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Noreen Khalid Ahmad

@noreendkhalid

4.3K

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2003

following

Founder, Studio Interval
Cultural Strategist • Educator
Museums • Art • Architecture • Design • Travel
📍NYC ↔ CHI
✨Lucky mother to twin teenagers

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I got married at 22. Would not recommend.

About a year in, I changed my name at my ex-husband’s request. I went looking for photos from those early New York days, when I still went by Noreen Khalid and lived in a tiny railroad apt in the West Village with a crooked floor. I was shedding my old identity so deliberately that there isn’t much documentation, but I found a few.

All photos here are me circa 2004 and 2005. Seeing them now, I’m reminded that when I’m genuinely happy, I’m dancing, laughing, or sporting a toothy smile. The iPhone with a built-in camera wouldn’t arrive until 2007, so we were truly out here living unarchived with ample collagen and thick hair.

This past month, reading @zarnagarg’s memoir, ‘This American Woman’ and ‘Strangers’ by @belleburden I was reminded of how long I’ve been living with a name I’ve outgrown, and the peculiar out-of-body South Asian wedding rituals that first consigned me to it.

So I’d like to take a moment to reintroduce myself. Hi, I’m Noreen D. Khalid. Khalid isn’t actually my paternal last name, but my dad’s immigration paperwork got scuttled by USCIS, and the mistake became a new beginning. My middle name is now Dogar, my mom’s maiden name.

It will take a moment to transition all the various places and ways my name of the last two decades appears, but it feels exquisite to shed once again. Small correction, substantial reclamation. by @noreendkhalid

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8 months ago

Approximately 46 1/2 hours in “a Dakota” to see our dearest Anne and her new digs on the prairie. Also, I learned how to shoot a rifle. Actually, not a rifle, a shotgun. Whoops!💥 by @noreendkhalid

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11 days ago

Q3 2026 REPORT: Spotty performance, but a strong finish.

> Pool days and dragonflies.
> Art, art, and more art: Nilima Sheikh and Surrealist Books at MoMA, Arthur Jafa at the New Museum. The fall art season calls.
> De Kooning at the Art Institute of Chicago.
> Brendan Fernandes setting the Driehaus in motion.
> The Joffrey raises the curtain at the Lyric Opera House.
> A birthday written in the tarot cards at the Morgan.
> A dash of Orientalism at the Met.
> Art fairs and the New York Film Festival.
> JAY-Z at Yankee Stadium. A few hours back in a simpler time.
> Delicious, high-calorie meals paired with a return to running.
> Some new people, places, and perspectives to fall in love with. by @noreendkhalid

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13 days ago

Once again, our favorite season, Virgo season, has come to an end.

Eclipses and tennis. Back to school and ballet. Another trip around the sun. Books by the pool. A little dancing. The joy of watching your daughter become friends with your friends’ daughters. Discovering that green might be my color. An epic welcome for our city’s new maestro. The, at times, unscrupulous use of AI. Late summer storms. And, as always, beauty in all the details.

Until next year, Virgo season. taken in Earth by @noreendkhalid

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23 days ago

Eight summers ago, during an interval between jobs, I spent part of the summer in France with my children.

Somewhere between medieval villages, museum visits, and afternoons by the pool, the change of scenery made my familiar life look unfamiliar enough to see it clearly.

I decided to leave my marriage.

A few weeks later, I returned home on one of those late August days when the air first begins to feel chilly in the evening, and you realize summer is winding down. On August 27, I told a friend about my decision. Later that day, I said it aloud to my then-husband.

It was also when I understood that my family was complete as a trio. My children and I were not the remnants of something that had ended. We are a family in our own right.

This anniversary comes into sharper focus now that the legal chapter of my divorce has finally closed, and I am building Studio Interval, a practice rooted in the belief that the spaces between established chapters can be generative.

A quiet interval is not empty. Some hold the work of recalibrating, sustaining, gathering experience, and creating the conditions for the new. Some seasons bring visible growth. Others require the difficult decisions you make without an audience that enable growth.

Eight years later, it may be time to take the twins back to France. No major life reorganization this time. Just art, medieval villages, the sea, and a new orange Eres bathing suit. by @noreendkhalid

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a month ago

14 on the 14th!

Two Leos. Two Water Dragons. One Golden Birthday.

Fourteen years ago today, I had the most reproductive and productive day of my life. Two entire humans in one go. Honestly, some of my best work.

They are now both taller than me, wildly different, entirely themselves, and still connected in that mysterious way that belongs only to twins.

Happy 14th birthday my loves.

And happy birth anniversary to me absolutely crushing it on August 14, 2012. 🐉♌️✨ by @noreendkhalid

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2 months ago

Summertime Chi remains undefeated.

Art. Architecture. Friends. Family. Lake days. Late nights.

Chicago, I love you in the summer. Even when it storms, you keep me following the sun. taken in Chicago by @noreendkhalid

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2 months ago

California dreaming. A week with my favorite travel companion. ☀️🌴 🌊 Our mother-daughter adventure had everything: a family wedding, Yosemite hikes with cousins, an unforgettable drive starting with a visit to Monet in Venice at the DeYoung in San Francisco down through Monterey, Big Sur, and Santa Barbara, with one final stop at the new LACMA. My heart is full and my eyeballs are satiated. by @noreendkhalid

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3 months ago

Q2 2026 REPORT: Everything, everywhere, all at once.
> The magic of atonal improvisational sound coupled with minoxidil for perimenopausal hair amplification.
> Cherry blossoms in Central Park
> On pointe
> Giant on Broadway
> An end-of-school-year sail
> Robert Wilson’s posthumous farewell at BAM.
> The official start of my swaps series
> Art, art, art, and more art: Duchamp at MoMA, China Institute, Haas Brothers, Roberto Lugo, Giacometti in the Temple of Dendur
> Black-tie barn birthday parties
> Man Ray in Milan.
> Six visits to Raphael at the Met
> Brilliant friends doing brilliant things.
> Knicks in 5. by @noreendkhalid

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3 months ago

It was our second Eid in a row with a surprisingly cohesive color story. We celebrated between Washington Square Park and Gracie Mansion with our beloved NYC family, friends, and new Mayor! I am especially grateful to the members of the trans community who stood watch over our prayers in Washington Square Park. Eid Mubarak in true NYC spirit. by @noreendkhalid

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5 months ago

A wise woman once said here today, gondola tomorrow. She loves a pun. Here is my 2026 Venice Biennale recap.

Tino Sehgal’s Kiss (Clean Version) was devotional and delicious. The live work takes place in the dark and unfolds over time as a nude couple reenacts some of art history’s most iconic smooches. 💋

Watching Nick Cave’s Amalgams and Graphts explode onto the international stage was a thrill. Alfredo Jaar made us prostrate before some rare earth metals, or at least reckon with the materials we need most.

The women held court: Lorna Simpson, Jenny Saville, Marina Abramović.

There were newly restored palazzos, a strange green alien light, and meditative performances, including the ethereal Kelsey Lu and some Minor Music at the End of the World in a golden theater.

There were plenty of nudes, piss, and protests for good measure, lest anyone forget that our world while gorgeous, is excessive, and fully on fire.

In Minor Keys, struck all the right notes and started all the right conversations. taken in Venice, Italy by @noreendkhalid

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5 months ago

⚡️ 7th Grade ⚡️
The kids are sassy, but alright. by @noreendkhalid

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5 months ago