The MENA Art Exhibit: Sharing Culture in Different Forms

Originally, Jaser and MENA considered establishing an Arab-American month,but to incorporate numerous countries, the group decided to host the exhibit. Abdalla added, “The gallery will be full of artists from Sudan all the way to Kuwait… the show [will] represent people from all over the region.” Working closely with the Palestine Museum in Woodbridge, Jaser helped compile art from both the museum and different artists in the New Haven community, including Azza El Siddique and Nadia Younes.

The gallery featured large landscapes, an aerial photograph of Jerusalem, watercolor, and embroidery. Regarding inspiring Hopkins art students, Abdalla hoped “Hopkins art students can…take something away from [the] uniqueness and variety of the art in the exhibit.” Jaser said that the pieces were picked based on “different techniques in art to help inspire art students to think about art in different ways.” The pieces in the gallery, Jaser thought, might influence artists on campus. After viewing the exhibit, Maya Witczak ’29 stated that the exhibit “emphasized very bright colors” and she loved how it "depicted different aspects of the culture.” Abdalla explained that “contemporary MENA art is relatively uncommon in Connecticut,” and thus “the exhibit will broaden students’ stylistic and cultural horizons.” Similarly, Becky Harper, the Director of Community and Equity at Hopkins, believed “art is an incredible vehicle for storytelling. It provides…new ways of thinking, and opportunities to gain new perspectives.”

With Jaser’s main goal being raising awareness about Middle Eastern culture, she was hopeful that if a student were to “come away from the exhibit wondering something about Middle Eastern culture,” it would be “great for [her].” When leaving the gallery, Abdalla was optimistic that “the themes of identity, belonging, resilience, and family” stuck with students, teachers, and family as they are “deeply rooted in Arab culture but also resonate universally.” Harper added that “our community is quite diverse, and there is ample opportunity to learn about and from one another.”

While the gallery was local to our Hopkins community, messages in the art brought us closer to Middle Eastern and North African societies; Jaser reflected, “When we think about the Middle East…the first thing that we might think about is the war and the violence,” but with this exhibit, she believed, came the realization that “there is so much more to the culture, history, and the everyday joy that people experience there.” Jaser trusted that students could “get a glimpse into those real lives beyond the news.” Similarly, Harper thought it was beneficial to learn about people beyond the news as “otherwise, we can become desensitized to what people are going through.” Likewise, Abdalla commented that right now, she thought it was especially important to “highlight the diversity of MENA communities, the people, and their stories.”

The MENA exhibit shone a light on Middle Eastern and North African countries in a multitude of ways through different art techniques. Showing different walks of life from different communities, the exhibit offered a new way for our community to connect. The exhibit also offered Hopkins a new way to better understand the world we live in and the people we see on campus every day.