8 events not to miss in November: From Amman to Doha
From a photography show in Amman to the first Frieze fair in the region, here is what's happening in Jordan and across the Arab world this month.
November is one of the busiest months of the year for the region’s creative scene. In four weeks, Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi and Cairo all open their biggest design and art events, and Fashion Trust Arabia names its 2026 winners in Doha.
Amman’s month is quieter, but there is still plenty to see. A new photography exhibition opens at the Jordan National Gallery, Darat al Funun begins a series of talks and tours with Natasha Gasparian, and its At the Lab open call closes at the end of the month.
In Jordan
Antarctica: Continent of Peace
2 to 23 November
A photography exhibition at the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, hosted with the Embassy of Chile.
Talk and tour with Natasha Gasparian
10 November
Inheriting the ‘Avant-Garde’: Art History and the Horizons of Liberation is a series of two talks and a guided tour at Darat al Funun, on 10 November, 15 December and 19 December.
Gasparian is an art historian and curator who researches modern and contemporary art in the Arab world. She is a doctoral candidate at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, the author of a book on the artist Aref El-Rayess, and in 2023 co-curated an exhibition at the Sursock Museum in Beirut.
Projects At The Lab: Performing Practices
Closes 30 November
Darat al Funun’s open call for its 2026/2027 Projects At The Lab programme is looking for performance. Darat al Funun describes performance broadly: taking on a role, building an appearance, or carrying out a gesture or action, with or without an audience. The call treats The Lab as an unusual space for it, so projects can be an event, a public encounter, an intervention or a site specific work.
Applications close on 30 November, and the full details are on Darat al Funun’s website.
Across the region
Dubai Design Week
3 to 8 November, Dubai
Exhibitions, talks and installations across Dubai Design District, free to visit.
Programme and visitor info on Dubai Design Week’s website.
Arab Design Now
5 November to 31 December, Doha
The main exhibition of Design Doha, with 81 designers across Fereej Al Asmakh and Msheireb. The Design Doha Prize winners are announced on 7 November.
Tickets are on the Design Doha website.
Frieze Abu Dhabi
19 to 22 November, Abu Dhabi
The first Frieze fair in the region, at Manarat Al Saadiyat.
Tickets and visitor info on Frieze’s website.
Cairo Design Week
19 to 28 November, Cairo
Exhibitions and events across the city.
Tickets are on Cairo Design Week’s website.
Fashion Trust Arabia awards
28 November, Doha
There are twenty-one finalists this year, and two of them have roots in Jordan. Sara Mannei Boruc’s label The Mannei is up for ready to wear, and Layla Al Tawaya is up for the Franca Sozzani Debut Talent Award. Winners receive funding and industry mentoring, and for a young label, a night like this can change everything.
We’ll be watching to see who wins, and we’ll post the results on the night.