Exciting free workshops and guided tours for children and teenagers at Jameel Arts Centre 

Exhibition: 
Library Circles: Maysoon Al Dwairi
Date: May 26, 2021 - November 29, 2021, 4-6 pm
Location: Jameel Library

In its latest iteration of Library Circles, Jameel Library presents a research display by Maysoon Al Dwairi which zeroes in on a crucial moment in the UAE’s history – the development of its education systems. 

The research, presented through a selection of readings, recollections of oral histories, an annotated archival display and a commissioned text, looks at the period right before and after the unification of the Emirates in 1971, grounding these accounts within philosophies of education in the Arab and Muslim worlds. 

A core component of Maysoon’s research centres around the archive collection of Dr. Hamad Al Dwairi, Maysoon’s father, which he amassed during his time as an educator in the UAE. Dr. Hamad holds a PhD in Comparative Education and Educational Administration from Ain Shams University in Cairo, and now resides in his home country of Jordan.

Library Circles is a series of research projects, talks and experimental interventions by UAE practitioners at the Jameel Library in Jameel Arts Centre which explores alternative research methodologies and representations with a focus on “thinking in public”.

Join Jameel Library’s Meet & Greet Session on 28 June, 2021 with Maysoon Al Dwairi. Prior registration is required as capacity is limited. You can RSVP on the link here. 

**

Tour and workshop: Historic pottery workshop inspired by cuneiform

Date: July 3,2021, 11:30am - 1:30pm
Age: 14+
Location: Project Space - Jameel Arts Centre

Jameel Arts Centre presents a series of tours and workshops for children and teenagers. The workshops feature a guided tour of the galleries and a discovery journey of artworks followed by creative hands-on activities, unique to each visit and led by Jameel Arts Centre’s Learning Coordinator Madeline Abu Nabah.
The tour and workshop feature the current exhibition ‘Hiwa k: do you remember what you are burning?’ at Jameel Arts Centre and focuses on an artwork titled “The Bell Project” showcasing Mesopotamian art symbols and history. Participants are invited to learn about cuneiform (one of the oldest forms of writing known to humankind) through sculpture art.
Sessions are free-to-attend with prior registration required. Limited spaces are available. You can RSVP on the link here. 

‘The Assembly’
Date: May 2021 to May 2022
Location: Jameel Arts Centre

Independent curator Daniel H. Rey is set to design, curate and facilitate the 2021 edition of ‘The Assembly’ at Jameel Arts Centre. 

Through group discussions, workshops, mentorship and the development of self-initiated guided projects, ‘The Assembly’ is an annual youth-focused community program designed to foster the next generation of creative leaders as well as encourage South-South cross-pollination. 

This year’s program focuses on five key themes: Creating, Curating, Community Programming, Commissioning and Critiquing. ⁠

Rey’s participation in Jameel Art Centre’s youth takeover last year and his participation as an alumnus of the 2020 edition of ‘The Assembly’ has made him an integral part of emerging creatives in the region.

The 2021/2022 Assembly members, selected via a highly competitive interview and jury process, are: Alexis Javero, Anita Shishani, Farah Fawzi Ali, Raheed Allaf, Rashid Almheiri, Shama Nair, Sree and Lubnah Ansari.

**

Exhibitions: 
‘Do You Remember What You Are Burning?’
Date: December 16, 2020 - July 24, 2021
Location: Galleries - Jameel Arts Centre

Blending humour with personal experience, Hiwa K marks his debut in Asia and the Middle East with a solo exhibition at the Jameel Arts Centre that speaks to contemporary experiences of displacement, belonging and resilience.
 
Many of the works in this exhibition relate to the artist’s home city of Sulaymaniyah, in Iraqi Kurdistan, and his experiences of fleeing as a refugee and returning many years later.
 
The exhibition titled ‘Do You Remember What You Are Burning?’ brings together works spanning more than ten years of Hiwa K’s practice, including One Room Apartment, an outdoor installation originally commissioned for Documenta 14 (2017), and a new interactive large-scale work, produced especially for this show’s debut in the UAE.
 
The exhibition was commissioned by Art Jameel as a three-venue collaboration with Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, and The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto. 

**

Exhibition: 
Age of You
Date: January 29, 2021 - August 14, 2021
Location: Galleries - Jameel Arts Centre
January 28 - August 14, 2021 
 
In collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, ‘Age of You’ is an immersive exhibition focusing on how our perceptions of ourselves have changed and what it means to be an individual today,  It is curated by Shumon Basar, Douglas Coupland and Hans Ulrich Obrist, with graphic design by Daly & Lyon.
 
Set across two of Jameel Arts Centre's gallery floors, ‘Age of You’ includes works in film, fashion, sculpture and installation by more than 70 contributors, presented through 13 chapters that chart the remaking of the inner self. The exhibition features words and slogans by the curators and creative collaborators juxtaposed with specially commissioned art installations. 
 
The exhibition previews a forthcoming book by the curators, The Extreme Self, a sequel to their previous cult title The Age of Earthquakes: A Guide to the Extreme Present. Available for purchase soon at the Art Jameel Shop.

Please find images of ‘Age of You’ works at Jameel Arts Centre in the link here.

Publication: 
Jameel Library Commissions: Sarnath Banerjee
Date: January 18, 2021 - Ongoing
Location: Online - Jameel Arts Centre

The Jameel Library, an integral part of Jameel Arts Centre - Dubai's contemporary art institution - published its first illustrated novel by Sarnath Banerjee titled 17-Year Cicada, an episodic account of a young woman trapped in a vast library. She goes through the stages of denial, anger and acceptance. Surrendering to her fate, she roams around desolate reading rooms, walking between the shelves, taking selfies and eating from the well-stocked refrigerator. Sometimes, she has imaginary conversations. The place feels like the furthest outpost of the Gobi desert.
The novel is segmented into ten-chapter entries released every fortnight, starting 18 January, 2021 on Jameel Arts Centre’s website. 

Sarnath Banerjee is a graphic novelist, artist and cofounder of Phatomville, the comics publishing house. Through his books, Banerjee explores the South Asian middle-class nature, delving into themes such as power, masculinity, bureaucracy, rumour, class-system, meritocracy, religion and the uncanny.

**

Site-Specific Installation: 
Artist’s Garden: “Desert is a Forest” by Namrata Neog and Sunoj D
Date: October 17, 2020 - January 1, 2022
Location: Creekside, between galleries 2 and 3

Jameel Arts Centre’s latest Artist's Garden commission is awarded to Namrata Neog and Sunoj D’s ‘Desert is a Forest’, which explores our local biodiversity and the way we see and interpret the environment through the complex entanglements of humans, non-humans, food and domesticity. 

The plant species grown in the Artist’s Garden are indigenous to the UAE and tell the story of their traditional uses as food and medicine, offering a means to explore local plant ecology and nutritional habits. The Artist’s Garden is accompanied by a programme of talks, readings and performances by the artists and their UAE-based collaborators.

Launchd in October 2020 and growing over the coming months, the new garden questions through our situation in the UAE, what negotiations, relationships and hierarchies emerge and submerge in this thinking landscape?

Jameel Arts Centre is open and free.

10am to 6pm on Saturdays through Wednesdays; 12pm to 8pm on Thursdays and Fridays, and closed on Tuesdays.