Dubai, UAE, 26 September 2023:  Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) is offering community members an innovative edutainment environment through its School of Life project at Al Safa Art and Design Library, Al Twar, Al Mankhool and Hatta public libraries with a set of interactive sessions and workshops aimed at building life skills and motivating individuals to prioritise their personal welfare, by raising their level of awareness and concern for their mental and physical health and enabling them to contribute to making a positive change in society.

The October programme, under the umbrella of the Dubai Calligraphy Biennale, is held under the theme ‘Beauty of Calligraphy’ offering 15 workshops in Arabic and English. In Al Twar Public Library, participants will be introduced to calligraphy in 4 related sessions, namely: Introduction to Calligraphy Art, Scripting and Typography, Exploring Forms of Arabic Calligraphy, and Advanced Calligraphy Painting.
In Al Safa Art & Design Library, participants will be introduced to Japanese calligraphy, specifically Hiragana which is used for native Japanese function words, and Katakana, which is used for borrowed words from other languages. They will also learn about Kufic, the oldest calligraphic form of the various Arabic scripts derived from Kufa, a city in Southern Iraq. They will also join an experimental workshop tailored for art enthusiasts to tap into their creative potential, diverging from classical calligraphy conventions and embracing freehand cursive experimentation and a variety of artistic tools.
In Al Mankhool Public Library, participants will learn about the history of letters, their origins, cultural background, and how they travelled throughout the world, followed by a clay activity that allows the participants to cut, shape, and mould words of their preference. Children can also practice the alphabet and learn new and creative ways to draw animals out of letters.
Participants can also join the sessions given in Arabic to explore Arabic calligraphy and discover the process of designing and crafting ink for calligraphy, with a strong emphasis on the creative and artistic aspects and the fundamental steps of forming letterforms, in addition to learning letter connectivity techniques, various calligraphy tools, and methods, including the reed pen and its applications, the fine-cut technique, and the selection and preparation of metal nibs. Other sessions also concentrate on the artistic and creative calligraphic dimensions and enable them to compose complete Ruq'ah sentences, in addition to learning the precision of Kufic script in shaping and integrating letters within intersecting squares as well as how to elevate the form of the letter to the highest levels of attractiveness through its visual structure and integrated elements.
‘School of Life’ educational sessions, which will last until March 2024, are offered by a group of speakers, experts, and people with distinguished experiences, cementing the emirate's position as a global centre for culture, an incubator for creativity, and a thriving hub for talent.