Rachel Dedman (b. 1989, London) is a curator, writer, and art historian.
Since 2019, Rachel has been the Jameel Curator of Contemporary Art from the Middle East at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Recent projects for the V&A include the exhibition Jameel Prize: Poetry to Politics; the commissioning platform Beirut Mapped; and the establishment of a research residency programme for artists and designers.
Beyond the V&A, Rachel is the curator of Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery for Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, and The Whitworth, Manchester, in 2023-2024. She is curating the next edition of the State of Fashion Biennale in Arnhem, the Netherlands, with Louise Bennetts in 2024.
From 2013-2019 Rachel was based in Beirut, Lebanon. Notable projects include At the still point of the turning world, there is the dance, for Ashkal Alwan’s Home Works Forum 8 at Sursock Museum, Lebanon, 2019; Shorthand: Nadim Karam, notes from the archive, A.MUSE.UM, Lebanon, 2019; A Thousand Hands: Legacies and Futures of Care in Brent, Kiln Theatre, London, 2018; Labour of Love: New Approaches to Palestinian Embroidery, Palestinian Museum, West Bank, 2018; and Midad: The Public and Intimate Lives of Arabic Calligraphy, Dar el-Nimer, Lebanon, 2017.
Rachel is co-founder and editor of polycephaly.net, and one third of Radio Earth Hold, a research and broadcast collective supported by the Serpentine Galleries and Nottingham Contemporary. She is widely published in academic and contemporary art contexts, and trained in the history of art at St John’s College, Oxford, and Harvard University, where she did her Postgraduate studies as the Von Clemm Fellow, 2012/13.
Please tell us about yourself
I’m a curator and writer. I’m the Jameel Curator of Contemporary Art from the Middle East at the V&A, in London, with an independent curatorial practice alongside. I’m the Chair of the Board of Metroland Cultures.
What was your journey into the arts?
I was part of the young people’s programme Raw Canvas at Tate Modern from 2006 and was active in that while still at school. It helped point me towards studying the History of Art at University.
There I was interested in looking beyond standard Western canons and specialised in modern and contemporary art of the Middle East as a postgrad. I moved to Beirut in 2013 and spent six years working there and in Palestine as an independent curator.
What inspires you?
Artists, artwork and exhibitions that actively engage with political urgencies and stake a clear position.
Why should people join CVAN London?
It’s a no-brainer – in an increasingly hostile and challenging environment for arts organisations and for artists, there is strength in numbers. CVAN offers opportunities for growth, support and solidarity via its networks.
What is one piece of advice or learning that resonates with you right now as part of the AREVA Writer's Room?
I’ve been bowled over by the experience of the Writers Room and how eye-opening it has been to think critically about institutional language, particularly in contexts we rarely read let alone think about, like our internal policies and codes.
How can our policy documents meet legal and governmental guidelines for non-profit organisations, while also feeling human, accessible, clear?
How can our language better reflect the integrity with which we approach our relationships with artists and audiences?
These questions have a quiet impact far beyond the page.
Much of what we’ve ended up working through collectively is how our written institutional architecture, and a new shared language we are forging, might be able to protect and enable the work we do in expressing solidarity with Palestine.
In a difficult political climate, and incredibly painful time, in the face of aggressive lobby groups, this feels like urgent work.
What's coming up?
I’m currently focussed on curating the upcoming Jameel Prize: Moving Images exhibition at the V&A, with seven artists from the Middle East and South Asia working in moving image and digital media.
I’m also working on touring projects following a show I curated last year for Kettle’s Yard and the Whitworth, Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery, on the politics of Palestinian dress and textiles.
A favourite art moment in London:
I’ve never forgotten the Psycho Buildings exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in 2008, which I visited with my late Dad while I was still a teenager.
They filled the roof with water and we rowed boats around it. It was amazing.
