يقع مركز الفنون والثقافة التابع لمعهد الشرق الأوسط (MEI) عند تقاطع الثقافة والسياسة، ويوفر منصة لفهم أعمق للشرق الأوسط من خلال عدسة الإنتاج الثقافي الغني للمنطقة.
قم بزيارة معرض الفنون MEI
المعرض مفتوح للجمهور الجمهور أيام الأسبوع من الساعة 10 صباحًا حتى 5 مساءً (مغلق في أيام العطلات الفيدرالية). يُنصح الزوار بالتسجيل لزيارة محددة الوقت عبر الرابط أدناه، ولكن الزوار بدون حجز مسبق مرحب بهم أيضًا.
يستضيف MEI مجموعة متنوعة من البرامج العامة بما في ذلك أيام مفتوحة في المعرض، وحلقات نقاش، وعروض موسيقية ومسرحية، وعروض كوميدية، وعروض أفلام، وغير ذلك الكثير.
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.
استكشف مكتبة عمان في معهد الشرق الأوسط
يضم معهد الشرق الأوسط (MEI) واحدة من أكبر المجموعات المكتبية في الولايات المتحدة المخصصة للشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا، بما في ذلك الخرائط والكتب النادرة والمستنفدة باللغة الإنجليزية والعديد من اللغات الإقليمية.
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...
Sadu, a traditional weaving practice shaped by nomadic desert life and the ingenuity of women makers, translates generations of knowledge into disciplined bands of vivid geometry. Historically woven from sheep and camel wool for tents and furnishings, Sadu’s motifs form a visual language of movement, memory, and identity—elevating a practical...
Often referred to as the “Andy Warhol of Marrakech,” Hassan Hajjaj is known for vibrant and playful work that fuses fashion photography, pop culture, music, video, and traditional North African aesthetics. In Omar Offendum, the celebrated Syrian-American rapper stands confidently atop a Coca-Cola bin and a Louis Vuitton box, draped...
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
معرض جديد في معرض الفنون التابع لمعهد الشرق الأوسط بعنوان "الفن الشعبي العربي: بين الشرق والغرب" يقدم تذكيراً في الوقت المناسب بأنه على الرغم من الصراع والاضطرابات في المنطقة، هناك ثقافة حيوية ومتنوعة وعالمية تزدهر في جميع أنحاء الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا.
Maximal Miniatures: A Contemporary Take on a Centuries-Old Persian Art Form
معرض "المنمنمات القصوى" (Maximal Miniatures)، وهو مجموعة منسقة معروضة في معرض MEI حتى 23 مايو 2025، يهتم بالطرق التي أعاد بها الفنانون المعاصرون ابتكار فن المنمنمات الفارسية مع طرح أسئلة جديدة في أذهانهم.
NYT Bestselling Author Kwame Alexander on the Power of Literature and Poetry to Bring Us Together
ينضم الشاعر والمنتج والمؤلف الشهير كوامي ألكسندر، الذي تصدرت مؤلفاته قائمة أكثر الكتب مبيعًافي نيويورك تايمز،إلى المضيفة الضيفة لين سنيج لمناقشة قوة سرد القصص والتقاطع بين الفن والتغيير الاجتماعي. يسترجع ألكسندر تجربته الأخيرة في التحدث في معرض الرياض الدولي للكتاب 2024 في المملكة العربية السعودية، ويشاركنا أفكاره حول المشهد الأدبي في المملكة، والرغبة المتزايدة في قراءة القصص العالمية، وكيف يمكن للكتب والشعر أن يكونا جسورًا بين الثقافات.
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