A Friday Lunch Talk with Jennifer Pruitt
Rising from its own island in the Arabian Gulf, I.M. Pei’s monumental Museum of Islamic Art (2008) stands without peers in the ever-developing skyline of Doha, Qatar. Architecture and cultural projects have played a defining role in the rapid development of Qatar as a nation but it is Pei’s design that placed it on the global cultural map and changed the contours of Islamic art history, introducing a powerful new center for the collection and display of historical Islamic works. In this Friday Lunch talk, Professor Jennifer Pruitt will consider the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) as an example of cultural sponsorship in the service of nation building, illuminating the networks of global collecting, design, and display that brought it to fruition.
Please note: A catered lunch will be provided at this Friday Lunch event. Seats are limited and available on a first-come basis. To register, please send an email to rsvp@humanities.wisc.edu with your name, title, or affiliation.
Jennifer Pruitt is Howard and Ellen Louise Schwartz Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture. Pruitt is a historian of Islamic art and architecture with a focus on the Arabic-speaking world. In both research and teaching, Pruitt is driven by a central question: how do multi-faith, diverse populations in the Arabic-speaking world patronize, utilize, and respond to their built environment?