Art Workshops 2025
Various workshops will be held during the festival to teach students Islamic art skills. The 2025 festival will feature two wonderful classes.
These 120-minute classes cost just $ 30 for ages 12 and above. These classes are for the more serious learners. Certificates will be distributed upon completion of the course.
Both classes will be held in Astrodome Room (#257), 2nd floor, Student Center South. 4455 University Dr, Houston, TX 77204.
Sunday November 16th, 2025.
Register today to attend these workshops at the 12th Islamic Art Festival, 2025.
Harout Bastajian is a renowned Lebanese Christian artist of Armenian descent. As a mosque decorator, he is celebrated for his large-scale works that blend traditional arabesque patterns with intricate geometry and natural motifs. Drawing from both cultural heritage and mathematical precision, his art reflects a deep sense of unity, order, and beauty.
He has decorated walls and domes, ceilings of landmark mosques around the world, including the largest decorated mosque in the United States – the Islamic Center of America, Dearborn, Michigan. Now he is coming to Houston to teach his beautiful art.
Elinor Holland is one of the world’s foremost Arabic Calligraphers. Her passion and enthusiasm for calligraphy began during a visit to Istanbul as a teenager. Finding the study of Arabic calligraphic forms difficult here in the US, she discovered the NY Society of Scribes and undertook an education in Latin lettering. Her path eventually let her to master scribe Mohamed Zakariya. Holland received an Icazet, or calligraphic certification in Arabic script in 2013.
As a freelance lettering artist in Latin and Arabic scripts, her work encompasses all aspects of the art, including exhibiting, teaching, and undertaking commercial and commission projects. Clients include the Smithsonian Institute, The NY Public Library, Clinton Global Initiative, NY Society of Scribes, Long Island University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the US Department of State.