In November, Dubai Design Week will present ‘Meet the UAE Creatives’, a new hybrid programme that will highlight the UAE’s thought leaders through an engaging series of dialogues and design stories, curated by Fatma Al Mahmoud.
‘Meet the UAE Creatives’ will provide designers and creatives based in the UAE with a platform to explain their work within their local creative scene, held across activated spaces in Dubai Design District (d3) with a different creative offering insight into their work each day throughout the week-long event.
“Collaborations and dialogues through platforms such as Dubai Design Week are essential to identify what design and designers in the UAE need to focus on," she commented. "The aim of the ‘Meet the UAE Creatives’ programme will be to overcome current obstacles faced by the creatives, highlight achievements and key efforts made in the field and have productive discussions to enhance the design scene in the UAE; and I look forward to being part of that exchange.”
The programme will bring together both emerging and leading designers, architects and creative industry experts in the UAE, giving insight on a variety of cross-sector topics.
After earning a BA in Visual Arts at the Department of Art and Design, College of Art and Creative Enterprises at Zayed University, Al Mahmoud worked as a graphic designer at the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq), before becoming a permanent member of the Maraya Art Centre in 2016, where she has since been responsible for setting the programmes and workshops for both the centre and 1971 Design Space.
An active member of the UAE creative community, Al Mahmoud also chairs the Shurooq Corporate Youth Council, manages the Jedariya street art initiative, and is managing partner at the Dubai-based art and design management studio Hamzat Wasl.