Sacred atmospheres and the healing potential of multisensory design in Islamic Art and Architecture

Saima Majid is at Derby Museum and Art Gallery on Saturday 14 November, talking about the spiritual side of Islamic art and architecture. It's not just a lecture, though — there's live music on the Tar and Setar throughout, played by Shad Haidar Mustafa, so the sound is as much a part of the session as the talk itself.

Majid comes to this from a few different angles. She started as a fashion and textile designer and spent fourteen years in London's fashion industry, and she's still working on a series of lino prints inspired by Islamic art that bring in Arabic word art. Over the last decade she's moved into wellbeing and personal development, running multi-sensory workshops inspired by the aesthetic and philosophical traditions of Sufism, built around sound, scent, light and form. In 2024 she began an MA in the History of Art and Architecture of the Islamic Middle East at SOAS University of London, which she finished in 2026.

The talk draws on historical sources and contemporary scholarship, and she'll be presenting her own design for a contemporary space here in Derby, informed by Islamic artistic and architectural principles. It's a good chance to see how those older traditions can actually work in a modern building.

It's for adults (18+), and booking is essential because places are limited. There's a suggested donation of £5, but it's free for Derby Museums Friends.