Arts and Culture

Through her multidisciplinary creative practice, Kuwaiti Ukrainian artist Amani AlThuwaini engages with themes of heritage and history, consumerism, childhood, and ritual.

As new studies emphasize the rising danger of heat exposure in Gulf states, young Bahraini curators Maryam Aljomairi and Latifa Alkhayat pose architectural solutions to air conditioning overuse and waste through the atmospheric exhibition “Sweating Assets.”

One year after the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale launched in Riyadh, the Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah embraces myriad global traditions of Islamic religious practice and places the city at the center of narratives of pilgrimage, piety, migration, and movement.

Saudi and U.S. cultural programs provide an opportunity to bridge cultural differences – and showcase artists and performers blending artistic influences from the two countries – while harnessing sources for creativity and innovation.

Best-selling Kuwaiti author Fadwa Al Taweel shares her experiences as a woman crime fiction novelist and offers insight into the state of crime fiction novels in the Arab world.

To Bahraini music producer Sarah Nabil, khaleeji hip hop and R&B are all about the grooves native to Arab cultural heritage and a language that is relatable.

Entrepreneur and creative Mo Abedin launched Sandstorm Comics as a dedicated comic book production studio, educational space, and community site to fill a gap in the UAE’s creative industry.

Emirati artist Maitha Hamdan, featured in a UAE Embassy exhibition in DC situating women in the intimate space of the majlis, uses video performance to explore the more public social restrictions imposed on women.