Arts of the Islamic WorldOpened June 5, 2009

At the Brooklyn Museum, *Arts of the Islamic World* presents objects and artworks shaped by Islamic cultures across regions and centuries, tracing how faith, trade, and courtly life influenced visual form. The exhibition foregrounds materials—ceramics, metalwork, manuscripts, textiles—and the movement of patterns and ideas from North Africa and the Middle East into Central and South Asia. In New York, where many of these histories are often siloed by geography, the display functions as a corrective, placing shared motifs in plain view. The curatorial emphasis on design can clarify connections, though it sometimes risks smoothing over political rupture and conflict.