London’s Mosaic Rooms dedicated to contemporary art from the Arab world and its diasporas has reopened with a reconfigured 19th-century building that now includes enhanced facilities for public engagement. The venue at Tower House on Cromwell Road transitioned to independent charitable status as it marked the occasion with a new permanent commission and the first UK solo exhibition by French-Moroccan artist Bouchra Khalili. According to a report in The Art Newspaper, the year-long refurbishment was funded by the Al-Qattan Charitable Trust and has allowed the institution to expand its programming capabilities while maintaining its core focus established since opening in 2008.
The expansion introduced several new and refreshed spaces designed to foster community interaction and learning. Visitors now enter through a redesigned garden created by landscape architects Aarde that features an outdoor amphitheatre according to the institution’s announcements. An expanded bookshop offers reading nooks and a forthcoming lending library while The Salon hosts talks screenings and gatherings and a new Play Room provides fully accessible creative activities for families and young people.
A prominent addition is the permanent site-specific commission Four Moons from Home by Palestinian artist Dima Srouji which consists of stained-glass windows crafted in Bethlehem using Jerusalem stone. The work incorporates motifs from Palestinian flora and fauna alongside traditional Qamariya designs that diffuse patterned light into the welcome area. Support for the installation came from the Art Fund and the Al-Qattan Charitable Trust as noted in coverage by the Museums Association.
The reopening launched with Bouchra Khalili: Circles and Storytellers the artist’s first public solo exhibition in the UK. The show brings together three film works exploring the legacy of the Movement of Arab Workers and its theatre groups with themes of solidarity belonging and collective struggle. Khalili has investigated the subject for more than a decade since first presenting related pieces at Documenta in 2017 according to The Art Newspaper.
Founded in 2008 by the A.M. Qattan Foundation the Mosaic Rooms has served as a consistent platform for artists from the Arab region including Heba Y. Amin Hayv Kahraman and Mohammed Omar Khalil. Over the years its audience has grown amid increasing interest in art from the Global South and efforts to counter reductive narratives following events such as the September 11 attacks. A 2018 profile in Elephant magazine highlighted the venue’s role in presenting multifaceted Arab cultural perspectives through exhibitions and related programming.
New director Pip Day who took up the post in September described the architectural changes as making visible activities that have long shaped the institution. “Mosaic Rooms has been shaped by its communities for the past 17 years,” Day said. “These activities have always been present in the institution’s history and now they’re being made present in the architecture.”
The revamped venue will continue with events such as the Small Press Fest scheduled for June 2026 and the Edward W. Said London Lecture in October of that year presented in partnership with the A.M. Qattan Foundation. These initiatives build on the Mosaic Rooms’ history of workshops lectures and multidisciplinary projects that engage both local residents and international audiences interested in Arab and SWANA region culture.
