Object Lesson: Yaroub Al Obaidi

Object Lesson | Thurs. Sept 15, 2022 | 3:00 – 4:00 pm | Hybrid

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Object Lesson is a monthly First Friday speaker series that will open wide the cases of the Center’s Museum Collection through the perspectives of individuals from the worlds of art, design, performance, community activism, education, and more, creating fresh dialogues about the Collection and its objects. The series invites the public for an up-close and personal experience in an informal, discursive setting that will encourage exploration of the many treasures in the Collection.

Yaroub Al Obaidi: Iraqi-American artist and scholar Yaroub Al Obaidi was born in Diyala-Iraq. He has been a designer, researcher, and author and lectured at the College of Fine Arts-University of Baghdad from 2004 until 2007, where he earned a master’s degree in design.

Since settling in Philadelphia in 2016, Al Obaidi earned a second master’s degree in socially engaged art from Moore College of Arts and Design. He has collaborated and led many projects including Radio Silence by artist Michael Rakowitz and Mural Arts,  a project inspired by famed Iraqi broadcaster Bahjat Abdulwahed, the Friends, Peace and Sanctuary, and Sticky Family comic book, a Swarthmore College project that explored the history and experiences of refugees through bookarts and exhibitions,  Celebration of Survival: Stories of Iraqi Refugees & Veterans and Two Rivers: Letters from Tigris to Schuylkill organized and sponsored by Warrior Writers. Most recently, he was the lead artist at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education for Al Mudhif – A Confluence, a project, dedicated to the veterans of the US wars in Iraq and to the Iraqi people. A mudhif is a traditional Southern Iraqi structure, made entirely out of woven Phragmites reed, that serves as a hospitality and gathering space. Currently, Al Obaidi is a global guide and educator at the Penn Museum and co-founder and chief editor for Friends, Peace, Sanctuary, the Arabic journal in Philadelphia.

Unknown Artist, “Cookie Cutter Rolling Pin”, 20th c., OBJ 201

This event is free to the public. The Center for Art in Wood interprets, nurtures, and champions creative engagement and expansion of art, craft, and design in wood to enhance the public’s understanding and appreciation of it. A suggested donation of $5 per person enables us to provide programs and exhibitions throughout the year.

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Questions? Please contact Katie Sorenson, Director of Outreach and Communications, at [email protected].