The fourth edition of SACC returns to Aljada from 22-25 October with more than 150 activities – masterclasses, workshops, seminars, talks and “hands-on experiences”. There are separate programmes for Animation and Comics, which rather begs the question of why the [... more]
SCHLiNGEL is an international film festival for children that has been running since 1996 in Germany, showcasing the most exciting new productions for young people. This is the main event of SCHLiNGEL Abu Dhabi, a day of screenings each of [... more]
A group show for Lulua Alyahya, Rami Farook, Sohrab Hura, and Khaled Jarada that promises to take the viewer into “intimate, elusive worlds … Modest in scale, invite a form of looking that is closer and more inward, creating encounters [... more]
A solo exhibition by Malaysian artist and designer that reflects on the quiet, temporary musollas that pop up in the UAE’s warehouses, shopfronts, and back rooms, modest prayer spaces that are shaped by necessity rather than formal design. Through paintings, [... more]
Inspired by Baz Luhrmann’s film, the musical brings 1900s Montmartre to the stage, blending a tragic love story with a modern pop soundtrack and all the theatrical energy you could hope for ... The Culture Emulsion team promise "the glamour, [... more]
A regular Mad Cat Comedy night – “Dubai’s wildest comedy show on Saturday” at “the first purpose built comedy room in the country”. The cover charge of AED 99 includes two F&B coupons.
A Comedy Kix n evening "packed with stand-up comedy, good vibes, and plenty of laughs" – there are six comics performing, including the Comedy Kix reliables Amr, Imah and Obaid. The AED 90 door price includes two drinks.
Comedy from two very sharp standups who work really well together. From first dates to ghosting, situationships to heartbreak stories, Noha Bashir and Denise Alexe address the struggles of dating life via sharp humour, relatable stories, and a brilliant chemistry [... more]
A group exhibition organised with Feminin Pluriel, featuring the work of a selection of contemporary female artists. Participating artists were given carte blanche to explore their own creative perspectives; the result is seen in photography, painting, sculpture, 3D and mixed [... more]
The final part of the original Star Wars trilogy, beautifully restored and featuring the whole gang plus some engaging newcomers – like Jabba the Hutt, who has Han Solo in his clutches. That's just the start of an epic conclusion [... more]
Maktaba is 421’s monthly gathering dedicated to collective reading, viewing, and discussion across disciplines. This session moves from thinking about performance to thinking through it – using the body, space, gesture, and relationality as sites for inquiry. Through a combination [... more]
The original wartime weepie, now beautifully restored to give maximum scope to the multi Oscar winner. Humphrey Bogart stars as Rick Blaine, the cynical American owner of a nightclub in Vichy-controlled Casablanca on the eve of war; his one-time love Ilsa Lund [... more]
The UAE National Orchestra continues its active schedule with the second performance of a good-looking programme of contrasting music from three great Romantic composers – lively melodies from Rossini in the overture to The Barber of Seville, technical virtuosity and [... more]
Discuss the top seven poems (from a list of 50) that have received the most votes by members. As with any such list, it's highly debatable – way too many US poets, way too few from MENASA (including the UAE, [... more]
The Pepp's regular early-evening showcase of Dubai’s local comedy talent, always with four standups on stage.
The Mad Cat team does the rather cool Moon Bar at the Sana Restaurant in Mina Al Salam – a great venue: quite intimate, few distractions. Featuring surprise drop-ins, fresh material, and “the kind of intimate room where sitting in the [... more]
Iris Murdoch's Booker winner The Sea, The Sea (1978) is arguably her best book, a novel of obsession, memory, and self-deception. An interesting and accessible choice from one of Dubai's most interesting book clubs ...
Second performance of Culture Emulsion's Francophone take on the Baz Luhrmann film, bringing 1900s Montmartre to the stage for a tragic love story with a modern pop soundtrack.
The Canadian comedian plays Abu Dhabi in the middle of his latest world tour. It's sure to be a good night; he manages to make these arena-scale gigs feel really quite intimate, thanks to a mix of sharp crowd work, [... more]
Surrounded by toys and objects from her childhood, Mallika Taneja uses a harmonium and a microphone to look for what she has lost – a singer and her songs. As she moves between this tale of searching, singing and grief, [... more]
Dubomedy’s main man brings his new show to one of his regular haunts. Expect something of a masterclass in delivering standup in a club environment. All seats must be pre-booked …
Prof. Leonardo Barilaro, Visiting Associate Professor of Space Technology and Sonic Arts and Lead for the Space Art Laboratory at NYUAD, examines how music and artistic practice can connect scientific research with human experience, from creative interventions in space missions [... more]
Spring 1945 on the German island of Amrum, a remote dot in the North Sea. The front is far away, and 12-year-old Nanning (newcomer Jasper Billerbeck) spends his days working the nearby farm and his nights fishing; despite the hardship, [... more]
Dom Art Projects' third non-selling exhibition explores the formal and perceptual aspects of light through a variety of approaches from the 22 participants, "from rationalist modernism and expressionism to ironic conceptualism" as Dom Arts puts it. The artists are Akram [... more]
Makarov's solo exhibition responds to the mediated nature of contemporary reality by reconstructing armed conflict environments from fragments of media imagery circulating in a post-analogue world. Working across figurative painting and digital media, Makarov explores the relationship between virtual and physical [... more]
421's season of talks and panel discussions developed in collaboration with afikra, Localized Futures, explores the future of key cultural and civic sectors through a regional lens – challenging the dominant global narrative by looking at the complexities, innovations, and [... more]
Mad Cat’s standup team at their regular stop at the Easy Tiger bar in Abu Dhabi’s Al Ain Palace. The door price of AED 99 includes two drinks …
This special gig brings Concert Series alumni and fan favourites back to the stage for one-off collaborations and extended jams. The artists will be announced ahead of the night, and "you never know who might walk on next". Food for [... more]
ATypI is the Association Typographique International, the nonprofit global forum for type and typography. It was established in 1957 to unite European type manufacturers at a time of technological change and to promote typography education and awareness in general. Its [... more]
Christie’s first live auction of fine art in Abu Dhabi takes place on 1 November, preceded by two viewing days open to all. There will be more than 70 works from six decades of museum-quality art that traces the evolution [... more]
Celebrating the UAE Year of the Family 2026, the UAE National Orchestra brings audiences of all ages together for a joyful and interactive concert. Rhythm games, listening challenges and conversations with the narrator invite families and first-time concertgoers to become [... more]
The Courtyard’s popular evening of elimination improv. Ten actors converge for a night of scenes, songs and games based on audience suggestions. After each round you score the players on a scale of 1 to 5, and the one with [... more]
For more than five decades, the Syrian artist, poet, and critic Talal Moualla has approached the image not simply as representation, but (says the gallery) “as a form of thought ... Moving between painting, criticism, poetry and research, his practice [... more]
Bassam Freiha Art Foundation's monthly lecture series, led by Dr Michaela Watrelot, BFAF Curator and Director of Exhibitions, returns with a second series – this one on individual artists rather than art movements. Nine monthly lectures, running to next June, will [... more]
The launch event for the sixth cycle of ELF's First Chapter, the only global-standard professional development scheme in the region for writers. Meet this year’s mentors, discover what’s in store for the new cohort, and celebrate the release of The [... more]
The Pepp's regular early-evening showcase of Dubai’s local comedy talent, always with four standups on stage.
Mad Cat Comedy's regular Thursday stop in Silicon Oasis promises "insane laughs every week". The door price of AED 99 includes one drink and popcorn.
Sharif’s first solo exhibition in the UAE presents an autobiographical and very personal series of works about the struggles of private and artist life in a closed society – "a vulnerable, nuanced presentation of life”. The Bahraini artist uses colour [... more]
The forum, now in its fourth annual edition, promises two days of conversations, practical workshops and opportunities to connect organised by Dubai Culture: “from building a brand and finding funding to exploring AI and telling your story, the programme offers [... more]
Sharjah Art Foundation’s annual celebration of indie/experimental cinema returns for its ninth edition with a 10-day lineup of films (26 of them) plus talks and artist development programmes. Screenings and events will take place at Mirage City Cinema, SAF’s open-air [... more]
The Pepp's regular early-evening showcase of Dubai’s local comedy talent, always with four standups on stage.
"Comedy is just tragedy plus time. It's been 3,000 years. We're legally allowed to be hilarious." This original comedy – written and co-directed by top Dubai photo/videographer Ovidiu Dugulan – surveys the final stretch of a ten-year siege of Troy, [... more]
The UAE premiere of Näss (People) by Moroccan choreographer Fouad Boussouf and his company Le Phare – CCN du Havre Normandie is an encounter between the raw energy of 1970s Moroccan music and the physical intensity of contemporary hip-hop. Inspired [... more]
Mad Cat Comedy’s regular standup night at Xandros in Signature 1 Hotel, TECOM. The cover charge of AED 80 includes one drink.
Improv "where anything can happen and the audience becomes part of the show". Which is sort of how improv is defined, though in this case the title suggests there may be an extra element of gun-fingers ... The 3albaraka guys [... more]
This group show is the culmination of the second edition of NIKA Project Space's Open Studio programme: four artists based in the UAE were invited to develop new bodies of work in dialogue with the space, one another, and the [... more]
Stephan Kaluza’s practice is fundamentally concerned with depictions of nature, either as hyper-realistic oils or near-abstract renderings. These two modes of painting should be seen as different stages of the same subject in a process of transformation: disruptions creep in, and [... more]
A solo show for the Palestinian-Syrian-Dutch artist that reinterprets celebrated masterpieces from Western art. Diab revisits iconic works by artists including Picasso, van Gogh, Michelangelo and van Dyck, applying his own distinctive visual language to allow the images to speak [... more]
A survey of works by the French artist, "one of the most restless practitioners of his generation" as the gallery has it. Since the early 1960s Venet unusually broad range of media has included tar poured on to canvas and [... more]
Bringing together paintings, archival photographs, sketches and ephemera produced after 2018, this exhibition offers an immersive encounter with Salah Elmur’s world, "one where memory, landscape and identity merge and ripple through time" as the Jameel puts it. Through paintings that [... more]
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