The Arab Hall: Past and Present | Spring -Autumn 2026
Leighton House Advisory Panel Brief
Exhibition: The Arab Hall: Past and Present
Dates: 21 March – 4 October 2026
Location: Leighton House
1 - Project Overview
2026 marks 100 years of Leighton House in Kensington as a public museum and to celebrate this centenary year, the museum is hosting an ambitious exhibition project on the Arab Hall. A unique interior designed around Leighton’s collection of antique tiles, the majority of which originate from Damascus, Syria, the Arab Hall is the stand-out space at the museum. This project will be the first to look at the Arab Hall in depth, exploring both its history and its continued relevance today, through a multi-room exhibition extending across both exhibition galleries as well as the Arab Hall itself.
To help steer and inform this project we are looking for five individuals to join our ‘Arab Hall Advisory Panel’. Panel members will work closely with the museum team and play an active role in shaping the Arab Hall project, including the artists commissions and exhibition film. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to the next 100 years of Leighton House – we hope you’ll join us!
2 - Background: Leighton House and The Arab Hall
Leighton House is the former studio-home of Victorian artist Frederic Leighton (1830-1896). He spent most of his early life living and travelling across Europe and after he settled in London in 1859, travel continued to be an important part of his life. Between 1857 and 1878, the year in which he became President of the Royal Academy, he interspersed regular trips to Europe with visits to cities in North Africa, Southern Spain, Syria and Turkey. His first trip to an Islamic country, to Algeria in 1857, had a profound effect on him and more than twenty years later he was to write that he had loved: ‘The East, as it is called, ever since.’ He travelled alone, keen to explore architecture and culture with which he was unfamiliar, each time bringing home drawings and oil sketches, and objects such as ceramics and textiles. The idea began to form in his mind of creating a distinctive space in his house, inspired by some of the interiors he had experienced. In 1877 he commissioned his friend the architect George Aitchison to begin work on the Arab Hall, a project that incorporated tiles, woodwork and coloured glass windows acquired largely in Egypt and Syria, and aesthetic concepts from many more of the places he had travelled to.
3 - The Arab Hall Project
TheArabHall:PastandPresent (opening 21st March 2026) will be the first exhibition to explore the space in detail. The project will have three main components:
1. A new, specially commissioned film on the Arab Hall, exploring the origins of the tiles and the context and buildings in which they were originally displayed, Leighton’s creation of the Arab Hall, and the meaning of the Arab Hall today. This film will be c.15 minutes in length and will be displayed on a loop in the Verey Exhibition Gallery on the first floor of the museum.
2. An exhibition of artefacts relating to the Arab Hall, including the architect George Aitchison’s original drawings for the space, paintings and drawings that Leighton made as he travelled, and ceramics from Leighton’s collection.
3. A series of three contemporary commissions in the Arab Hall, created by three different artists in response to the space, offering new insight into the room and its significance today.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a learning and public programme which responds to the exhibition’s themes and will be supported by an extensive marketing campaign as part of the museum’s 100 years celebration.
4 - The Advisory Panel
The museum is looking for five individuals to join our ‘Arab Hall Advisory Panel’ to help shape and inform the Arab Hall Project.
We are looking for individuals who are willing to bring their experience and understanding of the Arab Hall to the project and help make sure the exhibition project is as impactful and meaningful as possible.
The panel will provide advice on the following aspects of the project:
• The selection of the three artists’ commissions for the series of installations in the Arab Hall.
• The content of the exhibition film
• The interpretation of the exhibition of artefacts relating to the Arab Hall in the Tavolozza Drawings Gallery.
• The long-term interpretation of the tile panels in the Arab Hall
• The public-programme of events around the Arab Hall Project.
The Arab Hall is a unique interior that continues to be incredibly meaningful to diverse audiences who visit the museum – providing an opportunity to see artworks from Syria, Egypt, Iran and Turkey on display in London in an architectural setting designed around them. It’s also a space which raises lots of questions and prompts interesting and important conversations.
We are looking for Panel Advisors who are interested in joining this conversation, providing their perspective on the Arab Hall itself and advising on how this project can best tell its story in a meaningful, engaging and relevant way.
We are keen that this project results not only in a wonderful and engaging exhibition for visitors but changes and informs the way we approach the Arab Hall going forward. We hope you’ll join us in making this happen.
5 - The Commitment
Meetings of the Panel will be chaired by Hannah Lund, Curator of Exhibitions and Displays at Leighton House who has overall responsibility for the project and will also be attended where relevant by other individuals involved in the project – including Daniel Robbins, Senior Curator and Melanie Gibson, Project Co- Curator.
The Panel will meet at Leighton House on the first Monday of the month to discuss the Arab Hall Project. The first panel meeting will take place at 15:00 on 4th August, and a final meeting will be held on 6th April 2026, making it 9 meetings in total. Meetings will be two hours long running from 15:00-17:00.
Each meeting will focus on a particular aspect of the project – with information on the upcoming meeting circulated in advance. The meetings will be an opportunity for panel members to share their thoughts on the topic under discussion
In addition to the meetings there will be occasional emails, including materials for review and updates on the project which will be circulated between meetings.
Advisors will also be expected to attend events around the opening of the Arab Hall P roject including the private view (dates to be circulated nearer the time).
Advisors will also assist in making connections to communities, relevant organisations and acting as advocates for the Arab Hall Project.
6 - The Budget
Project Advisors will be paid £1,500 for their participation in the project. Advisors will be paid £500 upon commencement of the project and £1,000 following the final meeting in April 2026. It is expected that Advisors will attend all panel meetings where possible. If more than three are missed the museum retains the right to deduct funds from the final payment.
7 - How to apply
Please fill out the following documents and submit them by Friday 18 July.
• A completed application form (Essential). Please click below for the online form; paper copies are available at Leighton House Welcome Desk
Link to online form
• A CV (Optional) Alongside the application form, please email a digital copy to Hannah Lund (hannah.lund@rbkc.gov.k) or attach a paper copy if you are submitting documents by post or in person at Leighton House.
• Paper applications should be handed to a member of staff at Leighton House or submitted by post to the attention of Hannah Lund, Curator of Exhibitions and Displays, Leighton House, 12 Holland Park Road, London W14 8LZ
We encourage anyone considering applying to come and visit the Arab Hall at Leighton House if you are not familiar with it. If you would like to do so, please visit the welcome desk when you arrive at the museum, and let staff know that you are visiting as part of “The Arab Hall Project”. They will be able to provide you with a free admission ticket. It will not be possible to book free admission online.
We have also put together an online talk with some more background information on the museum and the Arab Hall to provide you with some further context. Please do not share this more broadly – this has been put together specifically for applicants to the Arab Hall project.
Link to The Arab Hall online talk
Once all the proposals have been received, they will be shortlisted by the project curators: Daniel Robbins, Senior Curator and Hannah Lund, Curator of Exhibitions and Displays. Shortlisted applicants may then be invited to meet Daniel and Hannah at Leighton House for a discussion around the project
If you have any questions about the brief please contact Hannah Lund, Curator of Exhibitions and Displays ( hannah.lund@rbkc.gov.uk).
8 – Confidentiality
The Arab Hall exhibition will be announced in July. Before then, we kindly ask you to refrain from sharing the details of the project without the approval of museum staff.