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Salwa Mikdadi papers

Call Number

AD.MC.022

Dates

1960-2019, inclusive
; 1989-2009, bulk

Creator

Mikdadi, Salwa

Extent

20.5 Linear Feet in 49 boxes.

Language of Materials

The bulk of the contents of the collection are in English and Arabic.

Abstract

The Salwa Mikdadi papers consist of correspondence, biographical documents, photographs, and audio- and video-recordings, documenting the lives and works of modern Arab artists in the Middle East and in the diaspora, as well as materials that document museum exhibitions of the works of Arab artists in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Much of the materials originated from the activities of Mikdadi, an art historian and curator, as well as the non-profit organization that she founded, the International Council on Women Artists, whose aim was to promote and make more widely accessible the works of modern Arab artists.

Biographical note

Salwa Mikdadi is an independent curator and Associate Professor of the Practice of Art History at New York University Abu Dhabi, where she researches and teaches courses in the history of modern and contemporary art in the Arab world and offers courses in museum curatorial practice.

Mikdadi is the daughter of Palestinian historian Darwish al-Miqdadi and educator Rabiha al-Dajani, and grew up in Kuwait, where her father was assistant director of education for the nation until shortly before his death in 1961. She earned a bachelor's of arts from the American University of Beirut, where she first became interested in the works of modern Arab women artists, such as Saloua Raouda Choucair and Jumana el-Husseini. Upon her immigration to the United States in 1972, she was interested in curating exhibitions about the works of such artists, but found instead that she was often asked to create exhibitions about traditional forms of art associated with women, such as embroidery and costume. Her first significant opportunity to stage a comprehensive exhibition of modern women artists from the Arab world came when she was contacted by the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC in 1989. Out of these initial contacts came the exhibition "Forces of Change: Artists of the Arab World," which opened at that museum in February 1993, before subsequently travelling to other venues in Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, and Northern California.

In the meantime, Mikdadi had realized that there was a dearth of information on Arab artists, and in researching and assembling information for the exhibition, joined with other scholars and curators to found the International Council for Women in the Arts (ICWA). This non-profit organization, based at Mikdadi's home in Lafayette, California from 1989 to 2006, had as its purpose the creation of a substantial database of information about Arab women artists that could be freely shared with museums and scholars. In collecting a sizable amount of color slides, printed images, brochures from exhibitions, correspondence with artists and other related materials, they soon established themselves as a clearinghouse for publishers, authors, and others seeking images of such art that they could use for illustrations, book cover designs, and other purposes.

With the success of the exhibition "Forces of Change," as well as its resulting catalog, Mikdadi embarked upon other exhibitions of modern Arab art in the United States, such as "Rhythm and Form" (1996-1997), and "In/Visible," in which she selected the works of fifteen Arab-American artists for an inaugural exhibition at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan in 2005. During these years, Mikdadi also frequently consulted on projects in the Middle East, in particular in Jordan and Palestine, and curated the first Palestine Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2009.

In 2008, Mikdadi relocated to the United Arab Emirates, holding a number of positions in cultural organizations, including the Tourism and Culture Authority of the emirate of Abu Dhabi, where she established a training program for museum professionals. She has also served as a consultant and curator on numerous projects and exhibitions, such as "A Century in Flux" at the Sharjah Art Museum (2018-2023), which highlights works from the Barjeel Art Foundation. She taught at the Sorbonne University-Abu Dhabi in the post-graduate program in Art History and Museum Studies (2010-2014), and served as Executive Director of the Arts and Culture Program at the Emirates Foundation in Abu Dhabi (2009-2012).

Scope and Contents

The Salwa Mikdadi papers consist of correspondence, biographical documents, photographs, and audio- and video-recordings, documenting the lives and works of modern Arab artists in the Middle East and in the Arab diaspora, as well as materials that document museum exhibitions of the works of Arab artists in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Much of the materials originated from the activities of Mikdadi, an art historian and curator, as well as the non-profit organization that she founded, the International Council on Women Artists (or ICWA), whose aim was to promote and make more widely accessible the works of modern Arab artists.

The Salwa Mikdadi papers are grouped into several series based on the activities of the ICWA, as well as the formats of the materials. Chief among these groups are the dossiers on individual artists that Mikdadi began compiling prior to the formation of the ICWA, and which make up Series 1, "Artists files (individual)." Arranged alphabetically by name, these files often contain biographical information about a given artist, including information about his or her exhibitions, press coverage, resumes of their work, as well as correspondence between the artist and Mikdadi or her colleagues at the ICWA, and images of the artists' most representative works, often in the form of color photographic slides, but also as postcards, photo prints, tear sheets from magazines, or other formats. Taken together, these files provide a comprehensive resource about hundreds of artists, active from the mid-to-late 20th century into the first decade of the 21st century, and ranging from the well-known to the little-known, who either lived and practiced in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, or who had emigrated and were active in the diaspora, primarily in Europe and North America, but also in other parts of the world.

A similar series of files, Series 2, "Artists and Exhibitions (group)," contains materials about artists arranged by country or geographic region, with the difference being that since there may not have been as much information about a given artist, such materials were then grouped into files identified by an artist's country of origin. This series also contains files about galleries, exhibitions, and special projects as well, each of which often containing information about several artists.

Further materials related to the activities of the ICWA are grouped into Series 3. Included in this series are documents related to the administration of ICWA, including activity reports, newsletters, public relations materials, and databases of artists that they worked with or whose work they tracked. The sub-series for correspondence consists primarily of correspondence with artists, and with cultural and artistic organizations. Noteworthy in this series are files of correspondence with Queen Noor al-Hussein of Jordan, who headlined a benefit for the "Forces of Change" exhibition in Washington in 1993, and Princess Wijdan Ali of Jordan, an artist and patron of the arts who played a substantial role in supporting ICWA and its activities. Another sub-series for events and organizations groups together materials related to the role of ICWA or Mikdadi in promoting artistic events or collaborations with other cultural non-profit organizations. There is some overlap between organizations in which Mikdadi was active as a representative of ICWA, and those in which she was personally active, including educational and advocacy organizations that worked on behalf of Arab-Americans. The "Permissions" sub-series documents the role that ICWA played in licensing the use of works of art from Arab artists in publications. The final two sub-series, "Projects, research, and miscellaneous" and "Resources and subjects" contain materials about other projects beyond art exhibitions that Mikdadi or ICWA participated in, such as journal or encyclopedia articles, or reference works about art; as well as background materials used by Mikdadi in her research.

The next series, "Exhibitions," provides detailed documentation of the planning, design, construction, and reception of exhibitions curated by Mikdadi related to modern Arab art, most notably "Forces of Change" (1994-1996), but also "Rhythm and Form" (1996-1997), "Artists View: the Arab World" (1997), "In/Visible," one of the inaugural exhibitions of the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan (2005); and the first Palestine Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2009).

These include materials related to the conception, design, creation, and critical reception of several exhibitions of the works of Arab artists, the chief one being "Forces of Change." Other activities, such as the function of the ICWA as a clearinghouse for providing images of the works of contemporary Arab artists to publishers and the media, are documented in this series as well.

The remaining series of the collection are comprised of video and audio recordings, most of which are related to artists and events documented in the previous series, but grouped into separate series due to their format. Among these are interviews with artists conducted by Mikdadi, or others, in advance of the "Forces of Change" exhibition, as well as two films produced by ICWA about the exhibition: one that is a walk-through of the exhibition as it was installed in Washington, the other one being a more comprehensive review of several of the artists featured in it. Also included are recordings of interviews and events that took place in conjunction with the "Forces of Change" exhibition. Also included are a group of files, under "Other activities," documenting Mikdadi's role as a curator, educator, and arts administrator following her move to the United Arab Emirates in 2008, including her projects with the Emirates Foundation and the Tourism and Culture Authority of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

Conditions governing access

Portions of the Salwa Mikdadi papers that have been processed are open and available for use in the Archives and Special Collections department of the New York University Abu Dhabi Library. Portions that are currently being processed remain closed, pending completion of processing.

Conditions governing use

Unpublished as well as published content within the collection may be protected by copyright, and any uses of such material beyond what is commonly accepted as "fair use" require the express written permission of the copyright holder.

Preferred citation

[item], [folder title], [box/folder number], Salwa Mikdadi papers, MC-022, New York University Abu Dhabi Library, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Immediate source of acquisition

Gift of Salwa Mikdadi, 2018. with accretions in 2019.

Collection processed by

Brad Bauer, Robert Gordon, Muhammad Shehryar Hamid

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-12-21 14:31:31 +0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: English

Processing

Processed by Brad Bauer, Robert Gordon, and Muhammad Shehryar Hamid, 2017-2018.

Repository

NYU Abu Dhabi, Archives and Special Collections
NYU Abu Dhabi
New York University Abu Dhabi, C-2
P.O. 129188
Abu Dhabi
nyuad-asc-group@nyu.edu