ADA AWARDS 4th CYCLE 2024-25 CHAIRS ANNOUNCED

The only multi-discipline national Awards from Pakistan announces the Chairs of the 4th cycle 2024-25. The ADA Awards are a call for submission exclusive to Pakistanis residing in any part of the world in the discipline of architecture, design and art. ADA magazine in 2018 extended its portfolio towards the inclusive recognition of great works in all disciplines and the creative minds behind it. ADA AWARDS aims to place Pakistan in the global arena with exceptional creative works intended towards international recognition and in parallel recognize celebrities of the creative fields that impact lives, inspire generations, and leave a legacy of exceptional works.

In its fourth iteration 2024-25, the ADA Awards provides an opportunity for the region’s creative talent to present innovative and original works to be considered by a jury of leading figures from the world of architecture, interiors, art, and design. A panel of national and international experts drawn from each of the disciplines will meet together to review the submissions and choose the winners. The 2024-2025 ADA Awards program is open to works completed by a Pakistani individual or firm in the disciplines of architecture, design, and art, before December 31, 2023. Winners will be announced at a gala ceremony in Lahore, dates will be announced soon.

The curator of the Award Maria Aslam states; “the exacting times have forced all of us to reconsider how we live, act and re-enact our lives. This question imposes itself in how we perceive, apply import and significance to art, design, architecture, interiors, heritage, culture for an equitable and just society in our lives. Similarly, I am sure that the jurors apart from aesthetics, functions, forms, process, context, in the submissions of this cycle will be searching for works that demonstrate an inclusive approach for people and the environment.”

CHAIRS

Architecture

Yasmeen Cheema
Yasmin Cheema is the first female student inducted in the National College of Arts in Lahore in 1962. She is the first architect to qualify as a Conservation Architect and Planner from Middle Eastern Technical University,

Design

Tazeen Hussain
Tazeen Hussain is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Design at Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture. She has served as Head of department in the Dept. of Communication Design and Foundation Program at IVS and as visiting faculty in the departments of Visual Studies at Karachi University and Media Sciences at SZABIST.

Art

Imran Qureshi
Imran Qureshi graduated from the National College of Art in Lahore, with distinction, and started teaching shortly after. His work is firmly rooted in the tradition of miniature painting – the subject he still teaches at the NCA – whose acme in the region was reached during the Mughal Empire.

Ankara – Turkey. Her specialisations are architecture education, history, conservation of immovable materials cultural assets – monuments, historic areas, small historic cities and villages, adaptive reuse of immovable culture property, immovable cultural property legislature, and cultural heritage inventory methodology.

Yasmin delved into her academic calling from the beginning and was Assistant Professor at NCA in 1988 wherein she initiated, conducted and supervised mega scale documentation of Uch Sharif in Punjab. This excursion of hers would lead her on the roads of being a leading architecture and building conservationist in Pakistan. “The historic quarters of Karachi” published in 1988 by Oxford University Press. She successfully established the External Advisory Board (EAB) for the department of Architecture at Comsat Institute of Information Technology, (CIIT) Lahore. She is a Fellow of National College of Arts and a Distinguished Professor of Architectural Research, of Architecture Department, Beacon House National University, Lahore.

Professor Cheema has been a Board Member of National College of Arts and is a member of Punjab Heritage Fund since 2002 to-date; member of Board of Governors, Punjab Heritage Fund, Government of Punjab, 2009 to-date and is a Member Technical Committee, Tomb of Anarkali, Services and General Administration Department, Archive Wing, Government of Punjab. From 2007 to 2010, she was Heritage Specialist Technical Expert, Department of Antiquities, Sindh Government, while from 2000 to 2006, she has worked as a Consultant for Aga Khan Cultural Services

Yasmin Cheema currently dedicates her time to many of the academic institutes that she has been involved with. A leading voice in the conservation sector of heritage she is invited to many conferences and workshops. Cheema is currently finishing her book titled “Vanishing histories of the earthquake 2005” and will be published soon.

As a researcher, Hussain has presented her work at national and international conferences and published internationally as well. Her current interests include the re-examination of Design
Education, it’s conception and evolution, in the Pakistani context, whilst exploring the possibilities of design as an active contributor to the socio-cultural and political landscape. She has designed and led a yearlong program Critical Design Education and Practice funded by US – Pakistan University Partnerships Grants Program 2020-23 in partnership with IVS. She also serves actively on the Board of Studies of various Design institutions across Pakistan.

Hussain has been volunteering her services for projects falling in the realm of creative and social entrepreneurship, sustainable development, climate change, and merging education and design practice. Notable projects include ‘Karachi Art Directory’ with Karachi Biennale Trust, ‘Imparting education on Climate change to vulnerable communities’- UN GRIP with Indus Earth Trust, ‘Meri Duniya kay Rang’ with NOWPDP. Hussain also works in media, is a member of Act, Pakistan, while her other areas of contribution are theatre, journalism, and activism.

Hussain received a bachelor’s degree in communication design from Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, and a Masters in New Media and Society from the University of Leicester, UK.

Tazeen Husain | a multifaceted academic, researcher, activist and entertainer – leading the design industry through creative and social pedagogies.

Yasmin Cheema | Leading conservationist, historian, academic, leading the architecture narrative of Pakistan through research and writing.

Imran Qureshi | World renowned artist and academic, pride of Pakistan an inspiration in the artworld with his provocative meanderings in the field of art

Imran Qureshi has been exhibiting locally and internationally for more than two decades and has expanded the language of miniature painting; in traditional size and crafted work and is virtuoso of original variations in the form of site-specific installations, three-dimensional works, videos and paintings on paper and canvas. His work is manifest of a practice that combines local background with a global outlook, artistically, socially and politically.

In 2011 he was Awarded with Sharjah Biennale10’s Art prize, in 2013, Deutsche bank Artist of the year Award and in 2017 with Medal of Arts Award by State Department Washington. He was also awarded Shaji Muhammad Sharif Award for miniature Painting in 1993 at the National College of Arts Lahore as well as Associateship of NCA in the year 2009.

In the 25 years of his Career as an independent Visual Artist, his work has been showcased in more than 130 Exhibitions globally. Some of them includes The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Barbican Centre, London, Pakistan National Council of the Arts, National Art Gallery, Islamabad, Museo Civico, San Gimignano, Salsali Private Museum, Dubai , Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma, Rome, Berlin, Zahoor Al Akhlaq Gallery, National College of Arts, Lahore, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford , Aga Khan Museum, Toronto and many others. His Work has also been exhibited in Major Biennales all around the world including Venice Biennale 2013, Sydney Biennale 2012, Sharjah Biennale 2011, Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki 2011, and “Lahore Biennale 01”, Lahore 2018. His work figures in public collections in major institutions such as Deutsche Bank Collection, Fukoka Asian Art Museum, MUHKA Museum of Modern Art, Victoria and Albert Museum London amongst many others.

The only permanent public artwork of Imran Qureshi in Pakistan is on display in the newly built Islamabad International Airport in the form of a 200 feet long Mural in 100 parts.

JURY

Architecture Jury

George Arbid

Holder of a Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures en Architecture from the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA), and a Doctor of Design degree from Harvard University. Arbid was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at MIT History, Theory and Criticism Program. He held teaching positions at ALBA, AUB, and the Lebanese University.

Yahya Jan

For Yahya, design is a creative process that challenges us to combine our understanding of Life, of Science, and of Art. And where these aspects overlap, Yahya believes First Principle thinking can reveal solutions that stretch our understanding of reality.

Ghayyoor Obaid

was born and raised in Lahore, Pakistan. He joined the ND-Arch course at National College of Arts (NCA). It was the period when some prominent practicing architects like Baba Najam and Kamil Khan were also teaching full time and Nayyar Ali Dada was a huge inspiration as a leading architect a time when some of his major projects were taking shape.

Dr. Arbid’s research covers mostly modern architecture in Lebanon and the Arab world. His writings include Architecture from the Arab world (1914-2014) a Selection, published at the occasion of the Venice Biennale of Architecture in 2014 where he co-curated the Pavilion of Bahrain. He recently co-edited with P. Oswalt Designing Modernity: Architecture in the Arab World 1945-1973 published in 2022 in English and Arabic (Jovis and Riwaq).

He is a co-founder and director of the Arab Center for Architecture located in Beirut, and of Docomomo Lebanon, and curated in 2023 A Journey into Architecture Archives: Beirut, Cairo, Rabat, an exhibition commissioned by the Sharjah Architecture Triennial. Besides being a practicing architect with published projects (Salem and Shabb Houses), he was elected mayor of Maasser el Chouf, Lebanon.

Dr. Arbid served on several competitions and award juries, including the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award (2019), Transfer Architecture Video Award, Zurich, Switzerland (2019), Alt33 Yerevan Firdusi Urban Competition (2020), Faculty of Arts and Sciences Building, American University of Beirut (2018), Beirut Museum of Modern Art International Competition (2016), BLC Bank Landmark (2012), Hassan Fathy Award, Alexandria, Egypt (2010), FEAD/IOEC and Issam Fares Institute, AUB, Lebanon (2006), La Oadicia Resort, and Lattaqieh, Syria (2004).

Based in Dubai, Yahya is President & Design Director at NORR. With 36 years of global experience, Yahya leads NORR’s design efforts in the Middle East and Asia.

Yahya undertook his undergraduate and graduate studies at Princeton University. A licensed architect in New York, Yahya worked for 8 years in the US before moving to Dubai in 1996. Since then, Yahya has played a pivotal design role at NORR, bringing to life visionary projects throughout the region.

Yahya believes that Great Design, done right, can solve many of humanity’s problems. For this to happen, he believes our efforts must always be inclusive, inviting opinions in an open-minded search of possibilities. An exploration where owners and designers fully participate in the process.

Yahya advocates integrated design as a means to transform our built environment. He sees design as a patient search – equal parts analytical and intuitive. Central to his design philosophy is a multi-disciplinary approach that includes owners, architects, engineers, and others, working collaboratively to unlock hidden potential. Today, Yahya leads a highly motivated team of designers and doers. A diverse, multicultural gathering of incredibly creative women and men, in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Manila, dedicated to excellence in everything they do.

Yahya’s built work includes signature office, residential and hotel towers, retail malls, and multi-use developments. A winner of numerous international awards, Yahya’s design and research is featured at conferences and in leading publications worldwide.

After graduation in 1981, Ghayyoor Obaid decided to take a break from Pakistan. His travels took him to diverse places like Srilanka, Soviet Union and West Germany.
He returned to Lahore in 1985 and joined Shaukat Nawaz Raja, his erstwhile teacher and mentor during student years. In 1986 he established his own practice after his first attempt at a residential project was a great success and a precursor to many new assignments. There has been no looking back ever since and the practice has thrived even through the worst of times.
City of Lahore, NCA and its diversity of disciplines headed by star studded faculty, impressions from the travels and fascination with the bareness of the vernacular has been and still acts as the ultimate palette in his work. His work although embedded in the past is outward looking and experimental like rewriting an old script. Ghayyoor Obaid’s passion and interest lies in influencing the lifestyles of his clients through his skill at reinterpretation. In the face of an imminent environmental catastrophe, architects have to be at the forefront of the movement to change the course by redefining appropriate living.
A professional journey that started fifty years ago in the studios of the NCA has evolved into a practice ‘Ghayyoor Obaid Architects’ joined by his two sons. The interaction between the past and the present is very much at play with the same spirit of inquiry, exploration with a nuanced vision toward impactful design.

Ar Saifuddin Ahmad

Saifuddin Ahmad is the President of ARCASIA (Architects Regional Council Asia) 2024-2025, Past
President of PAM 2011-2013. He is currently the Principal of Saifuddin Architect and Managing
Director of SNO Architects Sdn Bhd.

Daliana Suryawinata

Daliana is a licensed architect (IAI, AA), founder and director of SHAU -an architecture firm based in the Netherlands, Germany and Indonesia – together with Prof. Dr. Florian Heinzelmann (NUS). SHAU works on multiple scales and typologies with a cultural-environmental agenda for more liveable cities.

Ar Saifuddin completed his Diploma in Architecture at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur in 1980 and graduated with Bachelor of Architecture from Deakin University Australia in 1983. He is a fellow of Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia, Registered ASEAN Architect, APEC Architect and Honorary Member of Australian Institute of Architects, Association of Siamese Architects by Royal Patronage. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has awarded the AIA Presidential Medal and Honorary AIA Membership during the International Presidents’ Forum in Washington DC on June 8th June 2024.

Ar Saifuddin is a member of the Board of University Directors at Universiti Malaya from March 2011 to Apr 2022 and from February 2023 to January 2026. He is one of the longest serving board members. Ar Saifuddin is a member of the Board of Directors Mass Rapid Transit Corporation Sdn Bhd since February 2021. He is also Chairman of its subsidiary Lingkaran MRT Sdn Bhd, the company responsible for the implementation of MRT Line 3. He was awarded by his alma mater, Deakin University, Australia, Alumni of Year 2020. He was the first Malaysian to be accorded with the award. He was chosen as one of the distinguished alumni by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia during the university’s 50th anniversary in 2022. Ar Saifuddin was one of the recipients of The 2023 CIDB Fellowship Award, a recognition and appreciation from CIDB to industry players who have contributed significantly to the development of the construction industry.

Ar. Saifuddin had the opportunity to successfully design, manage and complete the Low Energy Office (LEO) for the Ministry of Green Technology and Water in Putrajaya, Parcel E. This building was conferred the prestigious ASEAN Energy Award 2006 by the ASEAN ENERGY CENTRE and was accorded the first Green Building Index Silver rating for existing building. The LEO Building was also chosen to be on the Malaysian 50 sen commemorative stamp for the Energy Efficiency Building Series in 2009. Under the leadership of Ar Saifuddin, SNO Architects Sdn Bhd has won the SME Corp Enterprise 50 for the years 2013, 2014 and 2016.

SHAU has completed various projects across Indonesia, including a cultural center, multi-ethnic student housing, public parks, and Microlibraries. According to Architizer, SHAU is Architizer’s No.1 Best architecture firm in Indonesia. SHAU is a recipient of Good Design Award Japan 2023, Monsoon Architecture Award 2023, Archdaily building of the year award 2021, Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2019 shortlist, INDE.Awards 2018, and Silver prize from the Lafarge Holcim Award for Sustainable Construction Asia-Pacific 2017 among others.

Daliana graduated from Tarumanagara University in Jakarta, Indonesia in 2002 and Berlage Institute in Rotterdam, the Netherlands 2005. Between 2005-2012 she worked for OMA, MVRDV, West8 and taught master courses at TU Delft. Daliana is a RIBA Award’s ambassador 2024, published in ‘100 Women Architects in Practice’, as well as Architizer’s ‘100 Women to Watch in Architecture 2021’. She has lectured and guest-reviewed at TU Delft, UPenn, Harvard GSD, ETH Zurich and NUS among others. Together with like-minded colleagues in the Netherlands, Daliana co-founded the Indonesian Diaspora Network’s Liveable Cities platform.

Design Jury

Shahzad Nawaz

Shahzad Nawaz is a celebrated name in Pakistani media and communication arts industry contributing as a speaker, writer, filmmaker, actor, art director, strategist, graphic designer, music producer, lyricist and a voice over artist- most notably known for launching top Pakistani TV channels including Geo, Dunya, Neo, PTV News, Aap News, Indus News and Green Entertainment.

Shehnaz Ismail

is the Founder and Faculty of Design at The Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS), established in 1989 to meet the country’s need for a premier institution in Fine Arts, Design, and Architecture. She has devoted most of her career to academia, including 13 years in secondary education. At IVS, she developed the Textile Design department, making it the best in the country.

Dr. Frederick van Amstel

is a design educator and researcher who enables people from different social backgrounds to work, learn, and play while participating in design. His latest work investigates designerly and artistic approaches to overcoming oppression and other systemic contradictions.

Recipient of various international creative excellence awards both in visual and screen arts, he creates TV, Film & Digital narratives under the banner of Coup d’état Films and Coup Records.

As an Actor and Writer, Shahzad works selectively but has many successful Television Plays, Serials and Feature films to his credit.

He trains and lectures across Pakistan through talks and workshops at various conferences, seminars, colleges, universities and think tanks alike. In addition to teaching at various institutions as part-time faculty member he has also served as DVF- Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the prestigious NDU, National Defence University, Islamabad.

An active campaigner for Pakistani Arts & Cultural fraternity, he has also previously served as Advisor on State Media Assets and more recently as SAPM- Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of Pakistan in the federal cabinet.

Shahzad is a Member and Past Chairman of UPA – United Producers Association, Member, ACP- Arts Council of Pakistan, SWAP – Screen Writers Association Pakistan and PFPA- Pakistan Film Producers Association.

Currently, he also serves as Vice Chairman, DGP – Directors Guild of Pakistan.

She is committed to craft revival, leading numerous training and design intervention programs for non-profit organizations in rural Pakistan.

Her consultancy work includes significant projects like the Shigar Fort Residence and Khaplu Palace Residence, restored under the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, which received UNESCO awards in 2009 and 2012, respectively. She has completed notable commissions for the Presidency in Islamabad and Jinnah International Airport in Karachi. Her work “Silk: Bradford and the Subcontinent,” commissioned by Alchemy, Bradford Museums and Galleries in July 2012, resulted in a talk with Textile Historian Brenda King at Cartwright Hall.

Mrs. Ismail actively contributes to various organizations. She is a member of the Board of Governors at the Centre of Excellence Art and Design, Jamshoro, Sindh, and the Academic Committee at Beaconhouse National University, Lahore. She also serves on the Board of Governors for Home Net Pakistan and the Pakistan Sports Board. Additionally, she is a board member of Aik Hunar Aik Nagar (AHAN) in Lahore and is involved with the Academic Council and Syndicate at Shaheed Allah Baksh University of Art and Design, Jamshoro, Sindh. Mrs. Ismail was made an Associate of the National College of Arts, Lahore, and received the President’s Pride of Performance award in 2014 for her contributions to visual art and education.

Her international engagements include participating in a group exhibition at Al Sarkaal Gallery, Dubai, in March 2023, presenting a paper at the Lahore Literature Festival held at the British Museum, London, UK, in October 2017, and exhibiting “Pale Sentinels” at Aicon Gallery, New York, USA, in July 2018. She also contributed to the Berg Encyclopedia of Asian Design, published by Bloomsbury Press, London, in 2014.

Mrs. Ismail holds undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Textile Design from the National College of Arts and Hornsey College, London.

He currently holds the position of tenured Associate Professor in the Design & Visual Communications program at the University of Florida, US. From 2019 to 2023, Frederick had the position of Assistant Professor at UTFPR in Brazil, where he cofounded the Design & Oppression network and its local hub, the Laboratory of Design against Oppression (LADO). Dr. Van Amstel’s PhD thesis, accepted by the University of Twente in the Netherlands, identifies several contradictions in architectural design and service design that can be harnessed as drivers of change. After defending his thesis in 2015, Dr. Van Amstel focused on the contradiction of oppression, contributing to decolonizing, feminist, anti-racist, embodied, commoning, self-managed, existentialist, critical, transdisciplinary, and other approaches that tackle this contradiction. So far, he published, together with collaborators, over 70 peer-reviewed papers in several fields of inquiry, including Participatory Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Design Studies, and Architectural Design. Before joining academia full-time, he founded the first Brazilian Interaction Design Institute, Faber-Ludens, in 2007. His work can be seen at https://fredvanamstel.com

Manal Naji

ia an Award-winning and experienced creative director with a wide portfolio of clients. Manal joined Leo Burnett as a Junior art director in 2001, and has worked her way up to creative director, collecting many local and international awards along the way.

Herve Matin

Completed his Fine Arts from University of Tehran-IRAN before coming to France in 1982. He got his PhD in Fine Arts from Paris Diderot University (Université Paris 7) in 1987.

The latter include Epica, Golden Drum, Lynx, Cristal de la Mena and Pikasso D’Or.
With a wide range of local and international clients, including MTN Telecom, P&G, Diageo, Kraft and Cadbury, Manal has a diversified experience in the field. Furthermore, the diversity of experience extends to the region’s markets as well; having worked for many years on the Syrian, Egyptian, Saudi and Moroccan markets.
Apart from leading the creative team, she spears the strategic challenges across all media.

From 1986 to 1992, he had various work experiences from teaching to working as graphic designer, art director in communication agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi -London, ILC – Paris, Landais Print & Communication – Paris.He founded HM Studio Graphic Design Agency in 1993, then became co-founder and general manager of Genie Interactif Communication Agency from 1996 to 2006.

In 2000, Hervé Matine initiated Mediavillage, the first co-working space, offering freelancers, communication and web agencies a high tech, plug and play open space office of 1600m2 in heart of Paris. From 2002 to 2008 he curated several exhibitions and hosted 2002 Greenpeace auction against global warming.

President of 4 Tomorrow Association, he is the founder of poster for tomorrow, an international project whose goal is to encourage people, both in and outside the design community, to make posters to stimulate debate on issues that affect us all. For 10 years, several editions of poster for tomorrow were under patronage of Council of Europe and French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is endorsed by charities such as Amnesty, Reporters Without Borders, FIDH, and collaborated with different department of United Nations.

Art Jury

Dr. Mazdak Faiznia

is a contemporary art curator, specializing in intercultural and transcultural perspectives on the global ecosystems of contemporary art and the creative industry.

Hammad Nasar

is a curator, writer and strategist. He was Senior Research Fellow at Yale’s Paul Mellon Centre – where he co-led the ‘London, Asia’ project; and Principal Research Fellow at UAL’s Decolonising Arts Institute. Earlier, he was: Executive Director of the Stuart Hall Foundation, London; Head of Research & Programmes at Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong; and, co-founder of Green Cardamom, London.

Dr. Venetia Porter

is a curator and researcher and the former Senior Curator for Islamic and Contemporary Middle East art at the British Museum. Born and brought up in Beirut, she studied Arabic and Persian and Islamic Art at the University of Oxford, and her PhD from the University of Durham is on the history and architecture of Medieval Yemen.

In 2003, after completing his studies in electronics at the Faculty of Engineering in Kermanshah, he pursued his passion for art and moved to Tehran to explore the city’s artistic environment. In 2009, he decided to leave the country and relocate to Italy to study Painting at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. There he graduated in Painting and completed his specialist studies at the School of Communication and Organization for Contemporary Art. In 2014, the Faiznia Foundation – a non-profit organization dedicated to contemporary art and culture – was established, of which he became its artistic director. In the year 2015, Faiznia earned a degree in Visual Cultures & Curatorial Practices with a thesis on “Curatorial Policies.” That same year, he curated the National Pavilion of Iran at the 56th International Art Biennale in Venice together with Marco Meneguzzo. For the first time, 52 contemporary Iranian artists and artists from neighbouring countries (India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Armenia, Azerbaijan) were featured in a single exhibition.

In 2016, Faiznia served as the Artistic Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Pavilion in Tehran (TMOCA) at the Venice Architecture Biennale. The following year, he co-founded and became the creative director of the Nomad Contemporary Heritage Institute, operating in the creative industry sector. The year after, on the occasion of the summer summit of Francophone countries in Armenia, he curated the exhibition “Soundlines of Contemporary Art” across 7 museums in Yerevan, featuring 70 artists from around the world. In 2021, Faiznia defended his doctoral dissertation in Cultural Economics and Management at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, titled “The Artistic and Cultural Management of Non-Profit Organizations for Contemporary Art: Challenges of Economic, Social, and Environmental Sustainability.”

Known for collaborative, exhibition-led inquiry, Nasar has curated or co-curated numerous exhibitions internationally, including: Beyond the Page: South Asian Miniature Painting and Britain, 1600 to Now (2023-24); Making New Worlds: Li Yuan-chia & Friends (2023-24); Divided Selves: Legacies, Memories, Belonging (2023); British Art Show 9 (2021-22); Turner Prize (2021); Speech Acts: Reflection-Imagination-Repetition (2018-19); and, Rock, Paper, Scissors: Positions in Play – the UAE’s national pavilion at the 57^th Venice Biennale (2017).

He is a Board Member of the Henry Moore Foundation (UK) and Mophradat (Belgium), a strategic advisor to the Delfina Foundation (UK), and a Working Council Member of the Asia Forum for the Contemporary Art of Global Asias. He has advised numerous institutions internationally on awards, exhibitions, collections, partnerships and strategy. He was awarded an MBE for services to the arts in 2023.

She was the lead curator for the Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic World at the British Museum, which opened in 2018.

Her research ranges from Yemeni history through Arabic inscriptions and amulets to contemporary art. She is the author of Arabic and Persian Seals and Amulets at the British Museum (2011), and her exhibitions, with accompanying publications, include Mightier than the Sword: Arabic Script Beauty and Meaning, (Ian Potter Museum, University of Melbourne, 2003, and with Heba Nawel Barakat, Islamic Arts Museum, Malaysia 2004); Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East (London 2006, Dubai 2008); Hajj: journey to the heart of Islam (2012); Reflections: contemporary art of the Middle East and North Africa, (with Natasha Morris and Charles Tripp, London 2021); Amakin, 21,39 Jeddah Arts, 9^th edition, (with Laura Edgerton, (Jeddah and Dhahran 2022); Maqam: Hashel Al Lamki (with Laura Cherrie Beaney, Abu Dhabi 2023) and Artists making books: poetry to politics (London 2023). Other publications include her mother’s autobiography Thea Porter’s scrapbook (Unicorn Press 2019).
She is currently Honorary Research Fellow at the British Museum and the Courtauld institute of Art.