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.

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.