All Day

Children’s Biennial

Umm Al Emarat Park Abu Dhabi

What a good idea this is: the Abu Dhabi Festival is running the first outdoor children’s art biennale in the Middle East Under the theme How the World Feels, the Biennale will explore how children experience the world through touch, [... more]

Standard park entry AED 10

Sharjah Architecture Triennial: opening week

[various Sharjah locations]

The third edition of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial runs 14 November to to 14 April under the theme Architecture Otherwise: Building Civic Infrastructure for Collective Futures. Curated by Vyjayanthi Rao, with Tau Tavengwa as Associate Curator, SAT03 brings together 35 [... more]

Free

Sliman Mansour: Promises and Scars

Warehouse 46 Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

A mini-retrospective for Sliman Mansour during Alserkal Art Week 2026 covering five decades of his work – “the first time since 2011 that such an extensive body of the artist’s work has been brought together in a single exhibition”, says [... more]

Free

History Otherwise: Women Modernists from the Arab World

Concrete Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

Curated by Suheyla Takesh and Rémi Homs, this exhibition features works from the Barjeel Art Foundation collection, including pieces by Inji Efflatoun, Samia Halaby and Mona Saudi; it also has some archival exhibition posters dating from the 1940s to the [... more]

Marilina Marchica and Salmah Almansoori: Traces of Home

Italian Cultural Institute of Abu Dhabi Al Qasbah Street, Abu Dhabi

An exhibition that brings together works by the Italian artist Marilina Marchica and Emirati artist Salmah Almansoori that are rooted in the landscapes respectively of Sicily and Ghayathi. Marchica traces the imprints of abandoned buildings and domestic spaces through drawing, [... more]

Free

NYUAD MFA Open Studios

NYUAD Campus Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi

A chance to meet students and faculty on the NYU Abu Dhabi MFA course, learn more about the programme, and get a glimpse of life as an MFA student. Students featured: Shae Nadine Jingyi Tang Amina Yahia Ameni Abida Xingi [... more]

Free

The Speculative Circle: 100 Ways of Spilling the Beans

421 Arts Campus Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi

Led by Viviana Checchia, this participatory studio invites participants to explore how everyday acts of gathering, cooking, and conversation can become spaces for collective thinking, exchange, and connection – and for expressing ideas, sharing experiences, and challenging established social structures. [... more]

Free, but pre-register