A Story in Stitches: Artist Talk by Hannah Atallah + Lecture by Wafa Ghnaim

Join us at the Making Space Bmore gallery for an evening of art and history featuring an artist talk by Hannah Atallah and lecture by dress historian and curator Wafa Ghnaim!

Artist-in-Residence Hannah Atallah will discuss her current installation, Unfortunately, It Was Paradise, new work-in-progress, Problems of Value, and share about her artistic practice. Atallah operates at the nexus of public art, cultural preservation, and community engagement. In her works, she draws inspiration from culturally significant traditions of her Palestinian-Lebanese-Irish heritage, from marquetry to carpet weaving and tatreez embroidery.

Art and dress historian Wafa Ghnaim, co-curator of Making Space exhibitionTatreez Inheritance, will provide a lecture on the history and cultural significance of Palestinian tatreez embroidery and guide guests through a rare opportunity to enjoy the art of "close looking" with the dresses featured in the exhibition.

• 4:30pm Doors Open
• 5:00pm Artist Talk with Hannah Atallah
• 6:00pm Lecture by Wafa Ghnaim

Photo credit: Jalen Joshua Williams

Hannah Atallah (b. 1994, Washington, DC) is a visual artist who draws on her Palestinian-Lebanese-Irish heritage. With a focus on large-scale public art projects and installations, she prioritizes the incorporation of community and relevant cultural contexts in her practice. Atallah has painted murals and exhibited work in the US, Mexico and Jordan. She has been the winner of nearly 20 grants and awards, notably with the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the Baltimore Convention Center, and DC public schools. Her work has been acquired in public and private collections internationally.

www.hannahatallah.com | @hannah_atallah

Photo credit: Ashraf Hussein

Wafa Ghnaim is an art and dress historian, fashion researcher, embroiderer, educator, and the founder of the Tatreez Institute, specializing in Palestinian embroidery and adornment. She is the author of Tatreez & Tea (2016) and THOBNA (2023), with research published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the National Gallery of Singapore. A former instructor at the Smithsonian and Research Scholar at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she now continues her preservation work as a Research Fellow supported by the Mellon Foundation at the Museum of the Palestinian People, and a commissioned designer for Victoria & Albert Museum’s Thread Memory: Embroidery from Palestine.

www.tatreezandtea.com | @tatreezandtea

The Tatreez Institute, also known as Tatreez & Tea, was founded by Wafa Ghnaim in 2016 to preserve, research, and document Palestinian embroidery, dress, and history in the United States. Dedicated to safeguarding intangible cultural heritage and preventing cultural erasure, the Institute stewards a growing collection of traditional dresses and headdresses from Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan rematriated from dumpsters, estates, and households across the world. This study collection facilitates the research that is published by the Institute, and is stewarded through Palestinian hands. Through research, education, and restoration practices, the Institute ensures that the art of embroidery in Palestine, inclusive of the practices, skills, knowledge and rituals as inscribed by UNESCO in 2021, continues to be studied, practiced, and transmitted across generations living in exile.

Host or Publisher Making Space Bmore