Join Melanie Gibson, co-curator for a tour of our current exhibition The Arab Hall: Past and Present. In the course of research for her newly-published book, The Arab Hall - Frederic Leighton: Traveller and Collector, Melanie discovered the original locations of some of the tiles in the Arab Hall. In this talk she will tell the story of these tiles as well as discussing Leighton's fine collection of Turkish and Iranian ceramics that was dispersed after he died.

Useful Information

• Please meet in the reception area, for a start time of 1pm

Meet 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.