This July marked a significant milestone for London’s cultural landscape as the Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art at the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum celebrated its 20th anniversary. Opened in July 2006, the gallery was established to serve as the museum’s dedicated permanent home for the arts of the Islamic Middle East, bringing centuries of history, craftsmanship, and aesthetic innovation to the heart of South Kensington. To commemorate two decades of public engagement, academic research, and cultural exchange, the institution has spent the past year reflecting on its rich history through a dynamic series of new displays, live craft demonstrations, academic conferences, and public events supported by Community Jameel.
Today, the gallery remains a cornerstone of the V&A, bringing together approximately 400 exceptional objects originating from a vast geographic expanse stretching from Spain to Central Asia. Spanning a chronology from the 8th century to the present day, the permanent collection showcases an extraordinary diversity of mediums, including delicate ceramics, intricate carpets, masterful metalwork, sophisticated woodwork, fragile glass, and illuminated manuscripts. True to the V&A’s founding ethos, the gallery remains entirely free for all visitors, continuing to serve as a vital educational resource and a bridge between historic artistic traditions and contemporary global audiences.
The creation of the gallery two decades ago was made possible through the generous support of the Jameel family, marking the beginning of a profound and lasting institutional relationship with the V&A. This partnership expanded significantly in 2009 with the establishment of the Jameel Prize, a prestigious international award that investigates and celebrates the complex relationship between contemporary artistic practice and rich Islamic traditions. Throughout this anniversary year, this enduring partnership has been further illuminated through a series of public programmes and exhibitions that bridge the gap between ancient heritage and living artistry.
A Year of Celebration and Living Tradition
At the core of the twentieth-anniversary programming has been a commitment to living craft and making, bringing contemporary artisans directly into the gallery space to demonstrate traditional techniques alongside the historic objects that inspired them.
In May, coinciding with London Craft Week, the museum welcomed renowned Egyptian textile artist Hany Abd El-Kader. Abd El-Kader offered visitors a rare live demonstration of khayamiyya, the intricate traditional art of Egyptian cotton appliqué. The demonstration was part of a sold-out public talk introduced by Seif El Rashidi of the Barakat Trust. In addition to the public presentation, a small group of participants was given the opportunity to engage in a hands-on workshop led by the master craftsman, allowing them to create and take home their own pieces of khayamiyya.
The commemorative momentum continued into July, marking the exact anniversary month. On 17 July, the museum hosted "The Islamic Art Museumscape," a major academic conference designed to take the pulse of how cultural institutions worldwide engage with Islamic collections today. The gathering explored how curatorial themes, methodologies, and institutional trends have shifted and developed over the two decades since the Jameel Gallery first opened its doors. Later that same month, the museum hosted a vibrant Friday Late event titled "Body as a Vessel," produced in collaboration with Shubbak, which celebrated the rich and diverse landscape of contemporary Arab and Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) creativity.
As the year progressed into September, the gallery unveiled a striking new installation by artist Aziza Kadyri, which weaves gracefully through the institution’s architectural arches as part of the London Design Festival. Kadyri’s collaborator, master embroidery artist Yulduz Mukhiddinova, traveled from Uzbekistan to lead immersive suzani embroidery sessions both within the gallery spaces and during the museum’s "Awakenings" Friday Late event. These hands-on sessions engaged roughly 80 participants in learning traditional stitchwork, complemented by a live performance from Uzbek singer-songwriter Laylo.
Twenty Years On: A Curatorial Reflection
Reflecting on the milestone, Mariam Rosser-Owen, Curator of the Middle East in the V&A’s Asia Department, shared insights into the collection’s deep history and the evolution of the gallery space.
"As curators of Middle Eastern art, we are so fortunate to be able to work with one of the best collections of Islamic art in the world," Rosser-Owen noted. "The collecting history is so interesting as well. Collecting of Middle Eastern art began in the 1850s, when the Museum was founded, to improve British design. Over the next century the V&A’s holdings of Islamic art grew to encompass outstanding and world-famous objects. At the same time, these holdings played a real part in inspiring some of Britain’s greatest artists and designers, including William Morris."
Rosser-Owen also highlighted the importance of the museum’s archival holdings and provenance records in preserving the context of the collections. The physical space occupied by the gallery today has a long history of display, having originally opened in 1950 as the museum’s first dedicated location to showcase the finest highlights of its Islamic holdings. Though the space underwent a refresh in the 1970s, the formation of a dedicated Middle East curatorial section in 2002 made a comprehensive overhaul necessary. The 2006 renovation, made possible by the Jameel family, allowed the V&A’s world-class collections to be presented in a modern, engaging, and aesthetically appropriate environment.
Speaking on the broader cultural significance of the milestone, Fady Jameel, Family Ambassador of Community Jameel and Chairman and Founder of Art Jameel, emphasized the family’s ongoing dedication to cultural preservation.
"The Jameel Gallery at the V&A anchors the Jameel family’s long-standing commitment to supporting and celebrating Islamic art," Jameel stated. "Over the past 20 years, the gallery has become a platform for research, public engagement, and contemporary creative practice, showing how historic artistic traditions continue to evolve. Through my family’s partnership with the V&A, and Community Jameel’s wider work supporting traditional arts and craftsmanship, we remain committed to fostering partnerships that preserve these traditions, while ensuring they reach new audiences."
Five Objects Not to Miss
For visitors returning to the gallery or exploring its treasures for the first time, curators highlight five standout works that encapsulate the breadth and brilliance of the collection.
At the center of the gallery rests the iconic Ardabil Carpet, crafted in 1539–1540 for the shrine of Shaykh Safi al-Din in northwestern Iran. Widely recognized as the world’s oldest dated carpet, it is housed within a specially constructed central enclosure that allows visitors to view the monumental textile laid out flat on the floor as originally intended. To protect its delicate natural dyes from fading, the carpet is illuminated for ten minutes on the hour and half-hour.
Another exceptional highlight is the carved rock crystal ewer, produced in Cairo between 1000 and 1050 for the treasuries of the Fatimid rulers. The vessel is celebrated for its masterfully thin carved walls, featuring dynamic motifs of birds of prey swooping on horned animals amidst swirling palmette scrolls.
Equally striking is the towering wooden minbar made for Sultan Qa’itbay in Cairo between 1468 and 1496. This architectural pulpit is constructed from hundreds of meticulously assembled geometric pieces of carved wood and ivory, demonstrating the pinnacle of Mamluk woodworking artistry.
Welcoming visitors at the entrance of the gallery is a shimmering lustreware bowl with a ship, produced in Málaga, Spain, between 1425 and 1550. The piece features a sailing vessel at its center, with a metallic glaze that shifts and glistens as viewers move around it.
Finally, a newly curated display at the back of the gallery features pioneering printmakers from 20th-century Iran. Drawn from a 2023 gift by Tarlan Rafiee and Yashar Samimi Mofakham, the display highlights leading figures of Iran’s pre-revolutionary modern art movement who worked between the 1950s and 1970s, including an untitled 1975 screenprint by Nasser Ovissi, a prominent pioneer of the Saqqakhaneh movement.
Looking Ahead
The anniversary celebrations will continue later this year. In November 2026, during Islamic Art Week, artist Mariam Ashraf will conduct a public demonstration of traditional plaster carving. This intricate technique was historically used to create decorative architectural windows featuring coloured glass, echoing the 19th-century Cairene examples housed within the gallery. The demonstration will also be live-streamed to reach a global audience.
Two decades after opening its doors, the Jameel Gallery continues to forge vital connections between the historic past and the living present, serving as a dynamic intersection of extraordinary material culture, traditional craftsmanship, and contemporary artistic voices.
The Jameel Gallery (Islamic Middle East, Room 42) is located at V&A South Kensington. Admission is free, and no advance booking is required for regular gallery visits.