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BLACK UMBRELLA
This Week From The Editor

An umbrella is a valuable object, come rain or shine. The portable protection it offers allows daily life to continue when conditions are adverse. It's striking that Rasheed Araeen chose the name Black Umbrella for his 1980s organisation that fought for the visibility of Britain's Afro-Asian artists in the mainstream. The various initiatives—publications, exhibitions, conferences, and the journal 'Third Text'—confronted the UK's embarrassingly poor and prejudiced art environment.

UNDER THE UMBRELLA

It's also impressive that Araeen simultaneously maintained a studio practice. Several of his bright, minimalist sculptures are included in 'MANZAR: Art and Architecture from Pakistan 1940s to Today' at the National Museum of Qatar. STIR spoke with the curators about putting together this landmark show. It's a notable endeavour, and other regional institutions are similarly engaged in rigorous and compelling exhibition-making. Sharjah Art Foundation has

established itself as a place that thinks big. The president and director Hoor Al Qasimi discusses its remit and her plans for refocusing the Biennale of Sydney by drawing in diasporic communities.

In Ecuador, a new community centre shows that architecture too can have a cohering effect. The building, created partly by local residents, provides a permanent centre for unemployed craftswomen. But it is also true that art, architecture and design can be powerfully divisive. The National Gallery of Design in New York has taken its 200th anniversary as an occasion to scrutinise its foundational members who were once described as 'opulent colonists'. Here's hoping that more institutions start telling the 'whole story', as Araeen might say, and inviting new people to stand under their umbrella.

Cleo Roberts - Komireddi

STIR interviews the curators of MANZAR at the National Museums of Qatar
STIR interviews the curators of MANZAR at the National Museums of Qatar
See See

A lesson in participatory design: Ecuador's Las Tejedoras Community Center

09 MIN READ    Read More

Think

Translating society's fears and worries into graphic designs in 'Propagandopolis'

11 MIN READ    Read More

Think
Inspire Inspire

Hoor Al Qasimi on growing local audiences: "Everybody should have a biennial"

12 MIN READ    Read More

Reflect

Maison&Objet 2025

Date

16 - 20 JAN, 2025

LOCATION

Paris, France

Maison&Objet 2025

For its January edition, Maison&Objet and Peclers Paris will explore the vitality of a new Surrealism under its theme, 'Sur/Reality'. Alternative, whimsical realities will offer an escape from the chaos of daily life through fantasy, humour, absurdity, randomness and poetry. At the show, this trend will take shape in unexpected objects and dreamlike design settings addressing consumers' newfound appetite for the strange and surprising.

Learn More
STIRpad

NEWS

'Strange Friends': A vitrine of eight table-top items that complement each other

'Strange Friends': A vitrine of eight table-top items that complement each other

05 MIN READ     Read More

Separator

The multifaceted, metallic design legacies of 'Prouvé / Arad - Masters of Metal'

The multifaceted, metallic design legacies of 'Prouvé / Arad - Masters of Metal'

06 MIN READ     Read More

A Historical Acknowledgement?

The exhibition 'Past as Prologue' reckons with The National Academy of Design's origins in American colonialism.

08 MIN READ

Kate Meadows

A Historical Acknowledgement?

In 'Past as Prologue', current American artistic ideals dismantle those from the past, with ideals across time sharing a physical space.

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