Charting the varied career that took her to the Middle East, before returning to the UK, Rachel Dedman recounts that “I studied art history, focused on Islamic art, and modern and contemporary Middle Eastern art, in the UK and the US. In my 20s I had the opportunity to go to Lebanon and join a program run by a space called Ashkal Alwan in Beirut, one of the most important and dynamic contemporary art spaces for artists and curators in the region. 

I was doing independent curatorial projects, getting to know people, and testing things out across Lebanon and Palestine. I was commissioned by the Palestinian Museum to work on the politics of Palestinian dress and the history of Palestinian embroidery.  This became an area of expertise for me and I’ve curated many exhibitions on that subject, both as part of my independent practice and at the V&A”.

She was based in Beirut between 2013 and 2019, “There were so many benefits to being out there to make projects happen in an agile way, as there's not a lot of red tape. But there are also challenges to that, and I was longing to be ‘institutionalised’ after years of precarious independent practice”, a decision that would lead to her taking on her current role at the V&A.

Dedman left Lebanon before the 2020 port explosion, and the country has faced instability since then. “It was an extraordinarily privileged moment to be there because the art scene was rich and dynamic. It's not that well-funded an art scene, but it felt like there was a lot of possibility and creativity, and the artists are so critical and engaged - doing politically powerful work”.

Dedman retains connections to Lebanon, “I'm on the advisory panel for a Lebanese art collection, and we choose what to acquire for the collection and select residents for their residency program”. She still has connections to Beirut, though many colleagues and friends have left and she states “the brain drain is one of the saddest aspects” of what’s happened in Lebanon. It’s a situation she thinks may only get worse following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, despite a ceasefire.

When discussing why she chose to join the V&A, Dedman says “I was excited by the possibility of working less project-to-project, and by the opportunity to contribute to a museum over a longer duration, making acquisitions for the collection, expanding our contemporary Middle Eastern Art collection … it's about building something that has a longer legacy”.

When recounting the history of the V&A’s association with Islamic and South Asian art she explains that “the majority of our world-class Islamic collections come from the Great Exhibition of 1851” - many items from the exhibition would form the collection of the South Kensington Museum, which later became the V&A. 

Dedman adds that in the “second half of the 19th century, at a time of rapid industrialisation, Britain was leading the way technologically but perhaps didn’t have the design expertise that say France or Germany did”. For this reason, Britain turned to the Islamic and South Asian world. “That's why a lot of this material of Islamic architecture and art was acquired so that it would serve as an inspiration for British designers”.

This neatly brings us to the ‘Jameel’ in her title and the family it refers to - “The Jameel family have this long relationship with the V&A which started with our Islamic Middle East gallery, called the Jameel Gallery”. The gallery opened in 2006 and the family financially supported its development. Following the opening, there was a desire to demonstrate how the objects and history in these galleries “continue to offer sources of inspiration for contemporary critical practices”.

This led to the founding of the Jameel Prize which is now triennial and which Dedman curates. It’s currently in its seventh iteration and on at the V&A, and this year’s exhibition is focused on moving image. “This time I wanted to look at something that's been underserved by the Jameel Prizes in the past … in jury meetings previously, digital work and moving image struggled to resonate with the judges when put alongside more tangible artistic practices. Devoting an edition of the Prize to this was a chance to remedy that - in moving image and digital media there's such an opportunity for immersive, emotional storytelling”.

Speaking about the previous iteration of the prize, “Last time the theme was design because I felt we'd lacked critical design practices. The title was ‘Poetry to Politics’ and there was a lot of work that was activist in nature. It was about addressing revolution and resistance, thinking critically about architecture, typography, fashion, and weaving”.

The Jameel Prize is an international award for contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic art, culture and society, yet Dedman clarifies that “The Prize is open to anyone of any background … I think many of our artists wouldn't necessarily identify as Muslim” and that it’s open to practices “addressing issues that face Muslim communities, wherever it may be in the world”.

In further links to the Jameel family, “We're very fortunate having the Jameel Endowment at the V&A to enable us to run the Jameel Prize, to make acquisitions, and support other forms of programming. One of the first things I did when I got here was propose that we start a residency program for artists: our Jameel Fellowship programme. I invite artists to do research with our collection, offer them the time, space, stipend and support to evolve existing work or develop new projects in relation to our collection, and focus on research. They don't have to make anything, though they often do, and then we can acquire it or display it … This is not something I had the resources to do when I was an independent curator”.

When we discuss how audiences' expectations of museums have changed, “There's certainly a recognition of how much our audiences respond to a diverse and dynamic exhibitions program … the audience appetite has changed, and it's so exciting to see such more diverse audiences coming into the museum because they're excited by The Great Mughals, for instance”. Referring back to the Jameel Prize she considers it to be “Catering to a younger audience who are excited by cinema and digital artforms, and inspired by the storytelling from these regions, by artists who are tapped into the politics of climate change facing Pakistan, Kuwait and the Gulf”.

When it comes to the wider museum discussions around the return of looted objects, “We are subject to totally legitimate calls for repatriation and our audiences are asking about the colonial history of the museum and the origins and provenance of our collections. We’re not quite the international flashpoint for this discussion as the British Museum with the Benin Bronzes and the Elgin Marbles, to name the most obvious examples … We have our provenance curators who are thinking about these questions. Jacques Schumacher, who worked in provenance at the V&A, recently undertook research that led to the restitution of a 4,250-year-old vase on long-term loan to the V&A to the Museum of Anatolian Civilisation in Ankara, Turkey. We're always working to unpick complex histories and tell those stories. I think the V&A Storehouse is going to be a great site for that”, she adds, referencing the soon-to-open V&A East. 

This conversation allows us to circle back to the contemporary relevance of the Jameel Prize - “If you ask me why do this sort of show now? It's because, at a time of horrifying conflict in the region and the disproportionate effects of climate change on the Global South, it's meaningful to platform the voices of artists from the Middle East and South Asia, who historically have not been able to speak for themselves in such institutions”.

We discuss how Dedman is not of Middle-Eastern heritage. “It's an enormous position of privilege for me to be here - this isn't my heritage, this isn't my culture, and I'm always aware of that. Being an independent curator in the region I could move between Lebanon and Palestine, because I have the privilege of two nationalities, separate passports, and I could make that journey”. She has the additional insight of “speaking the language, being embedded, having a network in the region ... I try to bring all of that to bear and see my role as one of making space, making opportunity, and creating possibilities for artists”.

She adds that her Jewish heritage allows her to “To push back and it gives me the ability to speak without being afraid”, and to challenge “the dismissal and the erasure of pro-Palestinian statements and work under the guise of anti-Semitism”. In terms of how that may shape the collection, “I'm really keen this year to acquire a whole body of material contemporary Palestinian solidarity, including some brilliant badges, publications and posters that are being made”, she adds while wearing a Palestinian solidarity badge. 

Throughout the interview, it’s clear the passion Rachel Dedman has to platform the art and activism in the Middle East and South Asia and give voices to those who may not necessarily be heard in the UK. It suggests we have lots to look forward to in the contemporary collecting by the V&A and future iterations of the Jameel Prize. 

Jameel Prize: Moving Image is on at V&A until 16 March and is free to visit.