As We Are, Might Have Been, and Could Be is the Arab British Centre’s UK-wide visual arts and talent development programme, curated by Jessica El Mal and supported by the Freelands Foundation. We are organising two As We Are: Creative Exchange Days in partnership with Manchester’s Longsight Art Space. These days are an opportunity for […]
As We Are, Might Have Been, and Could Be is the Arab British Centre’s UK-wide visual arts and talent development programme, curated by Jessica El Mal and supported by the Freelands Foundation. We are organising two As We Are: Creative Exchange Days in partnership with Manchester’s Longsight Art Space. These days are an opportunity for […]
As We Are, Might Have Been, and Could Be is the Arab British Centre’s UK-wide visual arts and talent development programme, curated by Jessica El Mal and supported by the Freelands Foundation. Over the past three years we have commissioned artists of Arab descent in the UK, hosted exhibitions and community activities in museums and […]
Encounter the beauty and profound cultural importance that the art of textiles holds for people around the world. This display, facilitated by Multaka Oxford at the Pitt Rivers Museum, celebrates how communities around the world use textiles and creativity to weave stories of resilience, beauty and cultural identity. Pieces from the following project partners included […]
Taqasim Music School, based at The Arab British Centre in London, was established in 2011 to teach one of the most significant Oriental instruments called the Oud, among other instruments and disciplines that represent Middle Eastern Music. The school was founded by the Iraqi Oud Master Ahmed Mukhtar who is the current director. What distinguishes […]
This course explores Palestinian embroidery (tatreez) as a living cultural practice, a visual language, and a form of ontological and feminist resistance. Moving beyond craft-based readings, the course situates tatreez within broader historical, political, and decolonial frameworks, examining how stitched motifs encode memory, identity, gendered labour, and survival under conditions of displacement and colonial violence. […]
This Decolonising Belly Dance course is aimed at those who want to learn ‘belly dance’ beyond its bodily movement. It will look into the dance as a cultural celebration addressing its historical journey, its travel to the west and its development to the different styles we see today. It will tackle the myths that surround […]
Immerse yourself in Manuscript Kufic, an early style of Arabic calligraphy that flourished during the Abbasid “golden age”. This course is based on the finest example of this architectural and spacious Qur’anic script which fell out of use almost a millenium ago. Under Joumana Medlej’s guidance you will learn to use the pen and gallnut […]
Creative Indiscipline: Art, Exile, and Resistance in the Maghreb is a six-week, live online course exploring how artists, writers, filmmakers, and cultural practitioners in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia have developed distinctive ways of making, thinking, and imagining since independence. By creative indiscipline, the course understands insubmission as a conscious refusal of colonial legacies, patriarchal norms, […]
Islamic traditional geometric art served as a powerful tool in contemplating the harmonic qualities of the natural world. Springing from advances in mathematics, philosophy and astronomy during the early Islamic period through the Golden Age (8th-15th centuries), geometric art embodied symmetry, balance and infinite repetition. In this course you are invited to explore the symbolism of Islamic Geometric Pattern and try your hands at the […]