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Workshop | Curating “In Plain Sight: Jewish Arts and Lives from the Muslim World”
Sep 6 @ 12:00 pm - 1:15 pm
AN IN PLAIN SIGHT: JEWISH ARTS AND LIVES IN THE MUSLIM WORLD PROGRAM
The Magnes invites faculty, students, and staff from UC Berkeley and neighboring universities to a curatorial workshop about the new exhibition In Plain Sight: Jewish Arts and Lives in the Muslim World featuring co-curators Dr. Qamar Adamjee, scholar of Islamic art, and Dr. Francesco Spagnolo, Magnes curator and UC Berkeley Professor.
The program will include a gallery tour with the curators and conversation focusing on select objects, highlighting the methodologies deployed in their interpretation.
Friday, September 6, 2024 | 12noon-1:15pm
In person at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA
Bring a brown bag lunch. Light refreshments will be provided.
This event is designed for our campus community and space is limited to 25 attendees. To inquire about attending, please contact magnesprograms@berkeley.edu and include your academic affiliation.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Co-curated by Magnes Curator Dr. Francesco Spagnolo and scholar of Islamic art Dr. Qamar Adamjee, In Plain Sight: Jewish Arts and Lives in the Muslim World shares a selection of artworks and objects from the Magnes’s permanent collection that challenge common views about historical dualities and creative engagement among Muslim and Jewish artists and patrons. The exhibition highlights rootedness in diaspora, shared graphic forms and visual landscapes, attitudes towards sacred texts and human bodies, and networks of trade and knowledge exchange, all centering around the fundamental role of light in Jewish and Muslim prayer space.
In Plain Sight is generously supported by the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, David Berg Foundation, Kenneth Kofman and Andrea King, and an anonymous donor.
The exhibition opens Tuesday, August 27, 2024 with an opening celebration Thursday evening, September 5.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Dr. Qamar Adamjee, an art historian of the Islamic world and the Indian subcontinent, is the co-curator of In Plain Sight: Jewish Arts and Lives in the Muslim World at the Magnes. Prior to her current position as provenance researcher in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Asian department, Dr. Adamjee was a provenance researcher for the South Asian collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art (2022–2024) and associate curator of South Asian and Islamic art at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco (2009–2020). With a PhD in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU, she has taught at UC Berkeley, Rutgers Institute, and NYU
Dr. Francesco Spagnolo is curator of the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at the University of California, Berkeley. An associate adjunct professor in the Department of Music and the Center for Jewish Studies, he is also affiliated faculty with the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion, the Institute for European Studies, and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Dr. Spagnolo is a host for the cultural programs of Italian National Radio (RAI) in Rome and a Scholar-in-Residence with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (San Francisco). A multidisciplinary scholar focusing on Jewish studies, music, and digital media, Dr. Spagnolo has a PhD from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
If you have any questions about accessibility or require accommodations to participate in this event, please contact us at magnes@berkeley.edu or call us at (510) 643-2526 with as much advance notice as possible.