The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto has acquired the Widad Kawar Collection of Arab Dress and Heritage Arts, a group of nearly 600 textiles, accessories, garments, and cultural objects assembled over decades by Palestinian art historian and collector Widad Kamel Kawar. The collection spans daily life across the Levant and West Asia, including pieces from Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the UAE, and Yemen. Kawar personally selected ROM to host the collection after visiting the museum and observing its expertise in preserving Arab dresses. An elaborately embroidered bridal gown and jacket from the collection is currently on view, with a future exhibition planned to display the full breadth of the works.
This acquisition matters because it brings a historically significant and regionally comprehensive collection of Arab dress and heritage arts to a major North American museum, ensuring its preservation and public accessibility. The collection, which has received support from the Louise Hawley Stone Charitable Trust and partial gifts from Amin Kawar and the Estate of Kamel Kawar, represents a vital record of cultural heritage from multiple Arab countries. For the large Arab diaspora community in Canada, the collection offers an opportunity to connect with their cultural roots, while for broader audiences it provides insight into the craftsmanship and stories embedded in these objects. The acquisition also underscores the growing institutional recognition of Arab material culture as a field of scholarly and curatorial importance.