally turn out to be a platform for momentary shows and up to date interventions showcasing the wealthy traditions of Islamic artwork. Latest highlights embrace Tatreez: Palestinian Embroidery, which brings collectively historic Palestinian costume from the V&A set with up to date works by Aya Haidar and Zeid Hijazi, exploring embroidery as each a dwelling creative custom and an expression of cultural identification.
To mark The Jameel Gallery’s twentieth anniversary, the V&A has curated an intensive programme of actions, together with momentary shows, a convention, and public occasions. Earlier this 12 months, the Museum hosted Khayamiyya: Egyptian Tentmaking, bringing grasp tentmakers from Cairo’s historic Road of the Tentmakers to the V&A for demonstrations and workshops. In June 2026, the V&A opened Golden Threads: Gown from Saudi Arabia, a brief show in The Jameel Gallery displaying a uncommon group of early twentieth-century royal clothes just lately acquired by the V&A and exploring the craftsmanship, regional identification, and cultural significance of Saudi costume.
On 17 July 2026, the V&A hosted The Islamic Artwork Museumscape: The Jameel Gallery twentieth Anniversary Convention, bringing collectively museum professionals, curators, and artwork historians from main establishments all over the world to debate how the presentation and interpretation of Islamic artwork in museums has advanced over the previous 20 years.
Later this 12 months, as a part of the London Design Competition, Uzbek artist Aziza Kadyri will unveil a significant new site-specific fee for The Jameel Gallery, drawing on hardly ever displayed embroidered works from the V&A set by means of textile sculptures, hand-embroidered tapestries and interactive digital components.
Prince Turki Al-Faisal mentioned: “As ambassador to Her Majesty the nice late Queen Elizabeth II, at which period His Royal Highness The then-Prince of Wales named me chairman of the board of trustees of The Prince’s College of Conventional Arts — a privilege and honour that I think about the very best of my ambassadorship. 20 years in the past, my buddy Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel invited me to attend the inauguration of The Jameel Gallery. Mr Jameel has shaped his personal endeavours, with many optimistic developments having occurred since. Now, below His Majesty King Charles’ stewardship, the connection between Saudi Arabia and the UK is flourishing, with His Majesty serving because the principal hyperlink between the 2 international locations.”
Fady Jameel, Household Ambassador of Neighborhood Jameel and Chairman and Founding father of Artwork Jameel, who attended the reception, mentioned: “The Jameel Gallery on the V&A anchors the Jameel household’s long-standing dedication to supporting and celebrating Islamic artwork. Over the previous 20 years, the Gallery has turn out to be a platform for analysis, public engagement, and up to date artistic observe, displaying how historic creative traditions proceed to evolve. By my household’s partnership with the V&A, and Neighborhood Jameel’s wider work supporting conventional arts and craftsmanship, we stay dedicated to fostering partnerships that protect these traditions, whereas making certain they proceed to succeed in new audiences.”
Sir Tristram Hunt, Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, mentioned: “We stay extremely grateful to the Jameel household for his or her visionary help, with out which the realisation of The Jameel Gallery on the V&A in 2006 wouldn’t have been doable. Now in its twentieth 12 months, the Gallery continues to function one of many Museum’s most-admired areas, showcasing 400 objects from our Islamic Center East assortment, free to entry for all. The Jameel Programme on the V&A is a deeply valued alternative to discover and champion artwork and design from the Center East and North Africa, and our skilled curators are delighted to be delivering enhanced exercise for this 12 months, celebrating this necessary milestone within the historical past of the Gallery.”
Neighborhood Jameel has an nearly 20-year partnership with The King’s Basis College of Conventional Arts consists of the Jameel Homes of Conventional Arts, a community of colleges for craftsmanship in Cairo, Jeddah and Scotland, on the Dumfries Home property, headquarters of The King’s Basis.
Neighborhood Jameel’s dedication to the normal arts, with a give attention to the Arab world, combines sustaining and persevering with historic design and craft practices and offering sensible coaching and job creation alternatives for conventional artists and craftspeople to attain sustainable livelihoods, a significant precedence for Neighborhood Jameel amid a burgeoning Arab youth employment disaster.
By The Jameel Gallery and the broader Jameel Programme on the V&A, the partnership continues to help scholarship, cultural alternate, up to date creativity, and public engagement with the creative heritage of the Islamic world.
