© Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi, UAE – 9 March 2023: Louvre Abu Dhabi today concluded the first edition of its ‘University Take Over the Museum’ programme. Held as part of Louvre Abu Dhabi’s fifth anniversary celebrations, a group of 32 university students and alumni students (under the age of 25) gathered under the museum’s iconic dome to present a series of engaging workshops, digital interventions, and live performances. 

The programme, which launched in August with activities commencing in November, saw hundreds of students from across the UAE respond to the challenge question of ‘What does it mean to be Human?’. The participants were asked to design an experience or work that engages one of the museum's key audiences (children, families, youths, or adults) by interpreting the museum's collection, message and core values. 

The museum received 20 proposals from students from various participating universities, including Zayed University, UAE University and NYU Abu Dhabi. The 18 proposals, which echoed the narrative of Louvre Abu Dhabi as a universal museum that celebrates humanity’s shared creativity, were selected to be presented during the museum’s first ‘University Take Over the Museum’ edition. To date, more than 3,000 museum visitors have participated and engaged with the students’ works.
During the Takeover, visitors to the museum were able to enjoy a series of projects such as the Tales of Pottery Painting, a workshop by Mezna Mohamed Alzaidi, Mazoon Habreesh Alkatheeri, Tasneem Taha Albaiti; Everybody is an Artist, an interactive installation led by Kyle Adams; I-denti-Y, a captivating performance led by Lujza Reova; Art and Glissantian, a relation-multimodal performance by Matthew Tan, Grace Shieh and Binaya Pauldyal ; Real Art an digital interaction challenging the rise of AI-generated art led by Aakarsh Singh and Corban Villa and Unheard, audio recordings of real conversations by Klaithem Salim Aljabri.

The new edition of the University Take Over program will be launched soon. To learn more about the ‘University Take Over the Museum’ and Louvre Abu Dhabi’s various educational programmes and activities, visit louvreabudhabi.ae.