Rachel Dedman
{{Infobox person
| image =
| caption =
| birth_name = Rachel Louise Dedman
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|1989|10|27}}
| birth_place =
| alma_mater = St John's College, Oxford
| occupation =
| years_active = 2013–present
| partner = Andrew Maughan
| children = 1
| website = {{url|https://racheldedman.com/}}
}}
Rachel Jessica Dedman (born 17 October 1989) is an English curator, art historian and writer. As of 2019, she is Jameel Curator of Contemporary Art from the Middle East at the V&A. She is perhaps best known for curating exhibitions on tatreez for the Palestinian Museum, Kettle's Yard and The Whitworth.
Early life
Dedman grew up in North West London.{{Cite web|url=https://metrolandcultures.com/news/introducing-our-new-board-of-trustees/|title=Introducing our new Board of Trustees|work=Metroland Cultures|date=9 July 2021|accessdate=2 July 2025}} She is of Jewish heritage.{{Cite web|url=https://spaghettiboost.com/en/magazine/sostenere-le-voci-rachel-dedman-sulla-curatela-dellarte-contemporanea-del-medio-oriente-al-va|title=Interview with Rachel Dedman, Jameel Curator of Contemporary Art from the Middle East at V&A|work=Spaghetti Boost|first=Tabish|last=Khan|date=3 March 2025|accessdate=2 July 2025}} She attended North London Collegiate School.{{Cite web|url=https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/documents/TW8__for_website.pdf|title=Undergraduate Scholars|work=TW Magazine|publisher=St John's College, Oxford|date=2011|accessdate=2 July 2025|p=62}} She graduated with a degree in History of Art from St John's College, Oxford.{{Cite web|url=https://www.oxfordstudent.com/2025/06/01/what-art-can-do-rachel-dedman-on-resistance-identity-and-connection/|title=What art can do: Rachel Dedman on resistance, identity and connection|work=The Oxford Student|first=Meira|last=Lee|date=1 June 2025|accessdate=2 July 2025}} She was the 2012–2013 Von Clemm Fellow at Harvard University.{{Cite web|url=https://beirut-art-fair.com/meet-rachel-dedman-curator-of-revealing-by-sgbl/|title=Meet Rachel Dedman: curator of REVEALING by SGBL|work=Beirut Art Fair|date=2019|accessdate=2 July 2025}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.cvanlondon.art/spotlight/rachel-dedman/|title=Network Spotlight: Rachel Dedman|work=Contemporary Visual Arts Network|accessdate=2 July 2025}}
Career
=Tatreez=
The Palestinian Museum, then led by Jack Persekian and Omar Al-Qattan,{{Cite web|url=https://www.guernicamag.com/elizabeth-a-mcinerny-fabric-of-resistance/|title=Fabric of Resistance|work=Guernica|first=Elizabeth A.|last=McInerny|date=3 August 2016|accessdate=2 July 2025}} first approached Dedman in 2013 to curate a forthcoming satellite show in Beirut on tatreez due to Dedman's ability to travel between Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan for research. She worked with Widad Kawar and drew upon her and Shelagh Weir's works in addition to oral histories and interviews with embroiderers. At the Seams: A Political History of Palestinian Embroidery opened at the Dar-El Nimer cultural centre in 2016.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2016/05/25/palestinian-museums-first-satellite-show-opens-in-beirut|title=Palestinian Museum's first satellite show opens in Beirut|work=The Art Newspaper|first=Aimee|last=Dawson|date=25 June 2016|accessdate=2 July 2025}} The expanded second iteration of this project took place at the Palestinian Museum's Birzeit location in 2018 under the title Labour of Love: New Approaches to Palestinian Embroidery. Dedman also wrote the accompanying pamphlets.{{Cite web|url=https://dafbeirut.org/contentFiles/file/2020/06/Labour-of-Love-Rachel-Dedman.pdf|title=Labour of Love - Rachel Dedman|work=Dalloul Art Foundation|date=June 2020|accessdate=2 July 2025}}
Starting summer 2023, Dedman curated the exhibition Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery as part of a collaboration between Kettle's Yard in Cambridge and The Whitworth in Manchester.{{Cite web|url=https://somethingcurated.com/2023/05/24/material-power-curator-rachel-dedman-on-how-palestinian-embroidery-became-protest/|title=Material Power: Curator Rachel Dedman On How Palestinian Embroidery Became Protest|work=Something Curated|date=24 May 2023|accessdate=2 July 2025}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/jul/17/rebellious-robes-and-stitches-from-the-civil-war-the-radical-story-of-palestinian-embroidery|title=Rebellious robes and stitches from the civil war: the radical story of Palestinian embroidery|work=The Guardian|first=Safi|last=Bugel|date=17 July 2023|accessdate=2 July 2025}} She also published the book Stitching the Intifada via Common Threads Press.{{Cite web|url=https://www.selvedge.org/blogs/selvedge/stitching-the-intifada-embroidery-and-resistance-in-palestine?srsltid=AfmBOop1xXJvd6Jaiz9J8j3rVLglyu4rF_IirFrDZ18-St0Evz7sJqiu|title=Stitching the Intifada: Embroidery and Resistance in Palestine|work=Selvedge|date=16 November 2021|accessdate=2 July 2025}} In 2025, Dedman used the Palestinian Museum's photographic archive to curate Thread Memory, which was showcased at the Hayy Jameel in Jeddah and then the V&A Dundee.{{Cite web|url=https://www.1854.photography/2025/04/thread-memory-hayy-jameel-exhibition-palestine/|title=In Thread Memory, photography of Palestinian tatreez resists forgetting|work=British Journal of Photography|first=Dalia|last=Al-Dujaili|date=16 April 2025|accessdate=2 July 2025}}
=V&A=
Upon returning to London in 2019, Dedman joined the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) as Jameel Curator of Contemporary Art from the Middle East. She stated she "was excited by the possibility of working less project-to-project, and by the opportunity to contribute to a museum over a longer duration". Her projects for the V&A include organising Beirut Mapped, the Jameel Prize, and the Jameel Fellowship.{{Cite web|url=https://www.stirworld.com/see-features-rachel-dedman-curator-at-the-v-a-speaks-on-the-sixth-edition-of-the-jameel-prize|title=Rachel Dedman, Curator at the V&A, speaks on the sixth edition of the Jameel Prize|work=Stir|first=Indranjan|last=Banerjee|date=21 November 2021|accessdate=2 July 2025}}{{Cite web|url=https://gallerygirl.co/2023/10/04/podcast-gallery-girl-meets-rachel-dedman/|title=Gallery Girl meets Rachel Dedman|work=Gallery Girl|first=Lizzy|last=Vartanian Collier|date=4 October 2023|accessdate=2 July 2025}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.baytalfann.com/post/poetry-to-politics-at-the-v-a-rachel-dedman|title=Poetry to Politics, Rachel Dedman Jameel Curator of Contemporary Art from the Middle East at V&A|work=Bayt Al Fann|date=15 November 2021|accessdate=2 July 2025}}
=Other exhibitions=
In the interim, Dedman won the 2014–2015 Apexart Franchise Program, granting her the opportunity to present the exhibition Space Between Our Fingers.{{Cite web|url=https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/31188/beirut-dar-es-salaam-and-detroit|title=Beirut, Dar es Salaam, and Detroit|work=e-Flux|date=1 May 2014|accessdate=2 July 2025}} Also in 2016, Dedman collaborated with Marie Muracciole on Unravelled at the Beirut Art Center.{{Cite web|url=https://www.generazionecritica.it/en/rachael-dedman/|title=Rachel Dedman|work=Generazione Critica|date=22 June 2019|accessdate=2 July 2025}} She returned to Dar El-Nimer in 2017 for Midad: The Public and Intimate Lives of Arabic Calligraphy.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ibraaz.org/reviews/133|title=Midad: The Public and Intimate Lives of Arabic Calligraphy at Dar El-Nimer|work=Ibraaz|author=Reema Salha Fadda|date=26 June 2017|accessdate=2 July 2025}}
Back in London, the Kiln Theatre commissioned Dedman to curate A Thousand Hands: Legacies and Futures of Care in Brent, which was exhibited at Brent Museum and Archives in her home borough in 2018.{{Cite web|url=https://www.broadwayworld.com/uk-regional/article/Kiln-Theatre-Launches-Exhibition-About-The-History-Of-Care-And-Migration-In-Brent-20181129|title=Kiln Theatre Launches Exhibition About The History Of Care And Migration In Brent|work=BroadwayWorld|first=Julie|last=Musbach|date=29 November 2018|accessdate=2 July 2025}}
Dedman remained in Lebanon until 2019, when she curated Shorthand: Nadim Karam, notes from the archive for A.MUSE.UM{{Cite web|url=https://www.arabnews.com/node/1558321/jserrors/spa/ajax/aggregate|title=Lebanese artist Nadim Karam: 'Public art gives you the chance to dream for a moment'|work=Arab News|first=Iain|last=Akerman|date=23 September 2019|accessdate=2 July 2025}} and collaborated with Carla Chammas on an exhibition titled At the still point of the turning world, there is the dance, displaying the works of Lebanese women artists of the 1960s and 1970s at the Sursock Museum in Beirut as part of Ashkal Alwan's Home Works 8: A Forum on Cultural Practices.{{Cite web|url=https://hyperallergic.com/526397/helen-khal-sursock-museum/|title=Women's Central Role in Lebanon's Modern Art World|work=HyperAllergic|first=Hrag|last=Vartanian|date=4 November 2019|accessdate=2 July 2025}}
Dedman and Louise Bennett were on the State of Fashion's curatorial team at the 2024 Biennale.{{Cite web|url=https://stateoffashion.org/en/biennale/current/curatorial-team-biennale-2024/rachel-dedman/|title=Rachel Dedman|work=State of Fashion|date=2024|accessdate=2 July 2025}}
Personal life
Dedman is in a relationship with visual artist Andrew Maughan. They have a son (born 2022).{{Cite web|url=https://www.instagram.com/p/CgzswOZMlMB/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==|title=Jude. Born 21st July 2022.|author=Rachel Dedman|via=Instagram|date=25 December 2022|accessdate=2 July 2025}}
Bibliography
=Exhibition books=
- At the Seams: A Political History of Palestinian Embroidery (2016)
- Labour of Love: New Approaches to Palestinian Embroidery (2018)
- Helen Khal: Gallery One and Beirut in the 1960s (2019), co-written with Carla Chammas
- Stitching the Intifada: Embroidery and Resistance in Palestine (2024)
=Essays and chapters=
- "The Politicisation of Palestinian Embroidery since 1948" in Dangerous Bodies: New Global Perspectives on Fashion and Transgression, edited by Royce Mahawatte and Jacki Willson
- in Narrative Threads: Palestinian Embroidery in Contemporary Art (2025), edited by Joanna Barakat
References
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Category:Alumni of St John's College, Oxford
Category:British women art historians
Category:English women curators
Category:Historians from London
Category:People associated with the Victoria and Albert Museum
Category:People educated at North London Collegiate School