TALIM gets its share of AIMS Maghribi Scholars (the American Institute for Maghrib Studies grant program for inter-Maghrib research). Actually, Morocco gets the lion's share of scholars from Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania, and Libya. At TALIM, we get to meet these scholars, who all have interesting stories to tell about their specializations, from architecture to zoology.
But to our knowledge, this is the first time we've been provided with a One Man Show of art and photography, often with intriguing overlays of Arabic calligraphry on architectural backgrounds. Thanks to Wissem Abdelmoula (posing at left with one of his acrylics), assistant professor of fine arts at the University of Tunis' Institut Supérieur de Beaux-arts, we now have an impromtu exhibit that will have lasting value, featuring the American Legation, other Moroccan scenes, and the Tunisian institution Bayt al-Hekma in Carthage.
Today's opening of Wissem Abdelmoula's exhibit drew artists, architects, and members of the Legation's own Women's Literacy program (photo below), whose classes include practical art instruction. One of the graduates, Fatima Gharbaoui, has had her own exhibition and sale, allowing her to install water and electricity in her medina home.
We hope that Wissem's generosity will inspire other scholars not only to share their research with us and with their specialized academic community, but also to make their work available to the thinking public. Dr. Abdelmoula's works will remain on display in our research library, one of the Legation's most beautiful settings in the original 18th century building given to the United States for its diplomatic representatives to Morocco by Sultan Moulay Suleiman in 1821.
Thank you, Wissem Abdelmoula.
Gerald Loftus