Art Jameel’s Night School offers new ways to learn about Dubai

Public lectures will cover subjects ranging from pearl divers to urban landscapes

Art Jameel's Night School brings together a small group of residents for a month of talks, workshops and film screenings. Photo: Art Jameel

Night schools exemplify the concept of lifelong learning. Designed specifically for those who work during the day, they offer flexible opportunities for self-improvement and education. On a more symbolic note, they are a refusal to be mired in complacency or personal stasis – a motivation to keep improving.

Night School at the Jameel Arts Centre is built upon these tenets, but with a specific focus: to learn more about Dubai and engage with the city and its history. The annual initiative, which is free to attend, is in its fourth year and is being held under the theme Lifelines.

It is bringing together a small group of residents for a month-long programme of talks, workshops and film screenings which offer a novel way to reflect on the city. Night School features scholars and experts who will cover subjects ranging from heritage preservation to people’s relationships with Dubai’s cats, birds and plants. Given Dubai's position as a regional hub, these topics often expand to include other cities. The programme is open only to those who applied in advance, but several of the subjects are being addressed in public lectures.

Architect and writer Todd Reisz says the programme continues to build upon its formative principles. Night School was first held in 2022 as part of the public programme accompanying Reisz’s exhibition at the arts centre. The exhibition, Off Centre / On Stage, showcased 58 images of Dubai taken in the 1970s as the emirate kicked off its southward expansion and began positioning itself in the global stage.

“The first year was based upon a class that I used to teach architecture in the US,” Reisz says. “I would teach about cities of the Gulf. There are all these scholars here whose work I used to teach students in the US, and they're all here, and in Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi. I could invite them to be here and kind of do that same class.”

The school’s popularity was immediately evident, and it quickly became an annual event, expanding to cover areas beyond architecture.

“You see that in the list of speakers,” Reisz says. “We’re not looking for people to be speakers about specifically architecture or urbanism. There are all sorts of various fields in academia or researchers whose work can influence the way we see and live in cities.”

Speakers taking part in Lifelines include Abdullah M Alsharekh, an academic at the department of archaeology at King Saud University whose work touches upon the prehistory of Saudi Arabia; John Thabiti Willis, an associate professor of African history at Sharjah’s Africa Institute; Neha Vora, an anthropology professor at the American University of Sharjah; and Marvi Mazhar, an architect and researcher whose current research focuses upon the representation and production of Karachi’s urban and rural ecology.

Most of these speakers will be hosting lectures that are open to the public. In Ecologies of Homemaking, on Saturday, Vora will highlight how residents in UAE cities interact with birds, plants and cats. Tending to the Ruins, on January 23, will feature Mazhar and will draw comparisons between Karachi and Dubai, showing how old and new structures inform the urban landscape of the two port cities. On January 19, Thabiti Willis will show how the heritage of Gulf pearl divers is embedded in song and art. Finally, a film programme by Hind Mezaina, on January 25, will feature four short works under the theme Unravelings.

Uns Kattan, deputy director and head of learning and research at Art Jameel, says Night School has grown to become a core part of the institution’s annual public programming.

“What we hope to do through these collaborations is focus on lifelong learning,” she says. “There is a huge consideration that the knowledge that is embedded in arts and culture is meaningful and important.”

However, while most events are either held in academic settings or within arts events, Kattan says Art Jameel aims to bridge that gap and “allow an opportunity for people to come together in a meaningful manner and talk about the city that they live in, in a way that is engaged and aware”.

Dubai, in particular, benefits from such discussions. They offer a chance to “just think about a city that is so fast-paced, and doesn’t sometimes let people take a minute and come together, slow down and really express and discuss the history and urban experience”, says Kattan.

Night School attempts to offer Dubai’s residents a means to mindfully navigate the city while also providing a setting for communal learning.

“In the three past years, we’ve had a little over 45 alumni of the programme,” Kattan says. “They've gone on to form their own community. It’s such a pleasure to see that a lot of them have stayed in touch.

“They do their own urban walks and gatherings around the city. Many projects have emerged out of this programme as well. The long-term impact has been so amazing to see.”