Teaching Artist Fellowship

PROGRAMME OVERVIEW

The Teaching Artist Fellowship is a structured six-month residency based in Art Studio, Manarat Al Saadiyat. The Fellowship is designed for artists who value community engagement within their artistic practice and are interested in honing their teaching skills. The programme will offer three selected teaching artists the opportunity to set up their studio within a vibrant learning environment, while developing their creative and teaching practice through chosen areas of research. Selected fellows will participate in professional development seminars delivered by leading regional and international partners and will be provided training on designing meaningful learning experiences while learning how to effectively communicate their practice to various audiences. At the end of the fellowship, artists can expect to build effective communication skills, facilitation experience as well as a robust teaching portfolio.
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Meet the Fellows
Athar Jaber

Athar Jaber was born in Rome, Italy, in 1982 to Iraqi artists Afifa Aleiby and Jaber Alwan. He grew up between Rome, Florence, The Netherlands and Antwerp, Belgium. Moving around several countries and cities helped reinforce a sense of belonging beyond geographical borders.

This notion acted as the framework for his artistic practice, in a desire to outline a common human experience across cultures and time.

Athar Jaber’s practice mainly focuses on stone sculpture, but his artistic output also includes other expressions such as performance, video, photography and text. Noteworthy solo exhibitions include Offerings (National Museum of Fine Arts, La Habana, Cuba, 2018) and Where Pain Becomes Beauty (Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, Florence, 2015). International group shows include the Bruges Triennale (Bruges, 2021), Future Genealogies (6th Lubumbashi Biennial, Congo, 2019), A Cool Breeze (Rudolfinum Galerie, Prague (2019), 100 Masterpieces of Modern and Contemporary Arab Art (Institute du Monde Arabe, Paris, France, 2017), Jerusalem Lives (The Palestinian Museum, Birzeit, West Bank, 2017).

Athar obtained his Ph.D. in the Arts at the University of Antwerp in 2021.

Chafa Ghaddar

Chafa Ghaddar was born in Lebanon and currently lives in Dubai. She graduated from Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts (ALBA), earning her Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts in 2007 and her Master’s in Visual Arts in 2009.

While developing a career in wall painting and surface finishing, she explores the use of fresco in contemporary practices and other processes working equally with murals, painting, drawing, photography and mixed media.

She executes site-specific and public artworks and has participated in several collective exhibitions between Beirut, Dubai, New York, Brussels and Verona, Italy. She was awarded the Boghossian Art Prize for painting in 2014 and was an artist in residence at the Villa Empain in Brussels in October and November 2015.

Ghaddar had her debut Solo show, “The Visit,” at Galerie Tanit, Beirut, in 2018, followed by “Cacti in a Daydream” in 2021. She was selected by Tashkeel Studio as part of their Critical Practice Program 2018/2019 and exhibited “Recesses,” her first solo show in the UAE. Ghaddar had her debut Solo show, “The Visit,” at Galerie Tanit, Beirut, in 2018, followed by “Cacti in a Daydream” in 2021. She was selected by Tashkeel Studio as part of their Critical Practice Program 2018/2019 and exhibited “Recesses,” her first solo show in the UAE. Ghaddar had her debut Solo show, “The Visit,” at Galerie Tanit, Beirut, in 2018, followed by “Cacti in a Daydream” in 2021. She was selected by Tashkeel Studio as part of their Critical Practice Program 2018/2019 and exhibited “Recesses,” her first solo show in the UAE. Ghaddar had her debut Solo show, “The Visit,” at Galerie Tanit, Beirut, in 2018, followed by “Cacti in a Daydream” in 2021. She was selected by Tashkeel Studio as part of their Critical Practice Program 2018/2019 and exhibited “Recesses,” her first solo show in the UAE. Ghaddar had her debut Solo show, “The Visit,” at Galerie Tanit, Beirut, in 2018, followed by “Cacti in a Daydream” in 2021. She was selected by Tashkeel Studio as part of their Critical Practice Program 2018/2019 and exhibited “Recesses,” her first solo show in the UAE.

Chafa was commissioned to produce a site-specific work for the 16th Lyon Biennale, “Manifesto of Fragility,” curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath. In 2023, she had her first gallery show in the UAE, “Beneath Latent Skies,” with Tabari Artspace.

Mahshid Rafiei

Mahshid Rafiei works in sculpture, installation and drawing. Her practice considers the ways a process, a material and an image can become so inextricable that they ossify projections of a prejudiced imaginary.

Her work has been exhibited at Unit 17, Vancouver (2023); 421, Abu Dhabi (2023); Fri Art Kunsthalle, Fribourg (2018); and Rheum Room, Basel (2018), among other spaces. Collaborative and discursive projects have been hosted at Mercer Union, Toronto (2020); Doors Unlimited, New York (2020); Temporary Art Review, online (2016); and Knockdown Centre, New York (2013).

She participated in March Meeting at Sharjah Art Foundation (2019) and has held residencies at Darling Foundry, Montreal (2021), 421, Abu Dhabi (2020) and Spring Sessions, Amman (2019).

Mentors & Faculty
Professional Development Seminars by Focus 5

Focus 5 provides high-quality, professional learning opportunities and program consulting focused on aligning arts integration, best instructional practices, and current thinking in the field of arts and education. We collaborate and consult with teachers, teaching artists, schools, school districts, arts organizations, arts commissions, arts councils, and museums around the country. We are in classrooms on a daily basis to keep our work refined, relevant, and effective in the ever-growing and evolving field of arts integration and education.

Against Methodology Seminar by Sabih Ahmed

Sabih Ahmed is the Associate Director and Curator at the Ishara Art Foundation in Dubai. His curatorial work and research move between exhibitions, infra-/para-/axial-institutional appearances, archives, pedagogy and theorization.

He serves on the Advisory Board of the Sher-Gil Sundaram Arts Foundation in Delhi and his writings have been featured in a number publications and journals. He is a co-author of the upcoming book ‘Mass Traffic’ with Lantian Xie published by Kunsthalle Bern and Mousse Publishing, 2023.

Peer Mentorship by Jumana Emil Abboud

Jumana Emil Abboud’s creative practice engages with Indigenous heritage and measures of resilience amidst hostile environments. Through drawings, spoken-word, video and workshops, Jumana’s 20-year journey is grounded in folk tales, water-lore, and collective imaginaries, where human and more-than-human narratives are interconnected and traversed through oral knowledge that is equally charged with spiritual legacy and material trajectory of care and entitlement.