• SFP Montage: day two

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

    SFP Montage is a series of special projects and initiatives linked to Sharjah Arts Foundation’s annual Sharjah Film Platform (SFP) festival that forges new associations among the works and expands their reach beyond Sharjah. This evening's films: Upshot dir Maha [ ... ]

    Free
  • 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 improv. It's free, but you need to put your [ ... ]

    Free
  • Mohamed Al Astad: Rust & Waves

    Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi Reem Island, Abu Dhabi

    An exhibition showcasing the artistic journey of the Emirati artist known for his ability to capture maritime heritage and coastal landscapes through the interplay between nature and time; he characteristically incorporates elements of rust, waves, and the textures of the [ ... ]

    Free
  • Wednesday Night Impro: Maestro

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

    The Courtyard's most peopular 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 [ ... ]

    Free
  • A Room of One’s Own

    NYUAD Project Space NYUAD Campus, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi

    Curated by Duygu Demir, NYUAD assistant professor of Art History and curator at the Art Gallery, this exhibition features new work by current MFA students Maha Alasaker, Yuehan Dai, Nour Elbery, Almaha Jaralla, Tooba Shaikh, and Shaima Shamsi that has [ ... ]

    Free
  • Curators Talk: Nada Raza

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

    The latest in the NYUAD Art Gallery's series of conversations with curators features Nada Raza, Director of the Alserkal Arts Foundation. She'll be giving an overview of her curatorial journey as a divided ‘South Asian'; her PhD was on transcultural [ ... ]

    Free
  • UAE Classical Talents: A Piano and Flute Recital Night

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    The last concert of the UAE Classical Talents Season 2024/2025 features the return of Magadalena Wajdzik (piano) and Carlos Teixeira (flute) in a programme with works by Bach, Mozart, Fauré and Poulenc As usual, concert curator Stéphane Ferrault will illuminate [ ... ]

    AED 150
  • Mon Hymne à Piaf

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

    A tribute to the iconic Edith Piaf, led by the French-Lebanese singer Manel Mallat and directed by Kristian Abouanni. She is accompanied by an orchestra of 20 musicians, conducted by top film composer Danny Bou-Maroun, who has reimagined Piaf’s classics [ ... ]

    AED 195
  • Reading for Pleasure Conference

    Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences Al Razi St, Umm Hurair 2, Dubai Healthcare City, Dubai

    The second edition of this Emirates Literature Foundation conference brings together a diverse selection of educators and experts from across the globe, including some of the most influential voices in the fields. The aim: to discuss and offer guides to [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Circus Baobab: Yé !

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

    Vertiginous human pyramids, bodies being thrown seven metres into the air, barely believable hand-on-hand acrobatics, combat, contortions and more – stunning circus skills, and all threaded through with a strong sense of place and a passionate exploration of pollution, power [ ... ]

    AED 105
  • Gravity & Other Myths: The Pulse

    Dubai Opera

    Modern circus at its best, with all the classic virtuosity and circus skills of some other troupes but without the overload of technology and glitz: this show brings together all three of the core ensembles of the Australian company with [ ... ]

    From AED 290
  • Mon Hymne à Piaf

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

    A second and final evening for this tribute to the iconic Edith Piaf, led by the French-Lebanese singer Manel Mallat and directed by Kristian Abouanni. She is accompanied by an orchestra of 20 musicians, conducted by top film composer Danny [ ... ]

    AED 195
  • Gravity & Other Myths: The Pulse

    Dubai Opera

    Modern circus at its best from the top Australian company. An award-winning creative team of director Darcy Grant, designer Geoff Cobham and composer Ekrem Eli Phoenix have extended and amplified the signature spirit of this rather unique company: visceral, poetic, [ ... ]

    From AED 290
  • Youth Takeover 2025

    Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

    The Jameel's annual Youth Takeover is the manifestation of the Assembly, an experimental learning programme designed to foster creative leaders aged 18 to 24 in the UAE, "inviting the creation and curation of projects reflective of their generation’s areas of [ ... ]

    Free
  • Circus Baobab: Yé !

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

    A second and final performance for this spectacular piece from Circus Baobab, a company of 13 talented young dancers and acrobats from Guinea and the diaspora. Circus Baobab works collaboratively to develop shows that blend traditional West African performance forms [ ... ]

    AED 105
  • Comedy@TGIF

    TGIFriday's at the Rove Hotel Downtown 312 Al Mustaqbal Street, Dubai

    Dubomedy gigs are usually pretty good, especially when the price is free (with a minimum spend of one drink or one food item) and a "fantastic" (their judgement) bill of stand-ups – "you never know who will drop by!" It's [ ... ]

    Free
  • Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial: Bik Van der Pol’s The poem that jumps the fence

    Abu Dhabi Beach Al Hisn Street, Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Artist duo Bik Van der Pol (Liesbeth Bik and Jos Van der Pol) engage in collaborative projects on how art constructs public spaces for speculative thought and collective creativity. The poem that jumps the fence features weekly performances on Abu [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Performance Co/Lab

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

    An ongoing programme of performance exercises such as contact improvisation, breath work, acting warm-ups, games, and techniques aimed at "performing artists, creatives, and curious individuals looking to explore movement practices. Instructors are multidisciplinary theatre artist and game designer Carlos Páez [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Gravity & Other Myths: The Pulse

    Dubai Opera

    The final chance to see this performance of modern circus at its best from a top Australian company. An award-winning creative team of director Darcy Grant, designer Geoff Cobham and composer Ekrem Eli Phoenix have extended and amplified the signature [ ... ]

    From AED 290
  • Bea Laszlo: Questions of My 20s

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

    An intimate evening of heartfelt songs, reflecting on the complexities of navigating love, friendship, and family as life shifts during this transformative decade. It's a celebration of vulnerability, change, and the ongoing journey of rediscovering who we are. An NYUAD [ ... ]

    AED 55
  • Monday Night Comedy: This Is Impro / Felipe Ortiz

    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. This evening has a second act, featuring Felipe Ortiz – founding [ ... ]

    Free
  • Open Culture Workshop

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

    Inspired in part by the Open GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) movement – which promotes open access, reuse, and sharing of cultural collections in digital spaces – the Open Culture project seeks a local context for such ideas; organiser and [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Piano Appassionato: A Night of Virtuosity – Ioannis Potamousis

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

    An evening of piano brilliance, showcasing the instrument's dramatic power and profound emotional depth with two of the classic masterpieces of the repertoire, both of which make great demands of the pianist – Beethoven's “Appassionata" and Liszt's Sonata in B [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • La Cité de la peur / Fear City: dir Alain Berberian (1993)

    Alliance Française Dubai Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    Odile Deray, a small time public relations executive, has her work cut out for her – getting some exposure for a pretty terrible small-budget horror movie called Red is Dead. Then she gets a break: the projectionist is murdered, just [ ... ]

    AED 35
  • Talismans, Gems and Marvels

    L'ÉCOLE Middle East, School of Jewelry Arts Building 10, Dubai Design District, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    A lecture exploring the powers attributed to stones and their symbolism, the beliefs surrounding protective animals, and the fascinating stories of legendary jewels and talismans from various cultures. The speakers – both lecturers at L’ÉCOLE Middle East – are art [ ... ]

    AED 50
  • A Life on Tape / Bilder (m)einer Mutter: dir Melanie Lischker (1921)

    Manarat al Saadiyat Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Melanie Lischker's documentary reconstructs the life of her mother (who she barely remembers) from over 100 hours of Super 8 and video footage that was meticulously recorded over the decades, mostly by her father. The result is the poignant story [ ... ]

    Free, but pre-register
  • Wednesday Night Impro: Maestro

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

    The Courtyard's most peopular 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 [ ... ]

    Free
  • Parasite: dir Bong Joon Ho (2019)

    Louvre Abu Dhabi Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi

    The South Korean smash hit and multi award winner (including the Cannes Palme d'Or in 2019 and a Best Picture Oscar) is a black comedy thriller: it follows the street-smart Kim family scamming their way into the household of the [ ... ]

    AED 30
  • The Fridge Open Mic / Marisa Sardo

    The Fridge Warehouse Warehouse 5, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai

    The Fridge's Open Mic night is one of the best in town, both because of the venue (good vibes, good acoustics, good crowd) and because of the top tech available – includes drum kit, electric keyboard, bass amp, guitar amp, [ ... ]

    Free
  • Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits

    Manarat al Saadiyat Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Now this should be one of the highlights of the UAE's exhibition year, not just because of the content – it's subtitled explicitly 'Contemporary Art from Korea, 1960s to Today', and South Korea is home to some of the most [ ... ]

    Free
  • Yomeddine: dir Abu Bakr Shawky (2018)

    Louvre Abu Dhabi Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi

    Beshay has been cured of leprosy but has never left the leper colony in the Egyptian desert where he has lived since childhood. On the death of his wife, though, he finally decides to leave in search of his roots. [ ... ]

    AED 30
  • La Lezione di Teatro | The Acting Class

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

    This 45-minute play -- first seen at the NYUAD Arts Center last autumn – is a joyful lesson in theatre and a tribute to the theatrical talent of Italians for connecting to anyone, transcending language barriers. Set partly in English [ ... ]

    AED 120
  • The Laughter Factory Premium Comedy Club

    The Agenda Abdullah Omran Taryam St, Media City, Dubai

    This month's Laughter Factory tour has another good crop of fine up-and-coming talent. The acts: Aaron Butler engaging Belfast-born stand-up known for his high spirited stage presence Justin Panks observational comic with a genius for approaching seemingly everyday subjects from [ ... ]

    AED 160
  • Perfect Days: dir Wim Wenders (2023)

    Louvre Abu Dhabi Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi

    This moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the everyday tells the story of Hirayama, a man who seems utterly content with his simple life cleaning toilets in Tokyo. Outside his structured daily routine, he enjoys music, books, and [ ... ]

    AED 30
  • LAST CHANCE Adrian Pepe: A Shroud is a Cloth 

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

    Adrian Pepe’s poetic meditation on fragmentation and renewal gets an extended run at NIKA Project Space. It uses a monumental 200m2 woollen textile piece that previously wrapped a building damaged in the 2020 Beirut Port explosion to highlight the relationship [ ... ]

    Free
  • LAST CHANCE Laura Garcia Karras: Eidolon

    Volery Gallery Maze Tower - 5201, Dubai International Financial Center, Dubai

    A solo exhibition by that French artist that explores "the spectral space between presence and absence, giving form to what lingers just beyond perception" (the ancient Greek word 'eidolon' means phantom, double, or apparition). Karras’s works appear as delicate traces [ ... ]

    Free
  • LAST CHANCE Flower Shop

    Volery Gallery Maze Tower - 5201, Dubai International Financial Center, Dubai

    A group show – with Maria Andrievskaya, Almendra Bertoni, Katie Hector, Jen Hitchings, and John Denniston II– that invites us to think of colour not just as a visual element but as a language of its own. "Colour is what [ ... ]

    Free
  • Zhou Song: Supernatural·Algorithm

    Volery Gallery Maze Tower - 5201, Dubai International Financial Center, Dubai

    Zhou Song's solo show echoes traditional Chinese landscape painting but employs symbolic imagery to explore relationships between nature, technology, and faith. The 'anthropomorphic tree' is central, serving as a metaphor for nature’s alienation by technology – "these trees retain natural [ ... ]

    Free, but book appointment slot
  • Music Loves Company presents Comedy Kix

    Music Loves Company Sky Quarter , Mobility District, Expo City, Dubai

    Comedy Kix presents some of Dubai’s top Desi stand-ups – Nitesh Chaturvedi, Emaad Siddiqui, Adil Javed, Faizan Nassan, Piyush Malhotra, and Prateek Hiranandani (the show will partially be delivered in Hind). The door price includes a free drink.

    AED 85
  • Moon Is The Oldest TV: dir Amanda Kim (2023)

    Manarat al Saadiyat Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

    Kim's documentary profiles the career of Nam June Paik and his pioneering contributions to video art. A timely meditation on the contradictory ways in which technology elicits both fascist tendencies and intercultural understanding, the film charts Paik’s artistic evolution with [ ... ]

    Free
  • Les Quatre Cents Coups | The 400 Blows: dir François Truffaut (1959)

    Louvre Abu Dhabi Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi

    Truffaut's largely autobiographical coming-of-age drama is the classic French New Wave film and utterly unmissable. In the first of many appearances with the director, Jean-Pierre Léaud is a misunderstood 13-year-old living in a small, uncomfortable Parisian apartment with his mother, [ ... ]

    AED 30
  • The Temple

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

    As part of International Jazz Month in Abu Dhabi, The Temple makes its public debut – an evening with some of the UAE’s most creative improvisers. It's curated by Ratish Chadha, who also plays in a couple of the slots. [ ... ]

    AED 105
  • The Laughter Factory Premium Comedy Club

    Vintage Grand Hotel Al Fay Road, Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

    This month's Laughter Factory tour. The acts: Aaron Butler engaging Belfast-born stand-up known for his high spirited stage presence Justin Panks observational comic with a genius for approaching seemingly everyday subjects from extraordinary angles. Roxy Yekta UK-born Iranian comedian with [ ... ]

    AED 160
  • LAST CHANCE Tran Luong: Tầm Tã – Soaked in the Long Rain

    Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

    The first major survey of Vietnamese contemporary artist Tran Luong covers 30 years of painting, installation, performance and work with communities showcasing how his practice has been shaped by political and social transitions and his multifaceted roles as activist, curator, [ ... ]

    Free
  • LAST CHANCE Trần Lương: Tầm Tã – Soaked in the Long Rain

    Jameel Arts Centre Al Jaddaf, Dubai

    Trần Lương is a major figure in performance and visual art in Vietnam. This exhibition is the first international survey for the artist; it includes painting, installation, performance, community engagement and institution-making as it traces Trần’s life and work from [ ... ]

    Free
  • LAST CHANCE Nadine Ghandour: Rooms for Error

    Bayt AlMamzar House 2, 26 Street, Al Mamzar, Dubai

    Nadine Ghandour’s first solo exhibition in the UAE, curated by Dawn Ross, features recent works informed by her experiences in various cities, including Dubai, Sharjah, Cairo and Rotterdam. Working with drawing, writing, performance and sculpture, Ghandour creates works that depict imagined [ ... ]

    Free
  • Ana Escobar Saavedra: It Starts Where It Ends

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

    Ana Escobar Saavedra has a cross-disciplinary creative practice working on the frontiers of craft, art and design. Born and bred in Colombia, she is now established in the UAE; for the last few years, she has combined a personal studio [ ... ]

    Free
  • Unstable Grounds: 2025 MFA Graduate Exhibition

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

    For the fourth time, this exhibition shows work by students completing the two-year Master of Fine Arts in Art and Media at NYUAD – Dima Abou Zannad, Bao, Adele Bea Cipste, Hala El Abora, Mowen Li (Amira), Jude Maharmeh, Safeya [ ... ]

    Free