• A Musical Journey: Jordi Savall in Conversation

    NYUAD Campus, Conference Centre NYUAD Campus, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    The -award-winning Catalan-Spanish musicologist, music maker and conductor Jordi Savall is in town for a concert with a special focus on the Hispanic and Mediterranean musical heritage. Here he joins Maurice Pomerantz, Senior Director of NYUAD Institute and Professor of [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Artists’s Talk: Khaled Akil & Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi

    Ayyam Gallery B11, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A conversation between Khaled Akil and Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi supporting the Aleppo-born artist’s first solo show at the gallery. Akil began his career with photography "and gradually liberated himself through different media"; his work suggests that this will be [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Meet the artist: Dima Srouji

    Lawrie Shabibi Unit 21, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    Dima Srouji, whose Charts for a Resurrection show opens here the day before, is in conversation with Myrna Ayad. This should be a productive chat; Srouji is a particularly interesting artist – a graduate of the Yale School of Architecture [ ... ]

    Free
  • Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial: Identity and Reshaping Public Space

    A panel discussion on the shared sociocultural topics of Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s Wsh Wsh (2024) and Nicholas Galanin’s In every language there is Land / En cada lengua hay una Tierra (2024). Abu Hamdan reimagines the intimate soundscapes of Damascene [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial: Functionality, Space, and Public Art

    This conversation extends from artist Christopher Joshua Benton’s Where Lies My Carpet Is Thy Home (2024), a vibrant, collaboratively made astroturf carpet developed with merchants from Abu Dhabi’s carpet souq and inspired by their stories and lives. The audience can [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial: Sociocultural Contexts and Public Art

    Manarat al Saadiyat Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    This panel involves artists whose work connects us within cities. Bjørnstjerne Christiansen (SUPERFLEX) speaks about interspecies relationships and gathering spaces for humans and other species; Afra Al Dhaheri explains how her work fosters sensory engagement, promoting balance amid modern life's [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial: Tania Candiani’s Nomadic Stage

    Tania Candiani's contribution to the Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial features an inflatable mobile stage that moves across the city, transforming urban spaces into hubs for collective exchange and endowing these spaces with renewed significance. The performers for this live [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial: Tania Candiani’s Nomadic Stage

    Tania Candiani's contribution to the Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial features an inflatable mobile stage that moves across the city, transforming urban spaces into hubs for collective exchange and endowing these spaces with renewed significance. The performers for this live [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial: Tania Candiani’s Nomadic Stage

    Tania Candiani's contribution to the Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial features an inflatable mobile stage that moves across the city, transforming urban spaces into hubs for collective exchange and endowing these spaces with renewed significance. The performers for this live [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Samaa Wakim & Samar Haddad King: Interdisciplinarity in Dance

    The Yard Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    Samaa Wakim graduated from the faculty of Theatre at the University of Haifa and has since performed in numerous dance theatre productions; Samar Haddad King, the founding artistic director of Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre, has a BFA in choreography, has [ ... ]

    Free
  • The Power of Connection

    Bassam Freiha Art Foundation Cultural District Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi

    Subtitled ‘supporting art through patronage and collaboration’, this ‘dialogue’ on how patronage shapes the UAE’s art scene features Stéphanie Oueda-Cruz – Tiffany & Co’s Global VP for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging – in conversation with Michaela Watrelot, Director of [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • The Art of Curation: Women at the Forefront of Cultural Dialogue

    Bassam Freiha Art Foundation Cultural District Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi

    A panel discussion in celebration of International Women’s Day, featuring a group of top female curators with local connections. Speakers: Suheyla Takesh Director, Barjeel Art Foundation Paz Monge Museum Curator, Guggenheim Chimere Cissé Founder, Art|Kōrero and STELLA Alliance Moderated by [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Artist talk: Athar Jaber

    Ayyam Gallery B11, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Barjeel Art Foundation founder and noted cultural commentator Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi talks with Athar Jaber about the artist's practice, life, and thoughts. Athar Jaber’s first solo show at Ayyam Gallery, titled Vestiges, is midway through its run (to 1 [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • The Power of Words: When Humour Meets Visual Culture

    Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery 796 Jumeirah Street, Dubai

    A conversation with around Thomas Lélu's current Zidoun-Bossuyt show Calm Down It’s Just Art exploring the impact of language and humour in contemporary art, and how it resonates within an international cultural context like that of the UAE. The panel: [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • A Tribute to Quincy Jones

    Berklee Abu Dhabi UAE Pavilion, Saadiyat ISland, Abu Dhabi

    The Abu Dhabi Festival in collaboration with Berklee Abu Dhabi pay tribute to musical legend Quincy Jones (a close friend of the Festival) in a special session of Riwaq Al Fikr – ADMAF Talks. The evening features insights from long-time [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Layered Dialogues: Society as Medium

    Manarat al Saadiyat Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Subtitled 'Objects as Anchors: Material, Narrative, and Memory', this panel discussion riffs on the recently-opened Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits exhibition at this venue (runs to 30 June and is well worth seeing). As the blurb puts it: [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Layered Dialogues: Society as Medium – In/Visible City

    Manarat al Saadiyat Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Another in the series of panel discussions based around the Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits exhibition at this venue (runs to 30 June and is well worth seeing). Artist Minouk Lim talks with Wael Al Awar, Principal architect [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Clémence Marie Bergal in Conversation

    Foundry Downtown Boulevard Crescent, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Boulevard, Dubai

    An Inloco Gallery conversation about the evolution of public art in the MENA region with Clémence Marie Bergal, Abu Dhabi Public Art Director at DCT Abu Dhabi. Clémence will discuss how institutional frameworks, artistic practice, and urban development shape public [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • The Twentieth Line

    The Third Line Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    The Third Line gallery is currently running The Only Way Out Is Through: The Twentieth Line, a significant retrospective exhibition curated by Shumon Basar to mark its 20th anniversary by looking back on two decades of The Third Line’s story [ ... ]

  • Restless Circle: Tour and Conversation

    Al Mureijah Square Sharjah

    What goes into conceptualising and curating a solo exhibition? Artist Afra Al Dhaheri and curator May Al Qaydi lead an enquiry-based tour of Al Dhaheri's current exhibition Restless Circle (ends tomorrow, 14 December), followed by a conversation between the two that [ ... ]

  • Artist Talk: Ryan Koopmans and Alice Wexell

    Leila Heller Gallery Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Ryan Koopmans and Alice Wexell talk about their creative process, alongside their exhibition The Wild Within currently running at Leila Heller – digital art envisioning iconic architecture (like the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and Louvre Abu Dhabi) reclaimed by nature.

    Free
  • An Unwritten Country: Frauke Heard-Bey in conversation with Meitha Al Mazrooei

    Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

    Historian and author Frauke Heard-Bey joins scholar Meitha Almazrooei to discuss the long arc of writing and archiving history. Heard-Bey’s landmark publication From Trucial States to United Arab Emirates, first published in 1982, is an essential source for anyone interested [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Conversation: Daniele Genadry and Nadine El Khoury

    NIKA Project Space Unit 11 Al Khayat Avenue, 19th Street Road — Al Quoz 1, Dubai

    Artist Daniele Genadry and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Associate Curator Nadine El Khoury will discuss Genadry’s practice and her approach to landscape through light, perception, and visual uncertainty, in relation to ecology, mediation, and the themes of the current group exhibition [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Memory under Construction: Rashad Bukhash in conversation with Lina Najem

    Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

    Architect Rashad Bukhash has restored and protected from demolition hundreds of buildings in Dubai. In this conversation with researcher Lina Najem, he revisits decades of work on both shores of Dubai Creek, including a long tenure at Dubai Municipality, with [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Localized Futures: Collective Heritage

    421 Arts Campus Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    A key element in 421's Winter season is Localized Futures: Conversations by 421 x afikra, a four-part series of talks and panel discussions developed in collaboration with afikra. The series aims to explore the future of key cultural and civic [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Another City is Possible: Mediating Architecture

    Al Qasimiyah School Sheikh Saqr Bin Khalid Al Qasimi St, Sharjah

    For the next event in its SAT03 public programme, Sharjah Architecture Triennial presents a conversation on reimagining the city and the possibilities of architecture beyond its conventional boundaries. Led by Vyjayanthi Rao and Tau Tavengwa, Curator and Associate Curator of [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Artist Talk: Huang Yi – Art, Movement, and Gratitude

    NYUAD Art Gallery Reading Room أبو ظبي, أبو ظبي, United Arab Emirates

    Behind the precision of robotics and the poetry of movement lies a story of resilience and grace. In this talk, Huang Yi reflects on how scarcity became a source of creativity and how gratitude continues to guide his work and [ ... ]

    Free, but request invitation