MEI’s Arts and Culture Center sits at the intersection of culture and policy, providing a platform for a deeper understanding of the Middle East through the lens of the region’s rich cultural output.
Visit the MEI Art Gallery
The Gallery is open to the public weekdays from 10am to 5pm (closed for federal holidays). Visitors are encouraged to register for a timed visit at the link below, but walk-ins are also welcome.
MEI hosts a diverse range of public programming including Gallery open houses, panel discussions, music and dramatic performances, comedy shows, film screenings, and more.
Join us to see our latest exhibition, Beyond the Weave: Contemporary Dialogues with AlSadu, at the upcoming First Friday Open House as part of Art Walk Dupont.
The Living Thread: Sadu Weaving and the Role of Cultural Institutions in Keeping Heritage Alive
Lunch & Panel Discussion | A panel conversation exploring how Sadu weaving, a disappearing, centuries-old craft, can thrive and evolve in a contemporary context.
Explore the Oman Library at MEI
MEI hosts one of the largest library collections in the United States dedicated to the Middle East and North Africa, including maps and rare and out of print books in English and many regional languages.
MEI was honored to welcome H.E. Sheikh Rashid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa for a special visit to the Institute. A pioneering contemporary artist and one of the Gulf region’s most influential cultural leaders, Sheikh Rashid has dedicated more than five decades to advancing the arts in Bahrain and beyond. As Chairman of...
“Code of the Loom bridges the ancient patterns of Sadu weaving with the possibilities of modern software.” - Salem AlSalem, Artist Salem AlSalem, is a Kuwait-based multidisciplinary artist and composer working across sound, new media, and installation art, exploring the relationship between technology, memory, and human interaction. In The Code of...
Amid the ongoing war, Israeli strikes on Lebanon have caused extensive damage to cultural monuments, historical sites, and other symbols of the country’s heritage. Despite efforts by the Lebanese government to protect these landmarks, many have suffered significant architectural destruction. In her discussion of this form of “cultural warfare,” Hadani...
Fatema AlBader is an artist and educator whose practice, across watercolor, acrylic, animation, and digital illustration, explores language, heritage, and human connection. Stories of Our Sadu presents eight watercolor journal entries documenting the artist’s journey with Sadu. Created during group workshops, the sketches trace her evolving relationship with this ancestral craft,...
Join MEI’s Arts and Culture Center for an evening of comedy, storytelling, and community, presented in partnership with Rola Z. LIVE at MEI: Voices from the Arab Diaspora brings together uplifting stories and comedy inspired by the rich tradition of Middle Eastern oral narrative. Arab American storytellers and comedians will take the stage...
Abdulaziz Shaheen AlRabea’s work centers on film photography, experimental printing, and the materiality of memory. Tales in Stone features 144 cement blocks, each imprinted with a black-and-white photograph from the artist’s archive taken in Kuwait and Egypt, echoing the rhythmic geometry of Sadu weaving. By shifting from woven textiles to...
“Through this experiment, I attempted to create new Sadu patterns inspired by the writings and stories I composed, as well as my conversations with the Kuwaiti Sadu weavers. In doing so, I developed patterns that narrate these stories in a new way, using my freeform Arabic calligraphy along with other...
Ali AlYousefi is an artist and architectural researcher whose practice blends visual art, design, and writing to reflect on the built environment, systems of order, and the stories embedded in urban life. Forest of Shapes and Safsafa are inspired by the Shajara pattern in traditional Sadu weaving, a section where...
Munirah AlShami is a multimedia artist and creative scientist whose practice blends traditional craft with emerging technologies, working at the intersection of cultural heritage, sustainability, and innovation. Ghizlan is a progressive reinterpretation and reimagining of the divider wall found in traditional Bedouin tents, where Sadu weaving originated. The tent wall,...
“Where the desert meets the sea; the shore is an ebb/flow of knowledge, history, and life. The sea blankets the desert, and an eternal osmosis happens. The sea does not crash into the shore, they are in a constant dance.” - Jasem AlSanea, Artist Jasem AlSanea is a multidisciplinary artist...
Founded in 1978, AlSadu Society is a weaver-led nonprofit dedicated to safeguarding Kuwait’s textile heritage. Its work traces the evolution of Sadu weaving—from Bedouin nomadic traditions to contemporary practice—while honoring the knowledge embedded in the craft. Reestablished in 1991 as an artisan-owned cooperative, the Society treats heritage as a living...
The Middle East Institute Arts and Culture Center was honored to open its latest exhibition, Beyond the Weave: Contemporary Dialogues with AlSadu, in a special evening celebrating Kuwait’s rich textile heritage and the enduring power of cultural exchange.Curated by the AlSadu Society, an organization dedicated to preserving and advancing Kuwait’s...
The news from Lebanon reads like a litany of loss. Since the war began more than two months ago, not only have 2,882 people been killed and 8,768 wounded, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, but once again multiple heritage sites — especially those in the south — have been damaged and destroyed. Indeed, Lebanese heritage, inexorably linked to its peoples, shares in their vulnerability and suffering.
A Moveable Feast of MENA Pop Art at the MEI Gallery
A new exhibition at the Middle East Institute Art Gallery called Arab Pop Art: Between East and West offers a timely reminder that in spite of the conflict and turmoil in the region, there is a lively, vibrant, and cosmopolitan culture at play throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
Maximal Miniatures: A Contemporary Take on a Centuries-Old Persian Art Form
The Maximal Miniatures exhibition, a curated collection on display at MEI’s gallery until May 23, 2025, is interested in the ways in which contemporary artists have reinvented the Persian miniature genre with new questions in mind.
NYT Bestselling Author Kwame Alexander on the Power of Literature and Poetry to Bring Us Together
Renowned poet, producer, and New York Times bestselling author Kwame Alexander joins guest host Lyne Sneige to discuss the power of storytelling and the intersection of art and social change. Looking back on his recent experience speaking at the 2024 Riyadh International Book Fair in Saudi Arabia, Alexander shares his reflections on the Kingdom’s literary scene, the growing appetite for global narratives, and how books and poetry can serve as bridges between cultures.
Make a Donation to the MEI Art Gallery
Support this unique platform for the exhibition of contemporary art from the Middle East in Washington, D.C.
