The Kelsey Museum is pleased to welcome Christiane Gruber as a visiting faculty curator. During this academic year (2023–2024), Christiane will work on the conceptualization and implementation of the Kelsey Museum’s Byzantine and Islamic Gallery (BIG). She is excited to return to the Kelsey as, in 2014–2015, she curated an exhibition of its Islamic artworks (“Pearls of Wisdom: The Arts of Islam at the University of Michigan”), whose online catalog can be browsed here.
Besides serving as curator this year, Christiane is the professor of Islamic art and former chair in the History of Art Department at the University of Michigan, as well as the founding director of Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online. Her scholarly work (available here) explores medieval to contemporary Islamic art, and her public-facing essays have appeared in Newsweek, The Conversation, New Lines, Jadaliyya, and Prospect, among others.
Welcome, Christiane!
