The Arts Edit | The National

Welcome to the latest edition of The Arts Edit, the weekly newsletter from The National's Abu Dhabi newsroom rounding up this week's most noteworthy arts and culture stories. IN FOCUS April is set to be the busiest month of the year for the Gulf’s arts and culture scene, with many major events taking place. Each event has a distinct character and theme, a clear indicator of the maturation of the region's art scene and the richness of its cultural heritage. They all help to foster a thriving environment for contemporary creatives. The inaugural Art Week Riyadh is running in the city’s Jax District until Sunday, featuring more than 30 local and international galleries in one all-star exhibition. Works by artists including Ahmed Mater , Lulwah Al Homoud, Shaikha Al Mazrou and Wael Shawky are on show. “We wanted to make it intergenerational, not only the youngest or the oldest, really everybody. This was our mission,” Vittoria Matarrese, artistic director and curator of Art Week Riyadh, tells The National . “The whole idea was really to talk to [the galleries] and select works that you don't see usually in fairs,” Matarrese adds. “For example, if you see the Wael Shawky booth with Lisson, this is a museum piece. Who ships this for an art fair? Nobody.” In Jeddah, the Islamic Arts Biennale, running until May 25, is bringing in some of the most influential international art names. Sotheby’s will host talks by Mariet Westermann , director and chief executive of the Guggenheim ; Mariam Rosser-Owen, curator of the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Middle Eastern section; Thalia Kennedy, global creative director of Turquoise Mountain; and Jordanian-Palestinian architect and artist Abeer Seikaly. Find more here . In Dubai, Sotheby’s is also hosting the private collection of the late scholar Philippe Gilles Rene Missillier , who amassed a treasure trove of Islamic art and armoury. The exhibition features more than 100 items, and includes ivory hilts, gem-set daggers and rifles, shoulder guards adorned with calligraphy and axes inlaid with silver. On display until Friday, the collection will be auctioned in London on April 29. One of the most compelling pieces is a sword called the World Capturer. It once belonged to Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal in India, and has a sales estimate of £600,000 to £800,000 ($774,028 to $1,032,037). “It’s one of the most interesting pieces in the sale,” says Benedict Carter, a specialist at Sotheby’s. “The sword has an inscription marking it as one of Shah Jahan’s personal swords, but it is also verified by its appearance in the journals of Niccolao Manucci, the Venetian traveller, who actually recorded this sword itself and its name. It carries quite an aura when you think it was held in the hands one of the great Mughal emperors.” Art Dubai is set to begin next Wednesday, and will include digital work by Mohammed Kazem, installations from Mexican artist Hector Zamora and Andy Warhol’s painted BMW M1 . We’ll be on the ground throughout the fair and look forward to meeting you in person. Throughout the year, there will be a wide range of cultural festivals worth travelling to across the Middle East and North Africa, which you can find more about here . In March, Amanda Seyfried sat on TV host Jimmy Fallon’s faded blue couch, under the bright studio lights, carefully holding a dulcimer in her lap. She was nervous. For the first time in her career, she was about to sing in front of a large group of people. At first, she stalled. “Does anyone know what song I’m going to sing?” she asked the audience, starting and stopping again to inquire if they were ready. Silence hung uncomfortably in the air. But when she finally began Joni Mitchell ’s classic song California , the mood shifted, and her extraordinary talent shone through. “All I want to do is sing, and I just don’t sing because I don’t want to put myself out there.” Seyfried laments to The National . “But it went viral. I thought it was something that would scare me, but it didn’t. And I’m like, wait a minute, maybe there’s something in me that’s been unlocked.” You would never know it, but this has been the story of Seyfried’s career. Time and time again, she has surprised audiences by first surprising herself. She jumped from the light comedy of Mean Girls (2004) to the virtuosa prima donna of Mamma Mia! (2008) and Les Miserables (2012). She transformed into real-life figures such as Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout (2022) and Marion Davies in Mank (2020), garnering major awards in the process. But there is still one thing that scares her too much to try: “Broadway,” Seyfried says. Find out why here . Lebanese composer and artist Tarek Atoui is known for lending an experimental contemporary edge to traditional music from the ancient Arab world. In his latest exhibition at Madrid ’s Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum (TBA21), he takes visitors on a musical journey through the Atlas Mountains and beyond. Running until May 18, it is the result of a three-year long research project. It took Atoui along the ancient pilgrimage and trade routes that traverse North Africa, immersing him in the musical and artisanal traditions of the Arab world and the Tamazgha. The show’s title, At-Tariq, translates as “The Nightcomer” or “The Morning Star”, and acts as the binding thread of the entire project. It refers to a visitor who comes at night seeking knowledge, refuge and companionship along a journey, be it a personal quest, nomadic wanderings or rest stops along the way. A verse in the Quran tells of always offering hospitality to At-Tariq – a notion that permeates the region’s cultures and transcends boundaries. Atoui’s project acts as an unconventional archive for the many ways the region opens its doors to travellers, offering comfort, food and entertainment to their guests. “The Nightcomer is the person asking for hospitality, but also the knowledge seeker, the foreigner, in the sense of the one who comes with a real interest about a culture, about a place, and who sometimes is not coming to stay, but is the person passing through and pursuing a larger journey,” Atoui tells The National. Find more here . DATES FOR YOUR DIARY · Kuniko Kato at NYU Abu Dhabi – April 14 · Culture Summit Abu Dhabi at Manarat Al Saadiyat – April 27 to 29 · Katy Perry at Etihad Park, Abu Dhabi – December 7 OTHER HIGHLIGHTS