Saudi Royal Garments Join Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel’s Anniversary Program
The Victoria and Albert Museum used the 20th anniversary of The Jameel Gallery to open Golden Threads: Dress from Saudi Arabia, a display of early 20th-century royal garments the museum recently acquired. The exhibition became one of several new additions timed to a milestone set two decades ago.
The Jameel Gallery opened in July 2006 following a refurbishment that Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel backed alongside his family, a project revisited during this year’s 20th anniversary reception. The gallery now holds more than 400 objects, including the Ardabil Carpet and a Fatimid rock crystal ewer, but the anniversary programming pushed well beyond that permanent collection.
Earlier in the year, the museum hosted The Art of Egyptian Khayamiyya, bringing tentmakers from Cairo’s Street of the Tentmakers to London for live demonstrations. In July, curators and art historians convened for a conference on how museums present Islamic art today.
A Year of Additions, Not Just Anniversaries
Golden Threads followed in June, and later this year artist Aziza Kadyri will unveil a commission built from rarely displayed embroidered works in the V&A’s archive. Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel attended the anniversary reception alongside Prince Turki Al-Faisal and Prince Abdullah bin Khalid bin Sultan, where organizers named the evening the opening event on the path to the 2029 UK-Saudi Year of Culture.
Golden Threads, in that context, reads less like a standalone exhibition and more like the latest entry in a program still being written.