Art Jameel takes a combined approach to learning and research: our arts education programmes begin at primary age and continue through to post-graduate level, while our research mandate is equally broad, and reflects our work in heritage and restoration through to the arts histories of the Gulf and beyond.
Jameel House Online is a programme of online workshops inspired by the traditional arts. Intended for artists and enthusiasts of all levels, including children, the workshops combine traditional arts with contemporary materials typically found around the home. Jameel House Online is led by artists and craftspeople including alumni from the Jameel Houses of Traditional Arts in Jeddah and Cairo.
Sessions include painting the Flower of Life design with coffee, and making home decorations with geometric stars, both led by Rana AlAmoudi; making traditional kites at home, led by The Aleph Journal; crocheting an eight-pointed star using waste plastic bags, led by {Kees Chic}; traditional paper-making by hand using scrap card and paper, led by Ammar Jiman; and ornamental drawing with Islamic geometry, led by Marwa Turkestani.
Jaddaf Aloud Online – a spin-off from the annual festival at Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai — is a virtual programme designed to celebrate UAE homegrown creative talent and provide opportunities for audiences to engage and support through a series of activations. Jaddaf Aloud Online brings homegrown creative DIY projects, music, shopping, performance and food to audiences locally and globally. The programme also features UAE-based artists designing and leading interactive projects for kids, teens and adults, using materials readily available at home. Sessions — many led by practitioners who collaborate regularly with Jameel Arts Centre — include crafts, art projects and mindfulness exercises. Access workshops here. Other learning resources available via Jameel Arts Centre include, for example, Drawing as Comfort, a series of exercises developed to look into ways through which we can approach reading space. More details here.
Corona Virus: A curious guide for courageous kids is the first bilingual (Arabic/English) free guide published in light of the current challenges faced with the COVID-19 pandemic. It is produced by Pleiadi and the network of Italian Children’s Museums in collaboration with Art Jameel with the aim of encouraging responsibility, curiosity, creativity and positivity in the younger generations,
The free bilingual guide is distributed throughout the Arab world by Art Jameel working with other colleague cultural institutions and humanitarian initiatives (including Save the Children).
Read and listen to the guide here.
Hayy Learning is a community educational platform for artists and creatives based in Saudi Arabia. Through bespoke courses, workshops and public talks, Hayy:Learning nurtures talent, skills and knowledge development, across art, film, theatre, music and beyond. The programme is delivered at Hayy Jameel, Jeddah, which opened December 6, 2021.
Learn more about Hayy Learning here.
Art Jameel’s mandate includes excavating, documenting — and playing a role in creating — cultural histories of the GCC and wider Middle East. Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, opened in November 2018 includes an open access arts library and research centre, designed to include books, papers, theses, artists’ archives, and ephemera. Jameel Library is an active and dynamic learning platform, home to research, public programmes, reading groups, curated bibliographies, symposia and interventions. The library programmes explore alternative research methodologies and representations with a focus on ‘thinking in public’. Search the library webpage and catalogue here.
Art Jameel’s wider research activities include our work in the Heritage field, often through collaborations with other organisations focussed on the preservation and nurturing of artisanal, architectural and archaeological skills and debates.
Search the library catalogue here.
