Today's Edition
ABU DHABI (ALETIHAD)
Al Mawrid Arab Centre for the Study of Art at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) has digitised more materials on modern Arab art, and made them available online for research, it has been announced by the NYUAD.
The latest addition to the collection is a part of the Arab Art Archive initiative, and is available onsite via NYU Libraries’ archival collections portal, a statement from NYUAD said. Among the accessible documents are collections from leading Arab artists including Rafa Nasiri and May Muzaffar, Ahmad Nawash, Hanaa Malallah, Salah Taher, and Mahmoud Hammad.
Representing more than 45,000 scans and growing, the Arab Art Archive represents careful negotiations with custodians of archival collections, ensuring that valued materials are processed, digitised, and preserved for the future. The archive includes exhibition material, artists’ writings, press clippings, as well as photographs of the art and art events, all previously unavailable to researchers.
The release is another step forward in the Centre’s long-term mission to connect global audiences with access to primary documents on the history of visual arts in the Arab world. The Centre is continually adding to the Arab Art Archive; six additional collections are undergoing digitisation.
Salwa Mikdadi, the director and the principal investigator of Al Mawrid Arab Centre, said: “The task of redressing gaps in archival scholarship and heritage management has only become more urgent in the digital age, when differences in ‘findability’ can determine whose stories are told.
“The Centre’s research and archive teams’ diverse expertise, its ethical approaches to digital assets, and its commitment to public scholarship create a unique, world-class hub for innovative research in the arts connecting the past to the future.”
The Centre also maintains an extensive research library of Arabic-language books and rare periodicals, an online platform to share research (Sawt Al Arsheef), and a publication series of translated artist memoirs and texts. Attracting attention from scholars across disciplines and professions, the Arab Art Archive now anchors courses in art history, art practice, and curation at NYUAD and generates major public programmes with UAE universities and art institutions.
