Embroidered Traditions from Morocco to Afghanistan

Speaker: Janet Marion Purdy

Time: 12:00 pm- 1:00 pm CST

Venue: 206 Ingraham Hall
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Talk Description

The vast area that spans from Morocco and Algeria in the west to Afghanistan and Uzbekistan in the east is connected by millennia-old trade networks. In the exhibition “Embroidered Traditions from Morocco to Afghanistan” currently on view at the Art Institute of Chicago, these connections are illustrated by richly decorated textiles that transmit cultural expressions of identity, status, and long-held belief systems. In this talk, Janet Purdy will present works from across North Africa that highlight how the artistic embellishments of worn garments and adornments hold personal, cherished memories. The exhibition considers North Africa as part of “SWANA” – Southwest Asia and North Africa – and this talk will consider how such a perspective can shed new light on artistic traditions of Africa.

Speaker’s Bio

Janet Marion Purdy is the Barbara Franke Associate Curator in Textiles at the Art Institute of Chicago. Her multisited global research examines Afro-Arab-Asian visual relationships in textiles, metalwork, and architecture as artistic and cultural exchange across Africa, Southwest and Central Asia, and the Indian Ocean world. She received her PhD in the historical arts and architecture of Africa from the Pennsylvania State University and was a Fulbright Scholar in Zanzibar, Tanzania, 2018–19. Purdy is visiting lecturer in African art history at the University of Chicago and research-curatorial consultant for Qatar Museums, including the Qatar Pavilion at Venice Biennale Architettura 2025.

This event is generously co-sponsored by the Design Studies Program at the School of Human Ecology and supported by the Department of Art History, and the Chazen Museum of Art.

The event is free and open to the public.