The Detroit Institute of Arts presents “The Art of Dining: Food Culture in the Islamic World,” a large-scale investigation that explores and celebrates Islamic art through the lens of food and culinary culture.

Featuring nearly 230 works from the Middle East, Egypt, Central, South and East Asia, and Europe, the exhibition explores the connections between art and cuisine from antiquity to the present day, showing how food transcends cultures, backgrounds, and borders.

“The Art of Dining” will be on display from September 22, 2024 to January 5, 2025 and combines a multisensory experience of sights, sounds and smells with a wide range of historical objects related to the preparation, serving and enjoyment of food.

The show is presented in thematic groupings such as food preparation, communal eating and coffee culture as well as healthy eating, picnicking and much more.

“With this extraordinary presentation, the DIA celebrates the art of food and its ability to bring people together,” said Salvador Salort-Pons, director of the Detroit Institute of Arts. “Because this is especially relevant in Michigan, we are excited to break bread with everyone and experience the fascinating and delicious food culture of the Islamic world – an opportunity to enjoy the cultural richness of our diverse communities that enrich our region every day.”

The exhibition includes vessels and tableware for eating and drinking; paintings depicting scenes of feasting and food preparation; historic cookbooks with recipes still in use today; musical instruments – played for entertainment during lavish meals and presented here with sound clips; beautiful garments worn on special occasions such as banquets; and scent boxes filled with the aromas of rose water, orange blossom, coffee and cardamom.

A section focused on the sufra – a cloth table or low table on which food is served – explores the dining experience. An interactive sufra invites visitors to a digitally presented six-course meal based on historical recipes from across the Islamic world. The recipes, adapted for today’s chefs by Chef Najmieh Batmanglij, cookbook author and leading authority on Persian cuisine, are available via QR code.

Complementing the presentation of historical objects is a contemporary multimedia installation by Iraqi-born artist Sadik Kwaish Alfraji entitled A Thread of Light Between My Mother’s Fingers and Heaven (2023). Rooted in the artist’s memories of his mother, her home-baked bread and family meals in Baghdad, the work includes large-scale animation, drawings and photographs that evoke feelings of comfort, love and nostalgia.

Originally organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the exhibition includes works from 30 public and private collections from the United States, Europe and the Middle East.

Sixteen of the works on display come from the DIA’s collection, including a ceramic rooster-headed jug from Iran (ca. 1200), a tinned copper salt cellar from India engraved with poetic verses about salt (dated 1664–65), and two strikingly similar serving platters—one from China (early 15th century), the other from Turkey (late 15th to early 16th century)—that illustrate the global trend toward blue-and-white ceramics.

The Detroit metropolitan area is home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the country, and there are many other communities with ties to the Middle East and Central and South Asia.

For the exhibit, the DIA is partnering with several organizations, businesses and community leaders to offer free public programs, educator workshops and more. The exhibit will open on September 22 at 2 p.m. with a live conversation between Alfraji and Arab American National Museum Director Diana Abouali.

“With objects representing artistic and cultural traditions from a wide geographic area and a history spanning over 1,500 years, The Art of Dining reflects the diversity of the Islamic world,” says Katherine Kasdorf, DIA’s associate curator of Asian and Islamic World Art.

“We can all identify with the customs of eating, drinking and sharing meals with friends and family, and this exhibition invites visitors to reflect on the personal and cultural connections we make through food.”

At the Detroit Institute of Arts, the exhibition is supported by the Friends of Asian Arts and Cultures and a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The art of eating: food culture in the Islamic world is included in museum admission, which is always free for residents of Macomb, Oakland and Wayne Counties.

For more information, visit https://dia.org/.

DIA opening hours and admission

• Tuesday-Thursday – 9:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
• Friday – 9:00 a.m.‒9:00 p.m.
• Saturday-Sunday – 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.