Curator's Talk: Suheyla Takesh

We invite you to: CURATORS TALK, a new series presented by The NYUAD Art Gallery, in which curators discuss their distinct approaches to curatorial practice.

For our first gathering, curator Suheyla Takesh will speak about her work on the Barjeel Art Foundation collection. Takesh was recently a fellow at al Mawrid Arab Center for the Study of Art. This talk is presented in collaboration with al Mawrid.

In this talk, curator Suheyla Takesh presents the Barjeel Art Collection in Sharjah as a case study to investigate the phases of a collection’s evolution. What factors influenced its transformation? What is the role of private art collections in the UAE’s wider cultural ecosystems?

Barjeel’s curator Suheyla Takesh will take the audience behind the scenes of running the Barjeel Art Foundation, revealing its evolving acquisition strategies over the past decade and discussing the less visible work of preserving an art collection. This discussion will raise questions around the ethics and responsibilities of a collecting institution and its potential influence on the region’s art historical narratives by uncovering forgotten art and by the circulation of its collection and its accompanying publications.