This year the event features new activities and partners, and invites everyone to ‘Take a walk on the art side’
Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) has unveiled an interesting line-up of activities and events for the sixth edition of Dubai Art Season. To be held under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice Chairman of Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, Dubai Art Season’s 2019 edition will run from 1st March until 30th April 2019.
Dubai Culture has announced that this year’s edition will feature an array of new initiatives, dotted with a colourful and captivating tapestry of creative events across the city, under a new tagline ‘Take a Walk on the Art Side’, that invites the community to explore Dubai’s thriving art scene. This year, Dubai Art Season is teaming up with Emirates Transport for a vibrant art activation that will focus on spreading public art into the city. Under this partnership, 20 school buses around Dubai will be artified with works of renowned and emerging artists from the UAE and the region.
Her Highness Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, commented, “The Dubai Art Season aligns with our leadership’s efforts to boost the cultural sector within the UAE and promote the country’s rich cultural heritage. I’m very happy with the significant growth that Dubai Art Season has amassed over the years. Through this initiative Dubai Culture continues to uphold the vision of our leaders by advancing the cultural industry within Dubai. It also reflects the Authority’s commitment towards the Eight Principles of Governance of Dubai and Fifty-Year Charter, launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. Dubai Art Season establishes strong foundations to develop a diversified, knowledge-based, and innovative economy, that is supported by the creative industries.”
Her Highness continued, “Dubai Art Season has developed into a platform that positions the city as a world-class art and culture destination, by bringing together people from different parts of the world, united by their love for the arts, to celebrate talent, creativity, innovation, and cultural diversity. This initiative will certainly help in realising our objectives to enhance Dubai’s status as a capital for arts and culture, and a talent incubator that provides an atmosphere of happiness and positivity, thus strengthening social cohesion and promoting tolerance as the noblest value passed down by Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan.”
Dubai Art Season 2019 will commence its city-wide art celebration with the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, held in partnership with Dubai Culture. Running from 1st to 9th March at InterContinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City, the Festival, which is the Middle East’s largest celebration of the written and spoken word, will bring together people of all ages and backgrounds, and will feature sessions by renowned authors from across the world.
The season will continue with Dubai Art Week, headlined by the ninth edition of Dubai Culture’s SIKKA Art Fair from 16th to 24th March at Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood and 13th edition of Art Dubai, which will be held from 20th to 23rd March. SIKKA, the contemporary, artist-led fair for emerging Emirati, UAE-based and GCC talents, will this year feature over 45 artworks across a variety of indoor and outdoor exhibitions, art installations, workshops, films, music, and performing arts, reflecting Dubai Culture’s commitment to nurture and celebrate local talent.
As part of Dubai Art Season, the Dubai Art Week will also see the return of DIFC Art Nights on 18th March at The Gate, DIFC, and Galleries Night on the same date at Alserkal Avenue, thereby bringing entire city of Dubai to life with art installations, exhibitions, and exciting performances.
Additionally, during the art season, photography enthusiasts will have an opportunity to witness Streets of the World Exhibition. An unmissable event of Dubai Art Season, the longest and the longest photography exhibition in the world will continue as part of Dubai Art Season until 5th April. The exhibition features work of the famous Dutch photographer, Jeroen Swolfs, and highlights daily life in capital cities of 195 countries.
Bringing activities from all corridors of the artistic mediums, Dubai Art Season will feature other major events including the Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Awards on 12th March at Dubai Opera, along with two new exhibitions namely 1001 Vases, and Belonging Exhibition, which will be held from 19th to 25th March at Dubai Design District, the Middle East Film & Comic Con from 11th to 13th April at the World Trade Centre, the ING Creative Festival from 11th to 14th April at Dubai Design District, and World Art Dubai from 3rd to 6th April at the World Trade Centre. Additionally, this year, the second Middle East edition of L’Ecole Van Cleef & Arpels will fittingly return to Dubai, the recently appointed UNESCO ‘City of Design’, and will enrol students for in-depth coursework on traditional crafts including, jewellery making and calligraphy.
One of the main attractions that culminates the Dubai Art Season, will be the biennial Dubai International Arabic Calligraphy Exhibition. In its 10th edition this year, the exhibition will celebrate calligraphy as one of the most powerful art forms, highlight the brilliance of the written word, and put forth powerful ideas that are related to Islamic heritage, as well as the region’s cultural and social identity. It will run from 27th April to 5th May at Wafi Mall.
Dubai Culture aims to enhance Dubai’s cultural scene and draw attention to the Emirate’s rich heritage with a variety of initiatives that take place throughout the year. The Authority’s mandate is to build bridges of constructive dialogue between different civilisations and cultures through enriching initiatives that benefit the Emirate’s citizens, residents and visitors.
