Campus Art Dubai (CAD) is part of Art Dubai’s extensive year-round programming and aims at providing artists with educational and professional opportunities. CAD was the first programme of its kind in the region and has continuously developed and reinvented itself over its past seven iterations.

First established in 2012, CAD has acted as a school for artists, curators, writers, architects, designers and cultural producers based in the UAE. Each year a special curriculum is designed around a pertinent theme and CAD participants explore the significance of local knowledge with individuals and institutions in the region through course material and a series of seminars, lectures, workshops and off-site visits. Sessions are led by academics, critics, curators and artists.

Dubai Culture & Arts Authority is the Strategic Partner of Campus Art Dubai.
A.R.M. Holding is the home of Campus Art Dubai.

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CAD is taught and led each year by a cast of local and international academics, critics, curators, and artists. This rotating faculty appears each session for group critiques, individual one-on-one mentorship meetings, and also to present for discussion their own work or research pertinent to the programme’s theme. The seminar’s chief work is to provide and service a space for critical thinking and the exchange of ideas and skills, in which participants are encouraged to collaborate, debate, and challenge.

Skills: developing and articulating the practices of locally-based artists through discussions, talks, presentations and mentoring, all informed by regular readings, plus group outings to exhibitions and artists’ studios.

Feedback: presenting work and learning strategies for group and one-on-one critiques, self-critique and self-motivated practice; all participants present their work and discuss it with the group at least four times over the course of the programme as well as one-on-one critiques with lead and visiting tutors.

Access: to international, regional, and local tutors, perspectives and audiences.

Residency: CAD artists will engage in an intensive production residency at a dedicated Campus Art Dubai studio space.

Together over 90 practitioners have participated in CAD since its inception in 2012. The tight-knit alumni group have been able to leverage their network to develop their practice and place themselves in the local art scene and continue to support one another across various platforms and community engagement projects. Many CAD participants have gone on to be affiliated with celebrated regional and international platforms including Vikram Divecha, Farah Al Qasimi, Karim Sultan and Munira Al Sayegh.