The Institute of Arab and Islamic Art in New York has added five artists, writers, and curators to its advisory committee. The committee is designed to help the IAIA develop its programming and overall creative vision.

The advisory committee’s new members are Bidoun‘s senior editor, Negar Azimi; Omar Berrada, the director of the Dar al-Ma’mûn residency program in Marrakech; Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Clare Davies; the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair’s founding director, Touria El Glaoui; and artist Walid Raad.

Having opened this past summer in New York’s Nolita neighborhood, the IAIA showcases work by Muslim artists and artists of Arab descent. Speaking to ARTnewsearlier this year, the institute’s founding director and chief curator, Mohammed Rashid Al-Thani, said, “We hope this is a space for the community to engage, either through the exhibitions or the public programming, with the cultures of the region.”