The Arab British Centre

The Arab British Centre In April 2013, The Arab British Centre was named co-winner of the prestigious UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture 2012.

The Arab British Centre is an award-winning, independent, non-religious, non-political non-profit charitable organisation which works to improve the British public’s understanding of the Arab world through organising cultural and artistic events The Arab British Centre is an award-winning, non-political, non-religious, independent, UK registered charity which works to improve the British public’s

understanding of the Arab world. We organise and promote cultural and artistic events relating to the Arab world, and host a regular programme of activities including Oud, Arabic calligraphy classes and Arabic language classes. We also house permanent and temporary collections of contemporary art, have a specialised library open to the public, hold talks on a variety of topics, and recognise individuals working in similar fields through our biennale Award for Culture. In addition to our regular on-site activities, we work in partnership with other institutions including the Mayor of London Shubbak Festival, Royal Borough Kensington & Chelsea Nour Festival. In 2012, we produced ‘Safar: A Journey Through Popular Arab Cinema’, a week-long series of popular Arab cinema which took place at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. The prize rewards significant contributions to the development, knowledge and spread of Arab culture by means of artistic, intellectual or promotional outreach aimed at enhancing intercultural dialogue and understanding. According to the Assistant Director-General for Culture at UNESCO, Francesco Bandarin, the Centre has been recognised for “the various activities and events organised, within and outside the Centre, to promote a better understanding of Arab culture and foster intercultural dialogue”. Since the Centre was founded in 1977, we have housed and subsidised other like-minded organisations involved in Arab-British relations in our premises in Gough Square. The Arab British Centre currently supports the Council for Arab-British Understanding (Caabu), Caspian Arts Foundation, Zaytoun, Ibraaz, Banipal, and Friends of Birzeit University (fobzu). We are always happy to welcome visitors to the Centre, and/or to add people to our mailing list through which we advertise all sorts of Arab-related cultural and artistic events. We are also open to events suggestions and ideas and do our best to answer any questions you might have relating to Arab world affairs in the UK. If you would like to arrange an appointment, or have any queries, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

With just a couple of days to go until The Revolution Continues: Creative Practices Since the 2011 Egyptian Revolution b...
08/06/2026

With just a couple of days to go until The Revolution Continues: Creative Practices Since the 2011 Egyptian Revolution begins, let us introduce you to another of our amazing guest speakers, who’ll be joining us in our final session.

Hazem Header is an Egyptian contemporary dancer, choreographer, and cultural producer. After earning a BA in Physical Education and studying personal training, biomechanics, and kinesiology, he worked as a personal trainer and volleyball coach before deciding to dedicate himself fully to contemporary dance in 2009. He subsequently trained at the governmental centre “Cairo Contemporary Dance Centre (CCDC)” at the Cairo Opera House.

In 2017, he launched Breaking Walls Festival, Cairo’s first international festival dedicated to site-specific performance. Building on this work, he established the Breaking Walls Dance Film Festival in 2021, the first festival in Egypt and the wider region dedicated exclusively to dance films.

Hazem will be joining us for our sixth session: The Festival as Community in the Making. We’ll be exploring the practice of reclaiming the public sphere as intervention, which can be traced through the emergence of independent site-specific and place-based festivals that try to bring visual and performing arts closer to the public. Such festivals become acts of ‘community making’ that attempt to ground contemporary art in the material and cultural realities of a city.

Book your course place now via our link in bio to join the conversation and take part in this unique 6 week course!

01/06/2026

Dr Nesreen Hussein is an Egyptian-British interdisciplinary theatre and performance scholar, educator, and artist based between Cairo and London.

Her new online course with The Arab British Centre draws on examples from the performing arts, media, visual arts, and cultural preservation, to unpack some of the dynamics of ‘subversive’ creative practices that emerged since 2011.

Emphasising collective learning and imagining, the course will be delivered through six weeks of live online sessions that weave between theory and examples of practice, viewings, readings, collective discussions, offline activities, and conversations with guest artists and cultural practitioners in Egypt.

Interested in learning more and getting inspired this summer? Find out more and book your place via the Arab British Centre website at our link in bio

💻6 weeks of live online classes
📆Wednesdays 10 June - 5 July
⏰6-8pm BST
🎟️£225/£187.50

Find out more and book your place here: https://courses.arabbritishcentre.org.uk/p/the-revolution-continues

19/05/2026

Fill your summer with music 🎶

Final bookings being taken for the May-July term, offering 10 week courses in oud, darbuka and Arabic music theory.

Find out more and book your place via our link in bio 🔗

NEW COURSE! The Revolution Continues: Creative Practices Since the 2011 Egyptian Revolution Join interdisciplinary theat...
05/05/2026

NEW COURSE! The Revolution Continues: Creative Practices Since the 2011 Egyptian Revolution

Join interdisciplinary theatre and performance scholar, educator, and artist Dr Nesreen Hussein in exploring creative practices since the January 2011 Egyptian revolution, and how they have been negotiated by Egyptian artists, cultural practitioners, and activists as forms of resistance, grassroots activism, or political expression.

Drawing on examples from the performing arts, media, visual arts, and cultural preservation, the course unpacks some of the dynamics of ‘subversive’ creative practices that emerged since 2011, and their role in shaping understandings of place, citizenship, and collective agency, and by implication, reactivating the public sphere.

Emphasising collective learning and imagining, and including some conversations with guest artists and practitioners from Egypt, together we will explore the notions of ‘revolution’ and ‘revolutionary continuation’, often held in the illegible or the invisible, and trace their potential manifestations today.

💻6 weeks of live online classes
📆Wednesdays 10 June - 5 July
⏰6-8pm BST
🎟️£225/£187.50

Find out more and book your place on the Courses page on our website, via the link in bio

26/03/2026

“For me, Tatreez is not just heritage. It’s a way of continuing to exist.”

Meet May Qadoura, a Jordanian Palestinian multidisciplinary visual artist working across installation, sculpture, painting, and mixed media. Her new online course with us, Stitching Survival: Palestinian Embroidery as Ontological Resistance and Feminist Praxis, starts this evening.

Drawing on art history, visual culture, feminist theory, and contemporary artistic practice, this immersive course traces Tatreez from its historical and precolonial roots through to its re-emergence in nationalist narratives, women’s resistance movements, and contemporary Palestinian art.

🗓️ Thursdays from 26 March - 23 April
⏱️ 6-8pm London time
💻 Live small group Zoom classes with recordings available if you miss it

There’s still time to register to join tonight’s first class! Booking available via link in bio.

24/03/2026

Did you know Islamic traditional geometric art served as a powerful tool in contemplating the harmonic qualities of the natural world?

Springing from advances in mathematics, philosophy and astronomy during the early Islamic period through the Golden Age (8th-15th centuries), geometric art embodied symmetry, balance and infinite repetition.

Above we see artist Haifa Khawaja constructing a hexagon and a 12 fold rosette, a pattern you will learn to complete in her new course Islamic Geometric Pattern: Practice & Meaning.

In this 6 week online course you are invited to explore the symbolism of Islamic Geometric Pattern and try your hands at the meditative practice of its construction using only pencils, a ruler and a drawing compass. Guided step by step, each week you will construct a pattern in a slow, focused way, allowing rhythm and clarity to emerge through the process. The historical context, symbolism and connection to number will be woven throughout the practice.

Final bookings are being taken now so head to our website via the bio link to book your place.

🖥️6 weeks online via Zoom
🗓️Starts Wednesday 25 March
⏰6-8pm London time

Tomorrow is the final day to visit the Tatreez Forest Project Display 🪡If you haven’t had the chance yet, come by City L...
23/03/2026

Tomorrow is the final day to visit the Tatreez Forest Project Display 🪡

If you haven’t had the chance yet, come by City Lit to experience the Tatreez Forest — a beautiful collection of hundreds of hand-stitched panels from around the world, brought together as cypress trees, a symbol of Palestinian heritage and resilience.

As well as the panels, you can see letters from contributors, watch a short documentary on how the project began, and take a read of a selection of books on Palestinian art and culture.

Drop by and have a quiet refresh in the forest 🌲

Opening hours
Mon-Tues: 8am-10pm

City Lit is a 5-minute walk from Holborn station and is a fully accessible venue.

Free entry / Find out more via the link in bio

Image credits:

The Tatreez Forest project is co-developed by the Arab British Centre and . It was supported by the Barakat Trust’s Hands on Islamic Art Grant, awarding funds from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Only two days to go until our new term of courses begin! Let us tell you why we think you should join our courses.This i...
23/03/2026

Only two days to go until our new term of courses begin! Let us tell you why we think you should join our courses.

This is your chance to pursue new interests and knowledge in a welcoming and relaxed environment. Curiosity is all you need; no prior experience is required. Whether online or in person at the Arab British Centre, our courses encourage creativity, discussion and engagement, guided by instructors who draw on their lived experience and share their passions as artists and researchers.

Ready to dive in? Final bookings are being taken now for courses in:

Islamic Geometric Pattern: Practice and Meaning (Online)
Stitching Survivial: Palestinian Embroidery as Ontological Resistance and Feminist Praxis (Online)
Creative Indiscipline: Art, Exile and Resistance in The Maghreb (Online)
Decolonising Bellydance Theory and Practice (In person)

🔗 Book your spot via the link in bio! Any questions, give us a message on Instagram or send us an email.

Our pricing reflects a commitment to fairly paying artists and coursemakers, whilst also supporting the work of the Arab British Centre, which is a registered charity. We can offer discounts for students as well as a limited number of bursary places to help ensure accessibility if cost is a barrier to you attending. Email us at [email protected] and we can discuss from there.

Eid Mubarak to all who celebrate 🌙This Eid we are pleased to share The Stafford Mihrab, a project designed and led by ou...
20/03/2026

Eid Mubarak to all who celebrate 🌙

This Eid we are pleased to share The Stafford Mihrab, a project designed and led by our Executive Director Nadia El-Sebai for her home community in Stafford, in the Midlands.

The Stafford Mihrab is the culmination of an 18-month project, Interlaced: Islamic Art in British Life, supported by the Barakat Trust and the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Through workshops exploring Islamic ceramic collections and Staffordshire’s own pottery heritage, participants builts a ‘community design library’ of motifs and patterns rooted in both Islamic and local Staffordshire heritage. Artists Shahed Saleem .saleem  and Mohammed Younes then translated that library into the final design.

To bring that design to life in a mosque still under construction, the team turned to Khayamiya — an Egyptian appliqué tradition in which geometric and arabesque patterns are stitched onto fabric by specialist artisans, historically used for ceremonial and processional tents, and still practised today in Cairo’s Street of the Tentmakers. The finished mihrab was hand-stitched in Cairo by the workshop of Atef Kamal . Installed in a former warehouse still undergoing construction, the fabric mihrab orients the congregation towards the direction of prayer, transforming the unfinished space into somewhere that can be used for worship as the building takes shape around it.

Join Nadia, artist Shahed Saleem, and Seif El-Rashidi of the Barakat Trust for a panel discussion at the V&A Wedgwood Collection on 26 March, 6.30–8pm — free to attend.

The Stafford Mihrab: A Design Dialogue is currently on display at the V&A Wedgwood Collection, Barlaston, Stoke-on-Trent until June 2026.

To read more about the project, check out our blog post via the link in bio 🔗

Thank you to all the stitchers and visitors who came down to The Tatreez Forest Project display at City Lit this weekend...
18/03/2026

Thank you to all the stitchers and visitors who came down to The Tatreez Forest Project display at City Lit this weekend. We loved chatting and embroidering with you as part of our public programme.

The Tatreez Forest remains on display until 24 March at City Lit and is free to visit, no booking required. Don’t miss it!

Image credits:

The Tatreez Forest project was supported by the Barakat Trust’s Hands on Islamic Art Grant, awarding funds from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Address

The Arab British Centre, 1 Gough Square
London
EC4A3DE

Opening Hours

Monday 9:30am - 5:30pm
Tuesday 9:30am - 5:30pm
Wednesday 9:30am - 5:30pm
Thursday 9:30am - 5:30pm
Friday 9:30am - 4:30pm

Telephone

+442078321310

Website

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