I.1 Challenges of teaching, studying, and/or curating Islamic art and architecture in Canada
Sat Oct 29 / 9:00 – 10:30 / Great Hall, rm 1022, Hart House
chair /
- Gül Kale, Carleton University
This panel will examine the teaching/studying/curating Islamic art and architecture in Canada. Panelists will examine the reception of artwork, images, and news of the Islamic world and societies by students, scholars, and the public. One of the themes concerns the relation between museums and universities for learning. Teaching surveys of 'Islamic art' through museum websites is an example of these efforts. Another topic will be on the polemics of dealing with online sources, affordances, and the complex issues raised during in-class experiences. Some issues include the naming, spelling, and the flattening of content and context. For example, there is a significant focus on planned destruction of art and monuments across the Islamic world. Other topics will explore the challenges of teaching Islamic art and architecture within a global context and the impact of spatial features of museums on the display of Islamic art. This panel will also be a chance to discuss how art and architectural history taught and studied in the Canadian academic world can be more inclusive and critical regarding world cultures.
keywords: Islamic art and architecture, teaching, curating, online resources, museums
I.1.1 A Gallery of the Islamic World vs. a Gallery of the Middle East: Challenges and Possibilities
- Fahmida Suleman, Royal Ontario Museum
I have worked at the ROM for nearly four years now (the last two under pandemic restrictions and intermittent closures), and have come to realise the number of challenges ahead of me in making the collections more accessible and the displays more impactful for museum audiences. Many of the issues stem from the architecture of the gallery itself and the design choices taken in exhibiting the artefacts to accommodate the building’s structure. Other issues are tied to curatorial decisions on the themes and approaches selected for the displays, including planning a gallery of the Middle East as opposed to a gallery of the Islamic world. In this paper, I will share my experiences of reinstalling a brand-new gallery of the Islamic World at the British Museum in 2018 and discuss some of my current strategies for potential ways forward at the ROM.
keywords: curating, displays, museums, Islamic art, material culture
Fahmida Suleman is Curator of the Islamic World collections at the ROM and has over 14 years’ experience in curating exhibitions and museum displays, collections care and acquisitions, and public and institutional engagement. She was previously Phyllis Bishop Curator for the Modern Middle East at the British Museum for 10 years and her final project was the new installation of the Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic World in 2018. She is also Assistant Professor (status only/non-budgetary cross appointment) at the University of Toronto and Adjunct Professor at Queen’s University. She teaches courses and publishes on museum displays of Islamic art and material culture and topics on Islamic iconography. She is currently curating a forthcoming exhibition featuring the works of 25 contemporary women artists from across the Islamic world, provisionally titled Being and Belonging, which will open in July 2023.
I have worked at the ROM for nearly four years now (the last two under pandemic restrictions and intermittent closures), and have come to realize the number of challenges ahead of me in making the collections more accessible and the displays more impactful for museum audiences. Many of the issues stem from the architecture of the gallery itself and the design choices taken in exhibiting the artifacts to accommodate the building’s structure. Other issues are tied to curatorial decisions on the themes and approaches selected for the displays, including planning a gallery of the Middle East as opposed to a gallery of the Islamic world. In this paper, I will share my experiences of reinstalling a brand-new gallery of the Islamic World at the British Museum in 2018 and discuss some of my current strategies for potential ways forward at the ROM.
I.1.2 Reflections on Teaching with Online Museum Collections: Challenges and Opportunities
Ruba Kana’an, University of Toronto
The recent wave of building new specialized museums of “Islamic Art” and the re-installation of “Islamic Art” galleries in several major international museums was mostly accompanied by public-facing museum websites. These websites proved to be a rich resource for teaching introductory and survey courses of “Islamic art” as they provide high-quality images and accessible information about the collections as well as a selection of each museum’s prized objects. This article brings together first-hand observations on the challenges and opportunities of teaching with these online museum collections highlighting the uneven regimes of representation in museums of what is “Islamic art”, its regional assignations, taxonomies, as well as naming and labeling systems. The article also addresses the pedagogical implications of the architectures and affordances of online collections.
keywords: Islamic art, museum online collections, representation, website affordances, website architecture, classification rubrics, labels
Ruba Kana’an (DPhil, Oxford) is Assistant Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture at the University of Toronto Mississauga and the Graduate Department of Near and Middle East Civilizations (NMC) at the University of Toronto. Her research and publications focus on the intersections between art, artists, art production, and law in Muslim contexts. Her experience spans the worlds of academia, museums, architectural practice, and community-based art education.
I.1.3 Multi-Culturalism and Islamicate Arts
- Saygin Salgirli, University of British Columbia
How does one teach the arts of premodern multi-ethnic and multi-faith societies in a contemporary Canadian context when discussions of multiculturalism unintentionally encourage a conflation of past and present experiences and realities? This talk topples with this highly complex and challenging question with a specific focus on the arts of the Islamic world, which were not only produced in multi-ethnic and multi-faith settings, but were also widely circulated in Christian Europe. I argue that one dynamic that makes this question so challenging is a romanticized reimagination of the past as a golden age that embodies the solutions to the problems we are facing today. The talk presents a series of practical interventions I have developed over the years and hopes to encourage further discussion beyond the field of Islamic Art History.
Saygin Salgirli is an art and architectural historian of the Ottoman and the Mediterranean worlds, focusing on the late medieval and early modern periods. He teaches a range of courses from European medieval art to the arts of the Islamicate world, including the modern period. His current research explores the visualizations of the unseen and the invisible in early-modern Ottoman art.
