This July marks a significant milestone for London’s cultural landscape as The Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) celebrates its twentieth anniversary. Since its grand opening in July 2006, the gallery has stood as the V&A’s premier home for the arts of the Islamic Middle East, housing a breathtaking collection that spans over a millennium of human creativity. To mark two decades of public engagement, scholarship, and artistic exchange, the institution has spent the past year curating a vibrant programme of new displays, live craft demonstrations, public conversations, and international events, while looking ahead to future initiatives that continue to bridge historical heritage with contemporary practice.
Today, the gallery brings together approximately 400 extraordinary objects originating from regions stretching all the way from Spain to Central Asia. Encompassing works produced from the 8th century right up to the modern era, the space offers visitors a panoramic view of Islamic artistic achievement. Delicate ceramics, intricate carpets, masterful metalwork, sophisticated woodwork, historic glass, and illuminated manuscripts sit side by side within the gallery space. True to the V&A’s founding mission, the gallery remains entirely free for everyone to visit, ensuring that these world-class collections stay accessible to the public.
The realization of the gallery two decades ago was made possible through the generous support of the Jameel family, a partnership that marked the beginning of a profound and lasting relationship with the museum. This collaboration deepened significantly in 2009 with the establishment of the Jameel Prize, an influential international award designed to explore and celebrate the dynamic relationship between contemporary artistic practice and rich Islamic traditions. Throughout this anniversary year, with additional support from Community Jameel, the museum has rolled out a series of celebratory events aimed at honoring the past while actively championing living traditions.
A Year of Celebration and Living Craft
Making and craft have served as the emotional and intellectual core of the anniversary programming, explicitly designed to bring living traditions directly into the gallery spaces alongside the historic artifacts that inspired them.
The celebrations gained momentum in May during London Craft Week, when the museum welcomed renowned Egyptian textile artist Hany Abd El-Kader. During a sold-out public talk introduced by Seif El Rashidi of the Barakat Trust, Abd El-Kader demonstrated khayamiyya, the intricate and traditional art of cotton appliqué practiced by the famed tentmakers of Cairo. In addition to the demonstration, a small group of participants was given the rare opportunity to take part in a hands-on workshop led by the master artist, allowing them to create and take home their own pieces of traditional khayamiyya.
The anniversary reached its official calendar date on July 17, marking twenty years to the day since the gallery first opened its doors to the public. To commemorate the occasion, the museum hosted "The Islamic Art Museumscape," a major academic conference that gathered international experts to take the pulse of how museums around the world curate, interpret, and care for Islamic collections today. The conference examined how key themes, museological trends, and institutional responsibilities have evolved over the two decades since the Jameel Gallery was first established. Later that same month, the celebrations continued with 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.
The autumn season brought further creative interventions, most notably during the London Design Festival in September. The gallery welcomed a striking new site-specific installation by artist Aziza Kadyri, which weaves gracefully through the historic architectural arches of the space. Kadyri’s project was developed in close collaboration with embroidery artist Yulduz Mukhiddinova, who traveled specifically from Uzbekistan to lead specialized suzani embroidery sessions both inside the gallery and at the museum’s "Awakenings" Friday Late event. Alongside these workshops, Uzbek singer-songwriter Laylo delivered a captivating live performance, while approximately 80 participants had the hands-on opportunity to learn traditional stitches from a master craftsperson.
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 institutional evolution.
"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, which preserve detailed provenance records for the collections. The physical space occupied by the gallery today has a long history within the South Kensington campus, having originally opened in 1950 as a dedicated venue to showcase the finest highlights of the Islamic collection for the first time. Although the rooms underwent a refresh during the 1970s, the formation of a dedicated curatorial section for Middle East specialists in 2002 made it clear that a major overhaul was necessary. Thanks to the generosity and vision of the Jameel family, the comprehensive renovation completed in 2006 allowed the V&A’s world-class holdings to be displayed in a modern, attractive setting suited to their profound historical and aesthetic importance.
Echoing these sentiments, Fady Jameel, Family Ambassador of Community Jameel and Chairman and Founder of Art Jameel, reflected on the enduring legacy of 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 gallery—whether discovering the space for the first time or returning after a lengthy absence—curators highlight several foundational masterpieces that define the visitor experience.
At the heart of the gallery rests the iconic Ardabil Carpet, created 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 massive custom display case was constructed at the centre of the gallery when it opened in 2006, allowing the textile to be viewed horizontally, exactly as its makers originally intended. To protect its delicate historical dyes from degradation, the carpet is illuminated for strict ten-minute intervals on the hour and half-hour.
Another unmissable highlight is the rare rock crystal ewer, carved in Cairo between 1000 and 1050 for the imperial treasuries of the Fatimid rulers. Close inspection reveals extraordinary craftsmanship, featuring birds of prey swooping down on horned animals amidst swirling palmette scrolls, all cut seamlessly from a single piece of solid rock crystal.
The gallery also houses the towering minbar made for Sultan Qa’itbay in Cairo between 1468 and 1496. This monumental wooden pulpit features complex geometric patterns assembled meticulously from hundreds of small, individually carved pieces of wood and ivory.
Near the gallery entrance, visitors are greeted by a shimmering lustreware bowl with a ship motif, produced in Málaga, Spain, between 1425 and 1550. The piece depicts a sailing vessel crossing its center, its specialized metallic glaze creating a luminous effect that shifts as viewers move around it.
Finally, a dedicated case situated at the rear of the gallery features a fresh selection of twentieth-century Iranian prints, drawn from a generous 2023 gift by Tarlan Rafiee and Yashar Samimi Mofakham. The display highlights four leading figures of Iran’s pre-revolutionary modern art movement who worked actively between the 1950s and 1970s. Among them is an untitled 1975 screenprint by Nasser Ovissi, celebrated as a pioneer of Iran’s influential Saqqakhaneh movement.
Looking Ahead
As the twentieth-anniversary year draws toward its close, the programming continues. In November, coinciding with Islamic Art Week, artist Mariam Ashraf will perform a live-streamed public demonstration of traditional plaster carving—the precise technique historically used to construct decorative architectural windows set with colored glass, such as the nineteenth-century examples originating from Cairo that are permanently housed in the collection.
Twenty years after its initial opening, The Jameel Gallery continues to illuminate deep connections between the historical past and the living present, bringing extraordinary artifacts, traditional craftsmanship, and new artistic voices into fruitful dialogue.
Visitors wishing to explore the space can find The Jameel Gallery (Room 42, Islamic Middle East) at V&A South Kensington. Admission to the gallery is entirely free, and no advance booking is required.