It’s the one year anniversary of our first Islam & Print cohort show, What Happens When We Nurture, and we’ve made a lot of changes to this fellowship since then! We learned so much from the first iteration and graciously thank our first four fellows for joining us for the ride.
Islam & Print grew out of a desire to share the accessibility of printmaking as an arts medium. One of the first conversations Dan and I had was him casually pitching to me, a youth arts educator, the idea to host screen printing workshops for young Muslim kids in Baltimore out of a garage. I laughed but encouraged the thought. Dan toyed with the idea over the following year, but I denied any involvement as I had already been in collaborative projects and needed some down time. The final impetus to create Islam & Print was advice from visual artist Faisal Abdu’allah who told Dan, you can’t wait for some perfect moment or a large grant to start. Eventually, I agreed to help in any way that I could support my soon-to-be husband in his passion project. And over time, as we received applications, met our fellows, and began developing this community, I became as invested as Dan in the vision of Islam & Print.
It was a no brainer to get behind honestly. I might even consider it a part of my life’s work. The mission of Islam & Print is to champion diverse Muslim experiences and strengthen career readiness by building a network of regional emerging visual artists of all mediums through our bi-annual fellowship. Who wouldn’t get behind that? We do this by providing bi-weekly brainstorming sessions, writer and curator critiques, alumni visits and critiques, hands-on experience in screen printing, and a culminating group exhibition.
So what does that look like exactly?
So far this year, our 2024 cohort of Hoor Imad Sherpao, Madyha Leghari, and Mina Sarfaraz have
- Met as a group 11 times (5 of those in person)
- Met for individual one-on-one meetings 4 times
- Met with 3 curators including Joy Davis, Anisa Olufemi, and Teri Henderson
- Met with 2 I&P alumni including Suldano Abdiruhman and Tayyab Maqsood
- Hosted 125+ visitors during our Bromo Artwalk pop-up exhibition
Suldano Abdiruhman is “going away for [her] first residency in almost 10 years!” In October, she will spend two weeks in the Nevada desert at the Montello Foundation where she will be making monoprints and painting. In December 2023, she showcased a fashion line at Port (Philadelphia, PA).
Tayyan Maqsood is currently venturing into launching a product line called “Zawj” of hand-crafted (utilizing mono-printing) Nikah Namas (Islamic Marriage Certificates). shared work in Mustaqabil-ism: Exploring South Asian Futurism. During Asian Heritage Month, he was in the Asia North 2024 Exhibition Love Letters to Baltimore + the DMV.
Anysa Saleh is a 2024 Mera Artist in Residency at Mera Kitchen Collective (Baltimore, MD) where she will be continuing her art practice, showcase work, and curating a cultural event. Earlier this year, Anysa shared work in Fashion Prose 1: Exhibition at Creative Alliance (Baltimore, MD).
Leili Arai Tavallei is a 2023-2024 Cedars Union resident artist in Dallas, TX. She has shown her prints made for Islam & Print in two group shows at Lawndale Art Center (Houston, TX) and Arts Fort Worth (Fort Worth, TX) and has facilitated numerous Lego printmaking workshops in Dallas, TX.