To mark the inauguration of Leighton House’s Centennial Commissions, join us on for a panel discussion bringing together multidisciplinary artist Ramzi Mallat, researcher and curator Nadine Nour El Din, art historian Dr Melanie Gibson, and scholar and curator Chiara De Nicolais. Moderated by Hannah Lund, curator of exhibitions and displays at Leighton House Museum, the conversation will explore the Legacies and Futures of the Arab Hall.

Taking the Arab Hall as both a material space and cultural construct, the discussion will explore its layered histories while also considering how such spaces are read, reinterpreted, and activated today. Moving between past and present, the panel will address questions of stewardship, power, and care, while exploring how this might inform future curatorial, artistic, and institutional practices beyond static heritage narratives.

Useful information

• Doors open at 6:30pm for the chance to view Ramzi Mallat’s commission and the exhibitions.

• Paid bar.

• Panel discussion runs from 7pm-8:30pm. Doors close at 9pm

Meet the Panellists

Ramzi Mallat

Based between London and Beirut, Ramzi Mallat is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores cultural identity through Levantine folklore, material culture, and collective memory. His work reinterprets native traditions, artifacts, and symbols through material experimentation, immersive installation, and moving image. Mallat was featured on Forbes Middle East's ‘30 Under 30’ list (2022), and was shortlisted for Bloomberg New Contemporaries (2024). He holds a BA in Fine Art from Lancaster University and an MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, London, and currently serves as a trustee of the IMOS Foundation (U.K).

Nadine Nour El Din

Nadine Nour El Din is a writer, researcher, and art historian. She holds an MA in History of Art from The Courtauld, an MA in Arts Management and Cultural Policy from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a BA in Visual Arts from the American University in Cairo. Her work focuses on the arts and cultural production of the Arab world and wider region.

Melanie Gibson

Dr. Melanie Gibson, BA (Oxon) MA, PhD (SOAS, London University) is a well-known authority on Middle Eastern ceramics, writing and lecturing on them worldwide. Having studied Arabic at Oxford University, where her interest in the history of the ceramics of the Islamic world began, she gained her doctorate at SOAS, University of London. From 2013 to 2016 she was head of the Art History department at the New College of the Humanities, London, and from 2006 to 2017, the convenor and course tutor of the Arts of the Islamic World module in the Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art at SOAS. A Council Member of the Oriental Ceramic Society, she is also an Executive Trustee of Gingko and Editor of the Gingko Art Series, and a Trustee of the Friends of Leighton House, where she first became fascinated by the history behind the creation of The Arab Hall.

Chiara De Nicolais

Chiara De Nicolais BA, MA, Lecturer, curator and specialist Middle Eastern and Indian Art,

And a convenor of the Islamic Art module of the Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art at SOAS. She graduated in classics from the University of Milan and in Islamic art and architecture from SOAS; she is also an alumna of the Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art.Chiara spent ten years in the commercial sector at Christie's and then Sotheby's as a specialist where she sold some of the most important and valuable items on the London market and has consulted for various dealers and private collectors. She is now an assistant curator in the Middle East department at the Victoria & Albert Museum.