Art Outside: Celebrate Eid

Freer North Plaza

Join us on the outdoor plaza of the Freer Gallery of Art for a festive afternoon of music, food, and art to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan. Watch master calligraphers at work, make your own calligraphy-inspired art, enjoy henna designs and music, and view art in the galleries, including the exhibition Fashioning an Empire: Safavid Textiles from the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha. Food and drinks from local vendors will be available for purchase. This event is offered in collaboration with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art (Freer|Sackler) and the Reed Society for the Sacred Arts.

About the participating artists:

Davut Bektas is one of the world’s leading calligraphers today. Having received his icacet, or teaching license, from established masters, Davut Bektes continues a six hundred year lineage. His calligraphy can be seen in many iconic buildings in Istanbul such as Taksim Mosque and Borsa Istanbul Mosque as well as abroad like in the Masjid Al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Deniz Oktem Bektas discovered her love for Arabic calligraphy in Washington, D.C. as a student of master calligrapher Mohamed Zakariya. She returned to Istanbul where she was raised and continued her path in this art form where she is now a master calligrapher and teaches and exhibits all over the world.

Mariam Lodin is an independent artist and calligrapher based in the DC metro area who is a student of traditional Arabic scripts.