The Artist Toolkit is a three-day course addressing the real challenges artists and creative practitioners face when applying for open calls, grants, and other career opportunities.

Led by Jolaine Frizzell, Nasser Abdulla, and Mays Albaik, the sessions introduce practical strategies for finding the right opportunities for your career, along with best practices for writing a strong application. The course also brings in industry professionals who share firsthand insight into how application committees actually make decisions when reviewing applications. 

The sessions will cover common application requirements, common misconceptions, and what tends to separate a successful application from the rest.

By the end of the course, you'll leave with a clearer sense of how to approach opportunities with confidence, and the practical tools to put that into practice.

Accessibility & Participation

Open to ages 18+

No prior experience required.

Language: English and Arabic

Friday, 6 November: 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Saturday, 7 November: 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM

Sunday, 8 November: 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM

REGISTER NOW!

About the Instructor

Jolaine Frizzell is a Dubai-based arts professional. She has a BA in Art History and BFA degree in Photography, and post graduated with an MA in Art History from the University of Western Ontario. She worked at various arts organizations, and was appointed as a Director at galleries in Zurich, and London. Over the past 12 years, she has been managing a gallery, working with international artists, curating exhibitions, and participating in events around the world. In 2015, Frizzell relocated to Dubai and has worked at Leila Heller Gallery and The Third Line. She is currently Director of The Institute for Emerging Art.

Nasser Abdulla is a curator and was previously the Chairman of the Emirates Fine Art Society (EFAS) from 2014 – 2018. At EFAS, Nasser also handled the role of Chief Editor of Al Tashkeel Magazine, one of the oldest arts publications in the region, started in 1984 with support from the Sharjah Art Foundation. In addition, Nasser had curated the Annual Exhibition of Emirates Fine Art Society in 2006 and 2018. While Chairman of EFAS, he initiated the UAE Art Archive project, a digital platform for the EFAS and its member artists’ archives, supported by Abu Dhabi Music and Art Foundation (ADMAF). In 2018, Nasser was co-curator of the critically acclaimed exhibition From Barcelona to Abu Dhabi: Works from Barcelona’s Museum of Contemporary Art in Dialogue with the Emirates, held in Abu Dhabi at Manarat Al Saadiyat.

Andrew Riad (b. 2000, Cairo) is a Coptic Nubian Egyptian multidisciplinary artist and poet exploring the intersection of poetry, research, performance, and play. He works with archives, text, moving and still images, and soundscapes to undo a monolithic history and propose a [re]imagined and [re][un]written history revealing silenced and ostracized narratives as original sources of truth and fact. His projects are research based and driven, but they also mythologize life in an attempt to configure an opportunity for play and imagination. For him, language is the experience of sound and ritual; of symbol and gesture and as such, is a site for resurrection, imagination, and [re]integration. Riad is a graduate of New York University Abu Dhabi (May, 2022) with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature and Creative Writing and Legal Studies and a MFA (Writing) graduate of Pratt Institute (May, 2025). He is an alumnus of the Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Emerging Artists Fellowship (SEAF) and of SAMT Alternative School. His work has been shown and published regionally and internationally including Mizna Arab Art Journal, Makhzin, The Poetry Project, 421 Arts Campus, Alserkal Avenue, and elsewhere.