2017 Arts Festival

2017 Arts Festival

The 4th annual Islamic Arts Festival was held on the 11th and 12th of November, 2017. Co-sponsored by The Islamic Arts Society & Rice University’s Boniuk Institute for Religious Tolerance, the Islamic Arts Festival is the largest and oldest of its kind in North America. With over 10,000 ft.² of art space, over 5000 art pieces and over 50 artists, there is something for everyone to enjoy and share. More than 5000 visitors attended the festival this year. The festival brought together children and adults of all faiths, religions and cultures for two days of fun, festivity and learning. 

An estimated 200,000 Muslims live in the Greater Houston area. The purpose of this event was to celebrate our culture and promote the positive image of our community among Muslims and non-Muslims. Some of the art was displayed inside the prayer area and it gave an opportunity for the non-Muslims to visit a working mosque for the first time. By promoting Islamic Arts we aim to promote cultural understanding and in bringing the broader Houston community together.

Here is a sampling of the festivities in the form of a picture collage.

Comments from our visitors 

This is such a beautiful place
I found the art beautiful
Loved the festival! Is there a way to advertise in different areas? (I came from Bryan/college station, and I found it by googling “things to do in houston 11/12”) The interactives are great, loved being able to speak with the artists
Very beautiful… well organized allahu akbar!
Very inviting with beautiful paintings everyone was great
“Thank you so much for holding such a unique event, highlightig the greatest
artwork that our culture has to offer Everything was breathtaking!
Beautiful art love the art
IAS was the best exhibitions of art I have ever attended I loved meeting with the artist one-on-one and being able to see such a variety of art.
Will be back next year I.A”
I love local art and I think you should do a letter box drop for the local area
work and getting to meet then. Wonderful. Ill come back next year. Thank You
Wonderful Exhibitions!
I had a great time 🙂
I have been coming for the past 2 years and enjoyed the festival every time
Mashallah great work!!”
Great experience! Keep it up will look forward to Next Year.
Very plesant experience. Nice facility, and friendly people. Beautiful art and culture.
It was amazing, the paintings are beautiful so beautiful I bought one. Thank you for welcoming us
This is a wonderful event that gets bigger and better every year. God bless your work.
Excellent! Beautiful art and friendly culture I enjoyed the variety of mediams. I’m from Los angles and appreciated the opportunity to shop before my flight home. Thank You!
Great Shopping and exhibition
“Words cannot describe my feelings about art. I wish I had started
learning and seeing this many years earlier! Thank You!”
Awsome!will be back. Thank You!
Very fun pieces, beautiful festival, possibly more clear pricings on items being sold
I enjoyed the art exhibit beautiful, we have so many talented artists in
Houston. Good Idea with good muscles!”
“Beautifual and insprirng. It shows a great creativity Thanks for those
who organized it.”
Exceptional. I have been coming for the last 3 years this is the best one yet!
It is very beautiful Ma’shaAllah! Got to see lots of beautiful art
Very spiritual and breattaking. I come every year!!
Simply Beautiful! I love this!!
Very well organized Beautiful Art. Great effort and introducing Islam to Non-Muslims!
Peace and blessing be upon you. Art brings everyone together.
Please keep doing this event. Beautiful.”
Wonderful, fantastic, had a great time
I love it. It gets better every year. Can’t wait to see more artists next year.
Saw some new ones and loved them :)”
Very nice event Art really beautiful. Food delicious
Beautiful and I love it. I will come back next year.
Beautiful Exhibition. Better signs for the pirces would help. Thank you for hosting
Great show! Very different from last year. Well organized. Job well done
Spectacular arrangements very well organized opened up my eyes
“Great exhibition. I was truly astonished by the creativity in this muslim
community. Great platform to introduce new artists in the area and beyond”
This is Art is Beautiful MashaAllah
Excellent Job! Keep up the great work. Inspirational!
“Everything we saw here was beautiful. We enjoyed meeting the artists and
discussing their art with them”
Beautiful Displays
Thank you for hosting in the greater houston community! It is one of my
favorite events”
First time here at Art Festival very beautiful Excellent Experience being here
Very well organized and beautiful pieces of art, so much talent seen, under one roof. Well done!
It is a very nice festival
I love the art
I like the Art festival
I love the paintings! Do it every Year!
I like it here
Very well planned event keep up the good work
Pretty nice thanks for putting this together
Great event for the community!
Mashallah Keep up the good work
Beautiful work! Friendly/open community Mashallah!
“Wonderfully organized this is our second year to attend. Everyone is creative
and kind”
I enjoyed the variety of beautiful art work! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Wonderful, beautiful work! Thank you fo sharing with with the community
Very nice paintings Loved it!!
Love it. I Come every year. Well done!
It was a wonderful experience thanks for having us!
Mashalla very nice set up!
Art work was amazing
Staff very professional
Beautiful as always I was impressed by all of these young talen Mashallaha
Amazing great layout thank you Amazing art love visiting every year
This was my first time. This was a very inspiritional event for us
It was very beautiful
Excellent Islamic Art festival. My recommendation is to do more of these.
Continue to grow through more markets through schools”
Loved seeing all the beautiful art and artists
It is like a breat of fresh air. Beautiful!
Really amazing and diverse artwork!
“Very much enjoyed the festival Thank you for interesting me and my grandaughter “
Beautiful festival with very friendly people. Esp liked the many kids activities
Thanks for bringing this art festival to our masjid
Great buying experience
The art looked amazing today
The art work was beautiful and everyone was so friendly and kind to answer questions Thank You
Great show with lots of great pieces very divfferent and ethnic
I am glad I stopped by. Very pretty art. I am very pleased everyone look time explaining me what was the art about
The voulenteers were very nice!
I am from bangladesh. Amazed to see this exhibition, taking home a wish to arrange the same
outstanding, always so proud of this community mashaAllah
Very fun, nice experience. Love the art
Very impresseive art work. Need to include photography in the future
What a great event I really liked all the artwork displays
I love this festival! Great and beautiful artwork! Maby for the next year add something new to attract people again
Asalamualaikum, Thank you for the hard work that goes into these events. I wish to see more artwork that is “out of the box”. I love the calligraphy
“This is a good event to promote islam to the cominit. I would recommend to
include Islamic accomplishment of islamic activities”
Next year- make comment cards on different paper. Its hartd to write
Amazing art with beautiful Caligraphy
This is a great event. I thik this should be a regular twice a year event
Amazing Art! Wow
Breath taking visuals, Amazing talents wonderful organzations . Great Job
Good! We like it
Nice Show
Amazing Show! Cant wait till next year!
“Beautiful art work. Much more organized ad a lot more kinds of activities.
No laughter loud being here”
“The artworks are magnificent and so gorgeous. Thank you for this art festival.Good Luck”
I am really amazed by the beautiful art form. Very pretty. Promits a lot of good ideas put together. Very amazing keep up the good work
Everything is beautiful
Would be nice if there was list of artist with their contact information
Beautiful exhibit that I would look to buy in the future
Artist and artwork were lovely and such a pleasure to view. Very open, friendly and comfortable setting. So much talent and prices were resonable thank you
“The entire event is wonderful. The art fabulous so much talent. The prices are
reasonable and affordable. (However they are worth so much more)”
Has many interesting arts forms in the exhibits- lots of unique talent
Excellent show!
This was so much fun and the art was so beautiful. Everyone was welcoming and warm
Very good collection. Selection of pieces was excelent. Enjoyed a lot.
First time here , everyone was great. Will come again.
Beautiful art! Thanks for opening to everyone … Little ones loved it, too!
Amazing work, MashAllah!Great to see so much talent in the community
Beautiful art and people. Many women artists. Nice to talk with them. Thank You
Impressive Beautiful artwork, Fantastic presentation, Glad to be here
It was a good art festival and Family got to gather with a lot of fun and halal food
Beautiful work. I love it
The art was so beautiful I loved it. It wa fun
Wonderful Exhibition inspiring art
“Loved it! Thank you so much for this great oppurtunitu to see new artist and
admire their art. A date inoctober would be great next year. Thank You”
Fantastic experience. Enjoy the beauty of your culture
“Thank you for the wonderful islamic art festival anf the out reach to the
community”
“Islamic exibition is great challenge for everyone to comprehend islamic art.
It was informative and knowlegeable for non muslims as “”dawa”” thanks”
“Suggestions : sell Holiday cards by the box instead of individual thanks excellent exhibit”
Very large diverse collection. Everyone is so friendly
Nice selection Great exhibit like the wood carving
We loved everything. Wouldn’t suggest a single change. This is obviously a well
thought out event”
Beautiful establishment, verry well organized. All attendees very helpful
Very nice and very well organized
Great art! Excellent layout!
I have come to the last 2 art festivals and have always had a blast
checking out all the Artwork everyone has worked really hard
on and look forward to future art festivals”
“I love he beautiful artwork here! Especially the ebry and the calligraphy, so
happy that you offer this lovely festival to the public”
“Beautiful work and great community event. I wish more on uslims would attend
and see the great art.”
Beautiful artwork nic event for the commuity well done
“Thank you for having this event. Educating the larger community and for having
vegetrain food”
Love the art. Love the volunteers! Definetly will be back next year to buy
I loved all the art work! Great friendly environment loved to see new things
I just say I like the islamic art society
Needs some type of parking direction.
Great festival Awesome nicely organized
Everything is magnificient SubhanaAllah. Beautiful effort
I like the food trucks
The food was good
So glad we came Very educational and beautiful artwork
This is a great way of showing the Islamic culture from a perspective that is rarely known for most nonMuslims. Keep up the great work brothers and sisters.
Art show was great! Thank you for making this open to the public so we can see the world through yalls eyes
It was very beautiful words cannot describe. I will definitely come back next year with all my friends.
Everyone is good. I work as volunteer in Heena since 4 year.
Excellent work
It was amazing thank you for the experience
Great organized event!
It is a great experience for us. Thanks for organizing this event. More publicity will help more people attend and appreciate and understand Islam.
Very interesting and beautiful exhibits. I wish it was closer location. Thank you.
It is amazing
Great exhibition lots of effort very nice artwork
Excellent display organized great effort
Very nice festival fine arts good luck!
Visiting exhibition for first time and loved it. Keep it up!
It was very beautiful and accordingly orgnized. All the artworks were awesome
amazing! Better every year mA!
Great event!
The Islamic Art Festival is a great oppurtunity to showcase our attractive and artistic heritage
Great festival
Very well organized; the artwork is beautiful; congratulations to the entire committee for an amazingly organized event
As a first year attendee I was blown away by the whole festival experience. Every piece of art was more beautifulo than the last. Look forward to gifting my parents with a piece.
Amazing event. So proud to be part of it. Proud of all theartists and their efforts
Beautiful exhibition of very talented local artists a must see for Houstonians
well organized, amazing artwork
Everything was gorgeoud and beautiful the variety of art was outstanding I highly recommend it
What a wonderful festival; silent action voluinteers were very sweet
What an amazing adventure into a new culture. Beautiful and insightful art pieces!
Very neat! It about tgime this art was put on display! Fresh!
Excellent Art work in a beautiful environment. Congrats to everyone who made it possibele
Amazing artist. Great job
MA such beautiful artworks!! Very talented people. Thank you
Excellent show get sbetter andbetter every year
This is really a nice effort by the organizers. We get to see the art of so many artists working in different styles and mediums. Keep up the good work