Dubai Culture Launches Cultural Pottery Festival

Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), the Emirate’s dedicated entity for culture, arts, heritage, and literature, announced the launch of the first edition of ‘Cultural Pottery Festival’ which is taking place in Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood over two periods: 11 – 15 November 2018 and 18 – 19 November 2018.

The festival, held under the theme ‘Pottery: Legacy and History,’ will shed light on the UAE’s handicrafts and is in line with Dubai Culture’s mandate to preserve national heritage and pass it on to future generations especially as these crafts are an inspiring and cultural means of expression.

Saeed Al Nabouda, Acting Director General at Dubai Culture, said: “This festival plays an important role in achieving the Authority’s vision to establish Dubai as a global, creative, and sustainable city for culture, heritage, arts, and literature. Pottery involves creative and artistic skills and has persisted throughout time despite changes in peoples’ habits. We hope this festival helps revive the spirit of this craft by encouraging artisans to practice it, giving it a distinctive cultural, unique, commercial and touristic character to preserve this profession from extinction."

Al Nabouda added: “Dubai Culture is committed to conserving the handicrafts of our heritage, and we encourage all efforts that highlight our national identity to remain a source of pride for all citizens. This all falls within the framework of an integrated strategy for handicrafts which will serve as a basis for the future and independent development of the handicraft sectors.”

The festival will serve as a journey to the past to identify pottery and its stages of development as well as its old uses, allowing visitors from different nationalities to experience the pottery industry, introducing children to this profession through workshops, and allocating a corner for a pottery library where visitors will gain access to books about pottery.

Dubai Culture aims to enhance Dubai’s cultural scene and draw attention to the UAE’s rich heritage. The Authority’s mandate is to build bridges of constructive dialogue between different civilisations and cultures to enhance Dubai's position as a creative and sustainable global city for culture, heritage, arts, and literature, with the aim to empower these sectors by developing creative and innovative projects and initiatives locally, regionally, and globally.