Middle Eastern North African Student Association (MENA)
Collaboration
“We (Block Museum) worked closely with the MENA Student Association on the Block Museum's presentation of our Fall 2022 exhibition, "Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s – 1980s." We reached out to MENA SA about the exhibition over the summer, and Sara Ibrahim (president) was immediately receptive and enthusiastic. Throughout the entire exhibition, took great care to warmly welcome the membership of MENA to the exhibition, and to our public programming. They co-sponsored a musical performance at the Block by the Chicago-based Middle Eastern music ensemble East Loop, and coordinated a private, student-led tour of the exhibition before joining us for the performance. Sara and her peers helped to boost and share the exhibition broadly, including by offering interviews for local media about their experience at the museum and personally greeting Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi, founder of the Barjeel Art Foundation, when he visited campus.”