During the dark months of winter, my friend Nour kept telling me, “Summer is very rewarding in London,” and I could not have possibly imagined a summer such as this one!
Over 10 weeks this summer, I had the amazing opportunity to be part of The Arab British Centre’s team as their Curatorial Intern through the SOAS Summer Internships Programme.
For my first nine months in London, I was heavily immersed in lectures on curation, museology, literature, and anthropology. It was such an intense experience to be in a theoretical and writing-based programme after years of being a dancer, design student, and designer, where I mostly focused on conceptualising designs and problem-solving, with much less time invested in writing. Yet, throughout this year, I put my problem-solving skills into action, supported by my growing writing skills, to complete almost 16 assignments and one massive, precise dissertation.
The SOAS internship programme interested everyone in my circle. We all wanted to gain some experience while enjoying the London summer. But what I did not know was just how much this internship would help me on so many levels.
As a design student, I had always thought differently. While working at the Palestinian Museum and gaining knowledge in curation, one of my fears was: How will I connect curation and museum studies with my practical skills in design?
Then this internship came my way, thankfully, and helped answer some of those questions.
Through the internship, it became clear to me that such a position required both my design and curation skills, and that you never really lose what you have learned and worked for. It became clear to me that I can never touch a piece of paper again in my life without analysing all the text and margins on it. I will never read a story without questioning the choices the writer made. I will never walk into an exhibition or museum without reading the wall text, studying the caption design and content, making a mental map of the exhibition, and taking every positive point as a lesson, while treating every mistake, in my view, as another lesson in what not to do in my future work.
At The Arab British Centre, I completed a range of tasks that allowed me to draw on my interdisciplinary background. From creating designs for events and contracts, to proofreading copies of work and writing blogs for events such as the Detainees & Disappeared event and the As We Are Creative Exchange Day, I was constantly moving between design, writing, research, and curation. I also had the opportunity to develop a full proposal based on a month of archive research, digging through the ABC’s collections and exploring its history.
All of these experiences brought my different skills together into one body of practice. What I had previously thought of as separate areas of knowledge began to feel much more connected, and I now feel confident carrying this interdisciplinary approach into whatever comes next.
The Arab British Centre is a place for bridging cultures, as I learned even before I started working there, when I visited their Tatreez Circle in March with Najlaa Jarbou. After going in for my office days, I became even more certain of this statement. It is not just a slogan; it is also a place where I learned a lot, whether through bridging my degrees and knowledge or through working with amazing people who genuinely enjoyed what they did and loved coming to work every morning.
I am deeply thankful to SOAS, The Arab British Centre, and the Dr Mai Yamani Scholarship for enabling me to be here in London and experience all of this.
About the author: Riyad Khouri is a dancer and designer, currently completing an MA in Curating Cultures at SOAS University of London. At the time of writing, he is a Curatorial Intern at the Arab British Centre.