• Youth Takeover 2024

    Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

    The Jameel's annual handover of the arts centre to a selected cohort of young visionaries starts on Saturday 4 May and runs to Monday 27 May. There will be multiple artwork and installation "interventions" across the ground floor of the [ ... ]

    Free
  • Drawing Time: Duets

    Al Mureijah Art Spaces Al Mureijah Square, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

    This exhibition spotlights new and historical works from the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection that present the range and possibilities of drawing and print culture. The first instalment of a four-part series, it delves into the concept of “the double, the [ ... ]

    Free
  • LAST CHANCE Katya Muromtseva: Over the Slopes of Speech

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

    The first UAE exhibition for the NY-based artist, featuring works created in Dubai during her time at the NIKA Project Space Research and Residency programme – a group of monumental watercolour triptychs on the multifaceted narratives and histories of women [ ... ]

    Free
  • LAST CHANCE Katya Muromtseva: Over the Slopes of Speech

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

    The New-York based artist gets her first show in the UAE, featuring works she created in Dubai during her time at the NIKA Project Space Research and Residency programme – monumental watercolour triptychs that relate to the narratives and histories [ ... ]

    Free
  • Drawing Time: Duets

    Al Mureijah Art Spaces Al Mureijah Square, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

    New and historical works by 15 intergenerational artists in the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection that explore drawing as a practice. The exhibition grew out of a two-year research project into conserving paper; it seeks to re-examine the very nature of [ ... ]

    Free
  • Todes Ballet Alla Duhova: Attention

    Zabeel Theatre Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, Palm Jumeirah West Crescent, Dubai

    Spectacular and crowd-pleasing genre-crossing work from Moscow’s hottest contemporary dance company, created by celebrity choreographer Alla Duhova in 1986 and still led by her. There's nothing academic about their work – their styles range from ballet to break via hip-hop [ ... ]

    From AED 200
  • Same Same, but Different: Shawn Chidiac

    VOX Mercato Mercato Mall, Jumeirah Beach Rd, Dubai

    A new VOX cinemas series of live comedy gigs kicks off with Shawn Chidiac, aka ‘My Parents are Divorced'. He's especially good at spot-on impressions but is all-round funny ...

    AED 175
  • The Ice Hole

    The Junction Unit H72, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    The second performance for this hit comedy two-hander by Pierre Guillois and Olivier Martin-Salvan, reworked from the French original for an Anglophone audience at last year’s Edinburgh Festival. There were rave reviews for a show that has an imposing Shakespearian [ ... ]

    AED 120
  • Miramar Al Nayyar: Moving Through the Ether

    Tabari Artspace Gate Village Level 2, DIFC, Dubai

    A collection of abstract figurative works on canvas, "inviting viewers into a realm of recognition and constant metamorphosis ... Each 190 x 120cm canvas serves as a conduit for Miramar's endeavour to encapsulate the essence of the natural formations of [ ... ]

    Free
  • Leila Eskandari: Whispers of Legends

    Zawyeh Gallery Warehouse 27, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    Eskandari's exuberant and busy paintings intertwine myth and reality, exploring the power of storytelling – the artist's inspiration for this series comes from the Shahnameh, or the Book of Kings, an ancient Persian epic poem filled with mythical figures and [ ... ]

    Free
  • The Ice Hole

    The Junction Unit H72, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    The final two performances for this hit comedy two-hander by Pierre Guillois and Olivier Martin-Salvan, reworked from the French original for an Anglophone audience at last year’s Edinburgh Festival. There were rave reviews for a show that has an imposing [ ... ]

    AED 120
  • Monday Night Comedy: This Is Impro

    Courtyard Playhouse Street 4B, Al Quoz 1, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Exactly what it says: a regular Monday evening of scenes, stories and narrative improvisation influenced by audience suggestions and featuring the Courtyard Playhouse's most experienced improv performers plus guests. Classic Courtyard stuff. It's free, but you need to put your [ ... ]

    Free but donations welcome
  • Ala Ebtekar: The Sky of the Seven Valleys

    The Third Line Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Ebtekar's exhibition is presented as "one work in seven chapters", each composed of one to four doorway-sized panels that combine multi-wavelength photographic processes with the artist's distinctive cloud-making brushstrokes. Inspired by Farid ud-Din Attar's Sufi poem Conference of the Birds, [ ... ]

    Free
  • Khalid Jauffer: Looking, dwelling, leaving

    The Third Line Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Jauffer is an artist who deals in the metaphoric potential of everyday objects, find the ironies in his everyday surroundings ad teasing out the spatial, poetic relationships between his subjects and their frangible correlation to human beings. "Discarded objects and [ ... ]

    Free
  • Dima Srouji: Charts for a Resurrection

    Lawrie Shabibi Unit 21, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    The first-ever solo exhibition for artist, architect and researcher Dima Srouji, whose work acts as a form of political commentary and as a place-making (or un-making) tool – "Interested in the ground, objects, displacement, restitution, forgeries, and living archives, the [ ... ]

    Free
  • Reverberations: Textile as Echo

    Green Art Gallery Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    The second of three exhibitions showcasing contemporary approaches to textile and fibre art curated for Green Art Gallery by Murtaza Vali. It brings together work by four contemporary artists – M’barek Bouhchichi, Sayan Chanda, Himali Singh Soin, and Swapnaa Tamhane [ ... ]

    Free
  • Raed Yassin: Allegorical Ruins

    Gallery Isabelle Unit 17, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Yassin explores the implications of Roland Barthes' concept of "the return of the dead" in photography, playing on the tension between memory and ghostliness by utilising old black and white photographs to evoke loss and the fleeting nature of memory. [ ... ]

    Free
  • Permission to Narrate

    Cinema Akil Warehouse 68, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    A Reel Palestine capsule programme of six films which challenge narratives that have long marginalised Palestinian voices, advocating for an embrace and amplification of their stories. Bab El Shams (Gate of the Sun): dir Yousri Nasrallah (2004) A powerful film [ ... ]

    prices vary – check website
  • Le Cours de la Vie: dir Frédéric Sojcher (2023)

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Screenwriter Noémie (Agnès Jaoui) is invited to give a msterclass at a school that turns out to be run by the man who was her first love (Jonathan Zaccaï). She teaches Vincent and his students that the art of writing [ ... ]

    AED 45
  • Rushdi’s Comedy Souk

    Courtyard Playhouse Street 4B, Al Quoz 1, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A regular monthly evening of improv and stand-up hosted by Rushdi. The bar's set pretty high: "from side-splitting stand-up to mesmerising improv, the finest comedic artists from near and far come to showcase their talent."      

    Free, but pre-register
  • Fridge Concert Series season 43: Gaya – A Night of Qisse

    The Fridge Warehouse Warehouse 5, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    The Fridge Concert Series gives the Dubai-based singer-songwriter an evening for her 2022 album Qisse – a musical journey of self-love and acceptance, with songs in Hindi, Tamil and English, and slick modern production values that are noticaebly rooted in [ ... ]

    AED 80
  • Valdés

    Anima Gallery 30 La Croisette, Porto Arabia, The Pearl Qatar, Doha, Qatar

    A solo exhibition of works by Manolo Valdés, the Spanish artist known for his unique approach of drawing from art history to create his paintings, prints, and sculptures in a signature style of pared-down forms and unrefined mark-making. Through meticulous [ ... ]

    Free
  • 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
  • Wednesday Night Impro: Maestro

    Courtyard Playhouse Street 4B, Al Quoz 1, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    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 the lowest score is eliminated. Eventually only [ ... ]

    Free but donations welcome
  • Susan Kosti: What Lies Beneath

    kanvas Dubai Unit 1, Al Khayat Art Avenue, 19th Street Al Quoz 1, Dubai

    The Sydney-based media artist and motion graphic designer has assembled a cutting-edge immersive 3D-projection show that translates ocean data collected by NASA into what the organisers describe as “a stunning kaleidoscope of vibrant corals and sea creatures ... What Lies [ ... ]

    Free
  • Entrusted Ground

    NYUAD Art Gallery Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    A 40-minute dance performance conceived as part of artist Gözde İlkin’s installation in the current NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery exhibition In Real Time (which ends on 9 June). It's a collaboration between İlkin, choreographer Aslı Öztürk, musician Berke Can [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Art, Social Space, and Public Discourse

    Alserkal Arts Foundation Warehouse 50/51, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    An artist talk by Ala Ebtekar at Alserkal Arts Foundation that draws from his recent explorations and research on art in public space. Ebtekar expands the critical framework of conversation around public art projects, exploring various tools of cultural production [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Ennio Morricone – The Official Concert Celebration

    Dubai Opera

    Dubai Opera's short Film Music Week opens with a tribute concert for Ennio Morricone. Under the baton of his son Andrea Morricone, the Armenian Symphony Orchestra and Dubai Festival Chorus will bring to life the music from films such as [ ... ]

    From AED 275
  • Art Souk

    Al Jalila Cultural Centre for Children Umm Suqeim 3, Dubai

    Art, crafts, F&B, music and hands-on interactive workshops at a Dubai Culture weekend under the umbrella of the Sikka platform. Should be fun for all the family ... The full programme is here.

    Free
  • Circa: Duck Pond

    The Arts Center @ NYUAD NYUAD Campus, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    The world’s most romantic ballet reimagined as "a family-friendly acrobatic spectacular"? Australia's Circa Contemporary Circus is one of the globe’s leading performance companies, pioneering how extreme physicality can create powerful and moving performances and drawing rave reviews and standing ovations [ ... ]

    AED 155
  • Soiree Stand-Up Parisien

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Top Francophone comedy with Nassim Mellah, Benito, and Malcolm & Syphax. There's drinks and nibbles at 8pm, the show starts at 8.30pm. AF members pay AED 100, the rest of us AED 125.

    AED 125
  • Ennio Morricone – The Official Concert Celebration

    Dubai Opera

    A second tribute concert for Ennio Morricone in Dubai Opera's Film Week. Under the baton of his son Andrea Morricone, the Armenian Symphony Orchestra and Dubai Festival Chorus plays music from films such as The Good, the Bad and the [ ... ]

    From AED 275
  • The Gracefulness of Daily Life

    Zidoun-Bossuyt Gallery 796 Jumeirah Street, Dubai

    A group show for Saudi artists associated with Gharem Studio, Riyadh (including its founder and the co-owner). Works on display include photography, printmaking, video, installation and sculpture; "in this show you will discover that studios are places through which you [ ... ]

  • Star Wars: A New Hope in Concert

    Dubai Opera

    The second (of four) presentations in Dubai Opera's Film Music Week features a screening of the first Star Wars movie from 1977 (feeling old yet?), featuring one of John Williams' most stirring scores. It's accompanied live by the Armenian State [ ... ]

    From AED 275
  • Entrusted Ground

    NYUAD Art Gallery Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    The final performances of this 40-minute dance performance, conceived as part of artist Gözde İlkin’s installation in the current NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery exhibition In Real Time (which ends on 9 June). It's a collaboration between İlkin, choreographer Aslı [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Writing Workshop | Object Lessons: Bad Diaspora Poems

    Alserkal Arts Foundation Warehouse 50/51, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    Led by poet and researcher Momtaza Mehri, this writing workshop traces what diaspora means as a space of both collectivity and tension. Paryicipants are invited to "write around, and through, objects that represent the inward facing, closely-held relationship we have [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Circa: Duck Pond

    The Arts Center @ NYUAD NYUAD Campus, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    A second performance (of three) for this exuberant take on Swan Lake (with a hint of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ugly Duckling) that mixes the enchantment of the ballet with the thrill of the circus. Australia's Circa Contemporary Circus is [ ... ]

    AED 155
  • Alserkal Community Lane Takeover

    Alserkal Avenue Al Quoz 1, Dubai

    Alserkal Avenue is being taken over for this weekend's evenings by a food festival involving the Avenue's own F&B outlets and a mass of invited incomers. Should be good – and the highlight of the first evening will probably be [ ... ]

    Free
  • Artist Talks | Sheher, Prakriti, Devi

    Alserkal Arts Foundation Warehouse 50/51, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    Ishara Art Foundation presents talks by Gauri Gill, Shefalee Jain and Mariam Suhail with their first public presentations in the UAE – the ongoing exhibition Sheher, Prakriti, Devi, which Gauri Gill has curated. Moderated by media and culture theorist Rashmi [ ... ]

    Free
  • Soiree Stand-Up Parisien

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A second evening of top Francophone comedy with Nassim Mellah, Benito, and Malcolm & Syphax. There's drinks and nibbles at 6.30pm, the show starts at 7pm. AF members pay AED 100, the rest of us AED 125.

    AED 125
  • Natalie Perez and Ina Charuashvili

    Dubai Opera Studio Downtown Dubai, Dubai

    The elegant French mezzo-soprano is joined on piano by Ina Charuashvili for the latest in this series of recitals for the Global Notes series, a programme curated by Amira Fouad that features young stars from around the world with a [ ... ]

    tbc
  • Aurie Styla: The Aurator Tour

    Theatre by QE2 Queen Elizabeth 2, Port Rashid, Dubai

    Award-winning comedian, actor and writer from London with a load of style, a Spirit of the (Edinburgh) Fringe Award for 2022, a distinctive voice (he's the worldwide voice of Pintrest, among others), and a neat line in wit for tech [ ... ]

    From AED 125
  • Rana AlMutawa: Everyday Life in the Spectacular City

    Kutubna Cultural Center Madina Avenues 17, Nadd Al Hamar, Dubai

    Dubai’s newest independent bookstore and cultural centre, Kutubna Cultural Center, is opening with Dr Rana AlMutawa’s first solo exhibition in Dubai – an exhibition of images from her book Everyday Life in the Spectacular City: Making home in Dubai. It’s [ ... ]

    Free
  • Circa: Duck Pond

    The Arts Center @ NYUAD NYUAD Campus, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    The final Abu Dhabi performance for this exuberant take on Swan Lake (with a hint of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Ugly Duckling) that mixes the enchantment of the ballet with the thrill of the circus. Australia's Circa Contemporary Circus is [ ... ]

    AED 155
  • Alserkal Community Lane Takeover

    Alserkal Avenue Al Quoz 1, Dubai

    The second evening of Alserkal Avenue's pop up food festival involving the Avenue's own F&B outlets and a mass of invited incomers. Should be fun, with DJ music including The Flip Side’s Shadi Megallaa.

    Free
  • Dubai Bibliophiles Book Club – Toni Morrison’s Beloved

    21grams Urban Balkan Bistro Meyan Mall, Al Thanyah St, Umm Suqeim 2, Dubai

    The book group discusses what is arguably Morrison's finest literary work, a multi-layered attempt to give voice to the collective memory of African Americans that also explores notions of family, trauma, the repression of memory, and of course the restoration [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Soiree Stand-Up Parisien

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Third evening (of three) for this top gig of Francophone comedy with Nassim Mellah, Benito, and Malcolm & Syphax. There's drinks and nibbles at 6.30pm, the show starts at 7pm. AF members pay AED 100, the rest of us AED [ ... ]

    AED 125
  • Maysoon Zayid: Bint Balad

    Zabeel Theatre Jumeirah Zabeel Saray, Palm Jumeirah West Crescent, Dubai

    The distinctive stand-up style of America's first Muslim female comedian (probably) and (definitely) the funniest. Comedian, writer, actress, tap dancer, and disability advocate Maysoon Zayid delivers a humorous and heartwarming tale of beating the odds in so many ways ... [ ... ]

    From AED 125
  • Monday Night Comedy: This Is Impro

    Courtyard Playhouse Street 4B, Al Quoz 1, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Exactly what it says: a regular Monday evening of scenes, stories and narrative improvisation influenced by audience suggestions and featuring the Courtyard Playhouse's most experienced improv performers plus guests. Classic Courtyard stuff. It's free, but you need to put your [ ... ]

    Free but donations welcome