9 Aug_ICAE_Book_with PT Notes

26 GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES
ON THE ISLAMIC CREATIVE ECONOMY
FEATURED INTERVIEW
Hanaa Malallah
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recieved
Venetia
Porter
Venetia Porter is
Curator of Islamic and
Contemporary Middle East
Art in the Department
of the Middle East at
the British Museum.
She is responsible for
the collection of Islamic
Art, including the Arab
World and Turkey, as well
as the development of
modern and contemporary
Middle Eastern art. She
was previously curator
of Islamic coins in the
Department of Coins
and Medals. She gained
a degree in Arabic and
Persian and an MPhil
in Islamic Art from the
University of Oxford,
followed by a PhD from
the University of Durham.
In 2012, she curated the
exhibition “Hajj: Journey
to the heart of Islam” at
the British Museum.
What attracted you to study Islamic Art?
I lived in Lebanon when I was little. I studied
Islamic Art at university and my PhD was
about Medieval Yemen. I began to study
Islamic Art while doing my undergraduate
degree at Oxford. It was a degree in which
you also covered Arabic literature and, as
a special subject, I studied Islamic pottery
because it was just beginning to be taught.
I had an inspirational teacher. Then, when I
came to the end of my degree, all I wanted to
do was study Islamic art because I just loved
it. I did an MPhil for 2 years and we covered
everything: it was the most unbelievable
course. We studied architecture, miniature
painting, pottery, metalwork, everything you
could possibly imagine.
If Dubai were to offer an undergraduate
degree in modern and contemporary
Middle Eastern art, would you recommend
infusing that programme with Islamic Art?
Well, I would say that it should be a strong
element within it. There are universities in
the Middle East teaching Islamic Art but
they are few. At the American University in
Cairo for example, it is only recently that the
university is able to issue PhDs in Islamic Art.
Up until this point, they were only teaching
MAs. It is arguably one of the best places in