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Studio Sessions

The Image-Makers’ Forum is an evening designed for image-makers, artists, and anyone curious about creative processes. The night begins with artist talks, where the invited artists will present works in progress and showcase their image-making practices across analog, film-making, and stop-motion, followed by a Q&A.

Open to all ages

No prior experience required

Children's Programming

Join us at 421 Arts Campus for a creative curriculum-based series of sessions throughout the Spring season. Designed for parents and children aged 5-8, each session combines movement-based storytelling, hands-on creative activities, and playful math and chess exercises. Together, families explore the art, craft, culture, and biodiversity of countries around the world, building a collective World Map throughout the season.

Open to ages 5-8

Join us for Pencil In with Sarah Afaneh, a communal writing session designed to help writers stay focused, inspired, and connected through shared creative time.

Children's Programming

Join us at 421 Arts Campus for a creative curriculum-based series of sessions throughout the Spring season. Designed for parents and children aged 5-8, each session combines movement-based storytelling, hands-on creative activities, and playful math and chess exercises. Together, families explore the art, craft, culture, and biodiversity of countries around the world, building a collective World Map throughout the season.

Open to ages 5-8

Maktaba: A Speculative Thought Circle is a monthly gathering dedicated to collective reading, viewing, and discussion across disciplines. Rooted in the Arabic word for “library,” Maktaba invites participants to come together in an open, horizontal learning environment where texts, films, images, sound, and artistic practices are explored through shared inquiry and dialogue; realizing the ways in which they are in conversation with one another and what we can learn from them.

Open to ages 18+

No prior experience required.

Children's Programming

Join us at 421 Arts Campus for a creative curriculum-based series of sessions throughout the Spring season. Designed for parents and children aged 5-8, each session combines movement-based storytelling, hands-on creative activities, and playful math and chess exercises. Together, families explore the art, craft, culture, and biodiversity of countries around the world, building a collective World Map throughout the season.

Open to ages 5-8

Join us for Tatreez Circle with Joanna Barakat, a gathering where makers come together to embroider meaningful motifs and connect through the shared practice of stitching.

Participants are asked to bring their own embroidery projects and supplies.

Basic knowledge of tatreez is required.

Children's Programming

Join us at 421 Arts Campus for a creative curriculum-based series of sessions throughout the Spring season. Designed for parents and children aged 5-8, each session combines movement-based storytelling, hands-on creative activities, and playful math and chess exercises. Together, families explore the art, craft, culture, and biodiversity of countries around the world, building a collective World Map throughout the season.

Open to ages 5-8

For registration, email hello@421.online 

Children's Programming

Join us at 421 Arts Campus for a creative curriculum-based series of sessions throughout the Spring season. Designed for parents and children aged 5-8, each session combines movement-based storytelling, hands-on creative activities, and playful math and chess exercises. Together, families explore the art, craft, culture, and biodiversity of countries around the world, building a collective World Map throughout the season.

Open to ages 5-8

For registration, email hello@421.online 

Children's Programming

Join us at 421 Arts Campus for a creative curriculum-based series of sessions throughout the Spring season. Designed for parents and children aged 5-8, each session combines movement-based storytelling, hands-on creative activities, and playful math and chess exercises. Together, families explore the art, craft, culture, and biodiversity of countries around the world, building a collective World Map throughout the season.

Open to ages 5-8

For registration, email hello@421.online 

Children's Programming

Join us at 421 Arts Campus for a creative curriculum-based series of sessions throughout the Spring season. Designed for parents and children aged 5-8, each session combines movement-based storytelling, hands-on creative activities, and playful math and chess exercises. Together, families explore the art, craft, culture, and biodiversity of countries around the world, building a collective World Map throughout the season.

Open to ages 5-8

For registration, email hello@421.online 

A community is more than just a place on a map; it is a shared space of cultural life, public infrastructure, and collective action. This discussion investigates the rapid evolution of cities and communities in the region, focusing on how design, infrastructure, and grassroots initiatives intersect to create resilient, vibrant, and culturally rich urban environments.

Pencil In is a writers’ group created to provide a supportive environment for writers to write alone, together! We at 421 love the idea of body-doubling (working near or around someone to help stay focused and engaged) when we are working, writing, and creating.

For this special Ramadan edition, write and share in the company of other writers while enjoying a light Suhoor, embracing the communal spirit of Ramadan.

Open to ages 18 and above.

No prior experience is required, just a love for the written word!

A light Suhoor will be provided! 

Join us for ‘Tatreez Circle’ with Joanna Barakat, a series where you’ll get together as makers to embroider meaningful motifs.

This is a relaxed, communal space for stitchers and tatreez practitioners to work side by side. All experience levels are welcome, whether you’ve just learned tatreez or have been practicing for years, but basic knowledge of tatreez is required.

Participants are asked to bring their own embroidery projects and supplies. 

A Light Suhoor will be provided.

Gather for a Writers’ Suhoor, an intimate evening of poetry, collaboration, and reflection. Arrive to be greeted by a typewriter inviting you to contribute a line to a collective poem, a spontaneous act of shared authorship.

Open to all skill levels, ages 18 and above. A light Suhoor will be provided.

Get ready for Family Day at 421! A creative day full of gallery adventures, stories, and hands-on activities, specially designed for little ones and their families.

This special Family Day is open to all ages and skill levels, it’s a day made for kids but with plenty for grown-ups to enjoy too so parents are welcome to join!

Pencil In is a writers’ group created to provide a supportive environment for writers to write alone, together! We at 421 love the idea of body-doubling (working near or around someone to help stay focused and engaged) when we are working, writing, and creating.

Open to ages 18 and above.

No prior experience is required, just a love for the written word!

Join us for ‘Tatreez Circle’ with Joanna Barakat, a series where you’ll get together as makers to embroider meaningful motifs.

This is a relaxed, communal space for stitchers and tatreez practitioners to work side by side. All experience levels are welcome, whether you’ve just learned tatreez or have been practicing for years, but basic knowledge of tatreez is required.

Participants are asked to bring their own embroidery projects and supplies.

The future requires a new definition of learning. This session gathers leading minds from academia, policy, and publishing to address the imperative of educational innovation. The conversation will focus on how regional educational institutions are moving beyond traditional models to build learning ecosystems that are locally relevant, globally competitive, and capable of fostering critical thinking and creative citizenship.

Taking inspiration from an image buffet of MiZa and other materials, participants are invited to create images and create motifs and meaning-make to later print and make their own lino-prints following a demo by artist Diego Mendoza where he will explain and offer his own artistic practice and how he explores the image and draws out a motif or pattern into print.

60 AED

SOLD OUT

To be added to the waitlist, please email hello@421.online

Swap your favorite stickers and craft your heart out with fellow creatives at this cozy creative meetup!

Participants are encouraged to bring their journals and to save any memorabilia from their past week in this junk journaling X vision board galore where they will take a moment to pause, reflect on the past year, and prepare for the new year ahead by way of sticking and collaging in the art of junk journaling galore! 

A two day paper extravaganza!

On the first day, participants will explore paper-making and will get to experiment with natural pigments, dyeing their paper using natural dyes.

On the second day, The Memo Club and Ayesha Fernandes will lay the foundation and provide the framework for a meditation for Analog’s Return: Our Human Need For It –– a prompt on our collective pasts and futures while participants can use the exhibition and previous exhibition ephemera and archival material to respond to as they create collages or assemblages on their hand-made papers. They will also be invited to learn a saddle-stitch by Ayesha Fernandes should they wish to bind their creations into artist books. 

60 AED

SOLD OUT

To be added to the waitlist, please email hello@421.online

Turn natural stones and wire into statement pieces by shaping natural materials from the sea into handcrafted jewelry!

Drawing from the textures of the sea, the session invites you to slow down and transform simple natural elements into wearable pieces crafted with care.

Open to ages 11 and above. No prior experience is required, and all materials are provided.

Bring the whole family to 421 for a day of stories, creativity, and paper-mâché sculpture making!

This program is designed for children ages 6 and above, with parents welcome to join in, making it a fun, hands-on creative adventure for the whole family! Lunch is provided.

Localized Futures: Conversations by 421 x afikra is a collaborative series of talks presented by 421 and afikra, dedicated to exploring the future of key cultural and civic sectors through a uniquely regional lens. This four-part program, running from January through April, is anchored by the theme, "The Localized Futures," which challenges global narratives by focusing on the distinct solutions, innovations, and challenges inherent to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

Join us for an educators evening to explore artworks at our major fall exhibition Rays, Ripples, Residue. This event celebrates our 10th anniversary, serving as a moment of reflection for the institution and the wider arts ecosystem within the past decade.

For Registration please use this link

Discover the secrets of ancient jewelry-making and craft your own unique piece to take home!

In this studio session led by multidisciplinary artist Boubaker Boukhari, you’ll explore jewelry inspired by real-life, historic pieces found in Abu Dhabi’s museums. Using traditional wire-working techniques, you’ll experiment with form and texture to create wearable jewelry pieces that connect the past with your own creativity.

No prior experience is required. Open to all skill levels, and all materials are provided.

Join us for ‘Tatreez Circle’ with Joanna Barakat, a series where you’ll get together as makers to embroider meaningful motifs.

This is a relaxed, communal space for stitchers and tatreez practitioners to work side by side. All experience levels are welcome, whether you’ve just learned tatreez or have been practicing for years, but basic knowledge of tatreez is required.

Participants are asked to bring their own embroidery projects and supplies. 

Pencil In is a writers’ group created to provide a supportive environment for writers to write alone, together! We at 421 love the idea of body-doubling (working near or around someone to help stay focused and engaged) when we are working, writing, and creating.

Open to ages 18 and above.

No prior experience is required, just a love for the written word!

Based on our ten-year anniversary exhibition, Rays, Ripples, Residue, this decadal season extends the spirit of the exhibition into programming that considers, obscures, and cyclically revisits, and at times, re-imagines, the past, present, and future of 421 as witness to the transformations, translations, and adaptations within and surrounding its walls. The seasonal general public programming invites four modalities of translating our past, present, and future.

Localized Futures: Conversations by 421 x afikra is a collaborative series of talks presented by 421 and afikra, dedicated to exploring the future of key cultural and civic sectors through a uniquely regional lens. This four-part program, running from January through April, is anchored by the theme, "The Localized Futures," which challenges global narratives by focusing on the distinct solutions, innovations, and challenges inherent to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.