As part of its core commitment to building resources for supporting research-driven scholarship and teaching, al Mawrid maintains a number of interrelated archives holding documents, images, and publications for collective study of the history of the visual arts in the Arab World. Resources include physical materials such as photographic prints and negatives, rare books and periodicals, and exhibition emphemera, as well as interviews with artists and practitioners. With an aim of preserving materials while at the same time making them available to students, scholars, and the general public, al Mawrid is focused on growing its collections of material by collaborating with existing stewards of local archives—often the families of artists—to digitize and catalog copies of materials and develop web-based tools for access.
The material includes artist writings, journals, correspondence, exhibition materials, newspaper clippings, and photographs—pertaining to the history of modern art in the Arab countries. Materials licensed to be made available to the public will be accessible through an archive portal that will launch in 2024. Unpublished material can be accessed at al Mawrid Center at NYU Abu Dhabi campus.
The use of digital files is governed by customized legal agreements. To view material from al Mawrid's Arab Archive Collection, fill out the Access Request to al Mawrid Archive form. The form includes important disclaimers in regard to the access and use of the archival material.
Akkasah Photography Archive
Related Collections: The Salwa Mikdadi Papers