This year Tashkeel has invited Debjani Bhardwaj for the 2017 - 2018 edition. With continual support from Tashkeel, Bhardwaj will be provided with studio access, mentorship, critiques and support for artwork production, culminating in an exhibition.

Originally from Kolkata, India, Bhardwaj is working alongside mentors: Hassan Meer, an artist and curator from Oman and Les Bicknell, an artist who works with paper, wood, metal, stone and cloth and teaches at Camberwell College of Art, Norwich University of the Arts and on-line at The Open College of the Arts.

Each programme is carefully constructed and built around the individual candidates’ practices and/or area of research. Tashkeel works with the artist or curator to identify a key collaborator/mentor to build, challenge and work with them through the programme. This collaborator can be an artist, curator, critic or arts professional with whom the artist feels both comfortable working but also whose own area of research and/or practice ties in with the proposed programme and intended areas of focus.

The aim of the programme is to provide the artist with sustained and empowering support to develop their work in an environment that encourages progressive experimentation, cross-discipline exchange and cross-cultural dialogue. The curation of the courses remain responsive to the social, cultural and political contexts inherent in Dubai and the wider Middle East. The programme feeds into Tashkeel’s exhibition programme, the artists being scheduled to exhibit their work in the Tashkeel gallery between April and September 2017.