VCU School of the Arts has joined one of the most prestigious gatherings in the international art world for more than 120 years. VCUarts Qatar presented Aghrab Idrāk: Thresholds of Perception, an official Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition—the Venice Biennale 2026, marking a distinction that places VCUarts among the world’s leading cultural institutions.
This year’s Biennale is titled In Minor Keys by Koyo Kouoh and runs from May 9 to November 22, 2026, at the Giardini and Arsenale venues and in various locations across Venice. Conceived by the late curator before her passing in May 2025, the exhibition invites a quieter, more intimate mode of looking and listening.
In Kouoh’s words, it is tuned to the minor keys and invites people to listen to the “persistent signals of earth and life, connecting to soul frequencies—an approach that draws out themes of geography, history, and sonic art through contemplative, deeply human work.”
VCUarts Qatar’s contribution sits naturally within that spirit. Presented at Palazzo Cavanis on the Zattere, Aghrab Idrāk approaches perception as a relational, situated mode of knowing. Unfolding through a sequence of spatial thresholds, the exhibition attends to subtle registers of experience shaped by proximity, ambiguity and movement.
Rather than offering a single story, the exhibition incorporates light, shadow, sound, movement and materials across projects from ten labs at the university’s Institute for Creative Research, each intersecting with the next to reflect the Gulf region’s collective history of exchange.
The exhibition was co-curated by Dr. Hesperia Iliadou, Director of the Museums and Exhibitions Study Society in Venice, and Chase Westfall, Head of Gallery at VCUarts Qatar.
across the Arab Gulf. Part of Aghrab Idrāk: Thresholds of Perception at the 2026 Venice Biennale.
One school, two campuses
What makes this milestone especially meaningful is that it highlights the connection between VCUarts in Richmond and VCUarts Qatar, a single School of the Arts working across continents. VCUarts Qatar developed this work within the unique environment of Education City, drawing on the shared community and creative research culture that links the two campuses.
That cross-campus partnership was visible in the support the project drew from VCU’s leadership in Richmond. VCU President Michael Rao, Provost Arturo Saavedra, M.D., and Vice President for Research and Innovation P. Srirama Rao attended the Venice Biennale.
VCUarts was well represented. Dean Carmenita Higginbotham, who also serves as special assistant to the Provost for VCU Qatar, and Christiana Lafazani, associate dean for faculty affairs and research for VCUarts attended the celebration. VCUarts faculty in attendance included Sara Reed, assistant professor of interior design; Hawa Stwodah, assistant professor of Fashion Design; Semi Ryu, professor of kinetic imaging; Paul Thulin, associate professor of photography and film; and Sara Wilson McKay, associate professor of art education.
“The Venice Biennale gives our students something a classroom cannot: the experience of seeing their disciplines practiced at the highest international level,” said Higginbotham. “It sharpens their creative thinking, expands their sense of the possible, and prepares them to step into the field as artists and designers who see and think globally.”
Soon-to-be seniors Viktor Marion, who studies painting and printmaking, and Ava Craft, a graphic design major, also attended the Biennale Celebration in Venice.
“Having the opportunity to attend the Venice Biennale expanded my understanding of what it means to collaboratively research and experience [art],” said Marion. “Seeing pieces which speak to personal as well as global connections in conversation with one another furthered my appreciation of our global VCUarts community.”
Craft also reaped immense benefits from attending the Biennale.
“It opened my eyes to what it means to engage and immerse myself into the global art community. The conversations of art, design, and culture are some that I’ll never forget and will carry with me in both my personal and professional practices for a lifetime.”
Two days of conversation in Venice
The event opened with two days of public programming, followed by a series of conversations. On June 23, a Biennale Session titled Futures of Collectivity: Collaborative Practices in the Making brought together 11 research labs from VCUarts Qatar working across art, design, technology, material experimentation and cultural research to present their work.
The following day, the public symposium Relational Ecologies: Perception, Mobility, and Collective Form brought together students and faculty from VCUarts Richmond and Qatar, as well as international collaborators to explore how creative inquiry operates across histories, infrastructures and communities.
Among the VCUarts Qatar presenters were McKay, who examined how relational creative practices generate shared, ethical meaning-making across the gaps in how we each perceive the world. Maryam Al-Homaid, a Qatari interdisciplinary artist and associate professor of graphic design, explored how textile and object-making can document memory, architecture, and cultural identity in a rapidly changing Qatar.
For VCUarts Qatar Dean Amir Berbić, the moment signals something larger about where the School is headed.
“La Biennale di Venezia marks a significant milestone in VCUarts Qatar’s international engagement and offers an opportunity to situate our work within a truly global conversation,” he said.
Aghrab Idrāk: Thresholds of Perception remains on view at Palazzo Cavanis through November 22, continuing to introduce audiences from around the world to the work emerging from VCUarts.
