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 past 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 calendar featuring new displays, live craft demonstrations, academic conversations, and public programmes designed to honour the past while looking forward to the future of the space.
Today, the gallery brings together approximately 400 extraordinary objects originating from regions spanning from Spain to Central Asia, dating from the 8th century right up to the present day. Ceramics, intricate carpets, finely wrought metalwork, delicate woodwork, historic glass, and rare manuscripts sit side by side within the exhibition space. True to the V&A’s mission of public access and education, the gallery remains entirely free for everyone to visit, continuing a long-standing tradition of cultural exchange and public enrichment.
The creation of the gallery 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, an influential international award that explores the dynamic relationship between contemporary artistic practice and rich Islamic traditions. Throughout this anniversary year, with additional support from Community Jameel, the museum has reflected on this heritage through high-profile events, academic conferences, and public celebrations.
A Year of Celebration
Making and contemporary craft have stood at the very heart of the anniversary year, successfully bridging the gap between living traditions and the historic museum pieces that inspired them.
During London Craft Week in May, the gallery welcomed celebrated Egyptian textile artist Hany Abd El-Kader. He treated visitors to a live demonstration of khayamiyya, the intricate traditional art of cotton appliqué. The demonstration was part of a sold-out talk introduced by Seif El Rashidi of the Barakat Trust. A small, fortunate group of visitors also had the unique opportunity to participate in a hands-on workshop led by Hany, allowing them to create and take home their own piece of khayamiyya.
The celebrations reached a temporal peak on July 17, exactly twenty years to the day since the gallery first opened its doors. To mark the date, the museum hosted The Islamic art Museumscape, a major conference designed to take the pulse of how cultural institutions around the world engage with Islamic collections today. The gathering explored how curatorial themes, trends, and methodologies have evolved and developed over the two decades since the gallery’s inception. Later that month, the anniversary momentum continued with a special Friday Late event titled Body as a Vessel, produced in collaboration with Shubbak to celebrate contemporary Arab and SWANA (South West Asian and North African) creativity.
By September, the gallery’s arches played host to a striking new site-specific installation by artist Aziza Kadyri for 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. Accompanied by a performance from Uzbek singer-songwriter Laylo, approximately 80 participants had the chance to learn traditional stitches firsthand from a master artisan.
Twenty Years On
Reflecting on the milestone, Mariam Rosser-Owen, Curator of the Middle East in the V&A’s Asia Department, noted the exceptional nature of the institution’s holdings and their deep historical roots.
"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 explained. "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 documentation, which preserves vital information regarding the provenance of these historic collections. She noted that the physical space occupied by the gallery today originally opened in 1950 as the museum’s first dedicated location to showcase the absolute best of its Islamic collection in one cohesive environment. Although the gallery underwent a refresh in the 1970s, by the time the V&A established a dedicated curatorial section for Middle East specialists in 2002, the spaces were in urgent need of a comprehensive overhaul. The transformative renovation in 2006, made possible by the Jameel family, finally allowed the V&A’s world-class collections to shine in a setting worthy of their historical and artistic significance.
What the Gallery Means to Us
Fady Jameel, Family Ambassador of Community Jameel and Chairman and Founder of Art Jameel, emphasized the enduring vision behind the family’s philanthropic commitment to the institution.
"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 returning to the gallery or discovering its treasures for the first time, curators recommend starting with five standout items that capture the breadth and brilliance of the collection.
At the very top of the list is The Ardabil Carpet, crafted in 1539–1540 for the shrine of Shaykh Safi al-Din in Ardabil, north-west Iran. Widely recognized as the world’s oldest dated carpet, a specialized conservation case was constructed at the absolute centre of the gallery in 2006 so that the monumental textile could be displayed flat on the floor, exactly as originally intended. To protect the delicate dyes from light damage, the carpet is illuminated for ten minutes on the hour and half-hour.
Another unmissable masterpiece is the rock crystal ewer, carved in Cairo between 1000 and 1050 for the treasuries of the Fatimid rulers. A close inspection reveals intricately sculpted birds of prey swooping upon horned animals amidst swirling palmette scrolls, all fashioned from a single piece of crystal.
Visitors are also consistently drawn to the towering minbar made for Sultan Qa’itbay in Cairo between 1468 and 1496. This architectural pulpit features complex geometric patterns assembled from hundreds of tiny, individually carved pieces of wood and ivory.
Near the entrance, a lustreware bowl with a ship, produced in Málaga, Spain, between 1425 and 1450, greets incoming guests. The vessel depicts a sailing ship crossing its centre, its metallic lustre glaze shifting and shimmering as the viewer moves around it.
Finally, located in a case at the rear of the gallery, a new selection of 20th-century Iranian prints highlights a 2023 gift to the museum by Tarlan Rafiee and Yashar Samimi Mofakham. The display features four leading figures of Iran’s pre-revolutionary modern art movement who worked actively between the 1950s and 1970s, including an untitled 1975 screenprint by Nasser Ovissi, a pioneer of the influential Saqqakhaneh movement.
Still to Come
The anniversary celebrations will continue into November 2026. During Islamic Art Week, artist Mariam Ashraf is scheduled to demonstrate the complex traditional art of plaster carving—the precise historical technique used to create decorative architectural windows set with coloured glass, similar to the 19th-century examples from Cairo currently housed in the gallery. This demonstration will also be broadcast via live stream to engage global audiences.
Two decades after opening its doors, The Jameel Gallery continues to illuminate deep connections between the past and the present, successfully uniting extraordinary historical objects, living craft traditions, 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.