This July marked a major 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 to the public in July 2006, the gallery has spent the last two decades serving as the museum’s premier home for the arts of the Islamic Middle East. To mark the anniversary, the institution has curated a vibrant year-long retrospective blending new contemporary displays, live craft demonstrations, public conversations, and academic symposia, while looking forward to future programming that continues to bridge historic artistic traditions with modern creative practices.
Today, the gallery houses an extraordinary collection of approximately 400 objects originating from regions spanning from Spain to Central Asia, encompassing a vast chronological scope from the 8th century to the present day. Within its bright and carefully designed rooms, visitors can encounter a diverse array of media—including ceramics, intricate carpets, finely wrought metalwork, woodwork, delicate glass, and illuminated manuscripts—displayed side by side. True to the V&A’s founding mission, the gallery remains entirely free for everyone to visit, welcoming millions of domestic and international visitors to engage with the rich heritage of Islamic art and design.
The realization of the gallery two decades ago was made possible through the generous support of the Jameel family, marking the inception of a lasting and fruitful relationship with the V&A. This partnership deepened significantly in 2009 with the establishment of the Jameel Prize, an influential international award that explores and celebrates the dynamic relationship between contemporary artistic practice and Islamic tradition. Supported by Community Jameel, the anniversary milestone has provided an opportunity to reflect on these achievements through an expansive public program designed to animate the gallery spaces with living traditions.
A Year of Celebration
At the heart of the twentieth-anniversary celebrations has been a conscious effort to bring living craft and traditional making techniques directly into the gallery, allowing contemporary artisans to converse, quite literally, with the historic objects that inspired their practices.
The festivities began in earnest during May, aligning with London Craft Week, when the museum welcomed celebrated Egyptian textile artist Hany Abd El-Kader. Abd El-Kader offered live demonstrations of khayamiyya—the intricate traditional art of cotton applique—during a sold-out talk introduced by Seif El Rashidi of the Barakat Trust. In addition to the public demonstration, a select group of participants had the rare opportunity to engage in a hands-on workshop led by the artist, allowing them to create and take home their own pieces of khayamiyya.
The momentum continued into July, hitting the exact anniversary date on July 17 with "The Islamic Art Museumscape." This scholarly conference brought together international museum professionals and academics to take the pulse of how institutions worldwide curate, interpret, and engage with Islamic collections today, mapping out how themes, methodologies, and curatorial trends have evolved over the twenty years since the gallery first opened its doors. Later that month, the anniversary celebrations infused contemporary creative scenes with the V&A’s "Friday Late with Shubbak: Body as a Vessel," an energetic event celebrating contemporary Arab and SWANA (South West Asia and North Africa) creativity.
As autumn arrived, the museum partnered with the London Design Festival in September to unveil a striking new installation by artist Aziza Kadyri, whose contemporary work weaves gracefully through the gallery’s historic architectural arches. Kadyri’s collaborator, master embroidery artist Yulduz Mukhiddinova, traveled from Uzbekistan to lead specialized suzani embroidery sessions both inside the gallery and at the museum’s "Awakenings Friday Late" event. Alongside Mukhiddinova’s workshops, where roughly 80 attendees learned traditional stitching techniques, Uzbek singer-songwriter Laylo performed live, creating an immersive cultural experience for museumgoers.
Twenty Years On
Reflecting on the milestone, Mariam Rosser-Owen, Curator of the Middle East in the V&A’s Asia Department, highlighted the profound historical depth and institutional significance of the collection.
"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 emphasized the importance of the museum’s archival holdings in preserving the provenance of these collections. The physical space occupied by the gallery today dates back to 1950, when it was first established as a dedicated venue to showcase the finest highlights of the collection. Although the space underwent a refresh in the 1970s, by the time the museum formed its specialized Middle East curatorial section in 2002, the galleries were in dire need of a comprehensive overhaul. The 2006 renovation, made possible by the Jameel family, transformed the presentation, allowing the V&A’s world-class Islamic art collections to shine in an architectural setting worthy of their caliber.
Echoing these sentiments, Fady Jameel, Family Ambassador of Community Jameel and Chairman and Founder of Art Jameel, underscored the broader cultural mission behind the partnership.
"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 continue to reach new audiences."
Five Objects Not to Miss
For visitors exploring the newly refreshed displays or returning to the gallery after an absence, curators highlight several standout masterworks that define the breadth and brilliance of the collection.
At the center of the gallery rests the legendary Ardabil Carpet, created in 1539–1540 for the shrine of Shaykh Safi al-Din in Ardabil, northwestern Iran. Widely recognized as the world’s oldest dated carpet, a specialized enclosure was constructed at the heart of the gallery when it opened in 2006 to display the textile flat on the floor, exactly as intended by its makers. To protect its fragile natural dyes and preserve its vivid colors for future generations, the carpet is illuminated for ten minutes on the hour and half-hour.
Another monumental highlight is the rock crystal ewer, carved in Cairo between 1000 and 1050 for the imperial treasuries of the Fatimid rulers. Meticulously cut from a single piece of solid rock crystal, the vessel features intricate reliefs of birds of prey swooping on horned animals amidst swirling palmette scrolls.
Standing tall within the gallery is the magnificent minbar made for Sultan Qa’itbay in Cairo between 1468 and 1496. This towering pulpit used for Friday sermons is a triumph of woodworking, featuring complex geometric patterns assembled from hundreds of tiny carved pieces of wood and ivory.
Near the gallery entrance, visitors are greeted by a striking lustreware bowl with a ship, crafted in Málaga, Spain, between 1425 and 1550. The bowl depicts a vessel sailing across its center, utilizing a specialized metallic lustre glaze that shimmers dynamically as viewers move around it.
Finally, a dedicated case at the back of the gallery features a new selection of 20th-century Iranian prints, drawn from a generous 2023 gift by Tarlan Rafiee and Yashar Samimi Mofakham. Showcasing four leading figures of Iran’s pre-revolutionary modern art movement who worked between the 1950s and 1970s, the display includes an untitled 1975 screenprint by Nasser Ovissi, celebrated as a pioneer of Iran’s influential Saqqakhaneh movement.
Still to Come
The anniversary programming extends into the autumn months. In November 2026, coinciding with Islamic Art Week, artist Mariam Ashraf will conduct a public demonstration focusing on the ancient art of plaster carving—the specialized technique utilized to craft decorative window frames embedded with colored glass, reminiscent of the 19th-century Cairene examples housed within the gallery. This demonstration will also be broadcast via live stream to ensure global accessibility.
Twenty years after its inception, The Jameel Gallery continues to function as a vital bridge connecting the historic past with the living present, bringing together extraordinary material culture, traditional craftsmanship, and contemporary artistic voices under one roof.
The Jameel Gallery (Islamic Middle East, Room 42) is located at V&A South Kensington. Admission is entirely free, and no advance booking is required for visitors wishing to explore the collections.