SYLVIA SAFIYA GODLAS is an artist and teacher who specializes in traditional Islamic art. She is the author of Doorways to Islamic Art.Ӕ Among the countries to which she has traveled are: Egypt, Morocco, Spain, Israel, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia. She is the president of the International Muslimah Artists Network (IMAN) and helped establish its founding principles in 1997.
She began working in ceramics in 1976 producing and selling sculptural works and pottery, and has exhibited her work throughout the US since 1977. She maintains a ceramics studio and produces Islamic style ceramics for show and sale. She has studied with traditional and contemporary masters (of pottery, calligraphy, and traditional painting of Central Asia) both in and outside of the US. Her work was included in the 1998 Liturgical and Sacred Art exhibition, produced by the Springfield Art Association in Illinois.
She was a member of the design team that designed the ornamentation for the 1990 addition of twenty-seven domes to the Prophets Mosque in Madina. She was the supervisor for the production of the carvings for the prototype dome.
She has given lecture-demonstrations on Islamic art at universities and museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, J.B. Speed Museum, The Walters Art Gallery, De Paul University, and the University of Georgia. She conducts workshops - for across the curriculum teaching of history and art - for AWAIR (Arab World and Islamic Resources) seminars on Islam.
In 1998-99 she developed a special art program called Global Arts and Skills which introduces the fundamentals of world geometric and pattern art through the medium of textile painting. She currently teaches her Global Arts program at the Northeast Georgia Mental Health Center to people with psycho-social challenges.Her ongoing work includes the development of new programs both for teaching specifically about Islamic art and culture, and also for teaching a broad-based program on geometric and pattern art from around the world.