The Kent State University Museum opened its new exhibition, “A Meeting of Cultures: Fashioning North Africa,” with a reception Thursday, welcoming members of the Kent community.

The exhibition focuses on northern Africa’s works of fashion and is the second part of a series of exhibitions highlighting Africa’s fashion — the first was in 2016, focusing on southern Africa. The exhibition was co-curated by KSU Museum Curator Sara Hume and Lecturer Nada Koreish.

During the opening of this exhibition, Hicham Oumlil, who is just one of the 24 designers who are part of this exhibition’s creation, joined Hume in discussing the creative process and inspiration behind the exhibition. Oumlil, who resides in New York, is a native Moroccan designer.

Along with the exhibition, a published catalog was created, focusing on the artworks of the many designers part of the exhibition. Hume and Koreish co-edited this catalog, which is the second one put out by the museum.

The North African exhibition has been a three-year-long journey for Hume, starting back in 2022. In Nov. 2022, she set off on her preliminary research trip to Morocco and Tunisia, where she had the chance to meet designers, influencers, photographers and videographers, who all went into the journey of creating this exhibition.

Hume said an important part of the creative process was going to North Africa — seeing and experiencing it. She describes the region as “a stunningly beautiful place.” 

“The exhibition doesn’t capture the place, but I think it gives people an interest and awareness of the culture and what’s going on in North Africa,” Hume said.

She shared how each part of Africa is drastically different from the next. She describes North Africa to be a vibrant place and how it was “worth looking at their dress culture.”

The exhibition is sectioned off into three different categories. The first category is entitled “Our Land,” focusing on the idea of how North Africa’s natural and built environment inspires fashion.

The second category is entitled “Disruptors” and focuses on the designers who represent a break from the past. The third category, entitled “Threads,” spotlights locally-sourced materials such as Egyptian cotton or camel leather.

Hume said the exhibition fits the museum’s mission “to advance understanding of world cultures through the display of costume and textiles,” and will help further achieve its goal held there.

At the reception, Oumlil also shared his creative thought process when creating his designs for the exhibition.

He explained his mission in creating these designs and applying them to these three thoughts: “Every single one of us has three layers that they need to attend to: there is the spirit, there is the intellect and then there is the physicality,” he said. 

The exhibition proved itself to be a “Meeting of Cultures,” as the designs and stories were able to be eye-opening to the community and even the broader influence of America.

“This is not only in North Africa, this is all of the world being put together into this beautiful piece of work,” Marissa Allen, a sophomore art history major, said.

A recurring thought discussed throughout the exhibition was the influence it could have on the local community of Kent. Kent State student Hanna Mogilevsky, a junior fashion design major, shared her thoughts on the influence that the exhibition, as well as the museum itself, holds. 

“I just hope that more people can just appreciate how many beautiful things there are outside of America,” Mogilevsky said. 

Chloe Brosch, a sophomore fashion merchandising major, and Harrison Miller, a sophomore art history major, also visited this exhibition during its reception.

Brosch, Miller and Allen are the founding members of the new Kent State Student Museum Society. Miller described this exhibition as “the vibrancy of Africa, the vibrancy of the future and the vibrancy of art.”

This is Hume’s 16th year as the museum curator and her 31st exhibition. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art from Yale, a Master of Arts in Museum Studies: Costume and Textiles from the Fashion Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Modern European History from the University of Chicago.

The exhibition will be displayed for viewing at the Kent State University museum from Sept. 5 to May 10, 2026.

Ava Drozd is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].

Sofia Helena Dambros da Silvia is a Kent Stater TV reporter. Contact her at [email protected].