"Dara Shikoh with Sages." Circa 1635. View more images

After September 11, however, all that changed, considerably. Following the terrorist attacks, many U.S. museums reported a 20 percent drop in attendance, but not Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, which offered free admittance for weeks after the attacks. And the Islamic art exhibit was a hot spot. Kelly Gifford, one of the museum's public relations officers, remembers being struck by just how crowded the museum was then. Similarly, the Peabody Essex Museum, suspecting people would seek information on Islamic art, put together a lecture series devoted to Islamic culture, resulting in one of the museum's best-attended programs. Other local curators also began to notice a surge of interest in Islamic art. Mary McWilliams, Harvard University's Norma Jean Calderwood Curator of Islamic and Later Indian Art, says "museums absolutely have seen an increased number of people coming to gallery talks and exhibitions on Islamic art."

"Safavid." 1525-50. View more images

In the aftermath of 9/11, Americans felt the need to learn something about the Islamic world. Art proved to be an accessible window to that world. Matthew Barone, Public Relations Officer of the Harvard University Art Museums, says, "September 11th focused the world on Islamic nations and the Middle East in general. The media noted that Islamic art provided an in-depth look into the lives of the Afghan people and their culture. Art is a significant part of their culture and histories, so it would be appropriate, under this new microscope, for the media to focus on this unexplored area."

Current events have made the art intriguing. Barone adds, "I feel that 9/11 combined with the competitive nature of media created this new level of interest in Islamic art with writers finally acknowledging the significance and importance of these works in history. For years we have had wonderful scholarly exhibitions focusing on Islamic art at the Sackler Museum with only average amounts of coverage."

When asked what attracted him to the Islamic art exhibit at Boston's MFA, a visitor responded that he had "always been interested in the works' patterns and colors and its association with history, in the same way I'm interested in works from Egypt. But after 9/11, I guess, I'm more drawn to look at these works as opposed to stopping by other galleries on my way to the current [temporary] exhibitions."

One of the speakers at Peabody Essex Museum's lecture series on Islamic art. View more images

But not every museum exhibit witnessed an increased interest in Islamic art, at least not if it wasn't specifically labeled as such. Julia Bailey, the MFA's former curator of Islamic art and now managing editor of "Maqarnas," an annual magazine devoted to Islamic visual culture, points out: "After 9/11, I put together a show of Persian textiles at the MFA, but it didn't seem to draw a lot of attention."

One of the three main world religions, Islam is the principle religion in the Middle East, North Africa, and some parts of Asia. As Islam spread from 622 on, it did so while still allowing its new territories to retain their religious and cultural heritages. As McWilliams says, "Islamic art is the visual expression of a complex of cultures united, but not really unified by religion. As such, it reflects the values and aspirations not only of the religion, but of the many peoples for whom Islam has been or is now the dominant faith."

"Islamic art," McWilliams sums up, "is one of the great chapters in art history, encompassing 14 centuries of artistic development in a remarkably wide range of media. Wonderfully wrought objects play a central role in the social, economic, and material lives of the peoples and proves a constant source of visual and intellectual pleasure and gratification."

"Linga/Yoni Self-Portrait as Shiva." 1999. View more images

The story behind one of the Persian tents on display at the "Poetry of the Loom: Persian Textiles in the MFA" exhibit reveals much about Islamic art's cultural value: "According to lore, Turkish sultan Suleyman the Magnificent seized the textile in Iran and used it in his royal tent; after the Turkish defeat at the 1683 Siege of Vienna, it was awarded to a Polish prince."

Recently, contemporary artists have also begun to rediscover the allure of Islamic art. The growing popularity was confirmed by the responses to the summer show "India: Contemporary Responses" at the Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, MA, and the symposium on Islamic cultural traditions in ceramic arts, organized by Nancy Selvage at Harvard University. Selvage says, "Originally I was thinking of putting together a symposium on pre-Islamic work, using the Semitic Museum's collection; but after September 11th I switched the focus to Islamic traditions to create an opportunity to focus on Islamic topics in a positive way that we all could share." The symposium and companion exhibition at the Society for Arts and Crafts turned out to be one of the most attended. The show in Duxbury was one of the few exhibits outside of New York reviewed by the "New York Times" in that period.

Perhaps McWilliams speaks for many members of the art world when she says, "I'm really proud of our country. We could have taken a really different attitude, but what I have seen, personally, is openness to and interest in Islamic art, which speaks a lot about American curiosity and America in general."

Peabody Essex Museum - Salem, MA

MORE ARTS HEADLINES

	Curtains for Boston Costume			"So Much, So Fast"
	Anything But Ordinary			Roller Rink on Thin Ice

		Arts Features Films at the Gate Photos See photos of kung-fu movies and former Boston Chinatown movie theater locations. Guerrilla Art See photos of local artist Matthew Hincman's bench-like sculpture. "O" is for Original Local artist "Danny O" portrays whimsical scenes of summer in Boston. Multimedia Singer at 100 An exclusive online special explores the controversial work and life of Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer. Gauguin's Tahiti Paintings Take a multimedia tour of Paul Gauguin's Tahiti paintings, including the famous painting, "Where Are We From." Hawthorne at 200 View a multimedia celebration of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 200th birthday.