Lecture: The Art History of Palestinian Textiles

Are you interested in learning the history and origins of traditional and contemporary Palestinian styles? Have you studied Palestinian embroidery, but would like to expand your knowledge into the textile traditions of historic Palestine? Do you wonder how embroidery can tell a story of resistance? 

Palestinian embroidery and traditional costuming is a robust area of scholarship, and as lecturer, Wafa Ghnaim, continues research for her second publication (you can place a hold on her first one) — she uncovers knowledge and insights that are often undocumented because very little is known.

Learn about the latest in Palestinian embroidery research through this special program. In this 90-minute lecture, you will learn the various regional styles that existed in historic Palestine during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as the styles that emerged after the exile and dispossession of the Palestinian people in 1948. Spanning nearly two centuries, Wafa summarizes the development of style in historic Palestine through a chronology of chest panels, accompanied with historic photography of each time period.

This lecture is a wonderful opportunity to learn the history of traditional Palestinian costuming, as well as learn a framework for understanding the practice of tatreez in the diaspora today.

Wafa Ghnaim is a Palestinian researcher, author and educator who began learning embroidery from her mother, award-winning artist Feryal Abbasi-Ghnaim, when she was two years old. Her first book, “Tatreez & Tea: Embroidery and Storytelling in the Palestinian Diaspora” (2018), documents the traditional patterns passed to her by her mother. Wafa has since become a leading educator in the field as the first-ever Palestinian embroidery instructor at the Smithsonian Museum, Collections Specialist for the Museum of the Palestinian People in Washington, D.C., and a researcher for The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Islamic Arts Department. Wafa continues her mother’s educational legacy through The Tatreez Institute (Tatreez & Tea), a global arts education initiative she began in 2016. Wafa has been featured in major media outlets, recently featured in Vogue Magazine, naming her and her mother “the world’s leading guardians of tatreez”.

Wafa currently resides in Washington, D.C.

You must register for this event in order to join. The Zoom link will be shared a day before the program. The program will not be recorded.