The Ministry of Culture has announced the recipients of the third cycle of the National Grant Program for Culture and Creativity, an initiative launched by the Ministry to support Emirati creatives who make significant contributions to cultural heritage and the creative industries. One of the honorees is artist Salmah Almansoori, who was awarded the National Grant in Cultural Heritage – Creation and Production category for her project, Archiving Ghayathi: Memory, Material, and Place.
Almansoori’s project explores the deep-rooted cultural and historical identity of Ghayathi, a small desert town in the Emirates — where she was born — with strong Bedouin traditions. Through archival research, oral histories, and experiments with materials, she captures and preserves the town’s heritage in the face of rapid urbanisation.
A key component of her work is a handmade paper she creates using locally sourced materials — palm fibres and desert grasses. This paper forms the basis for artworks that reflect Ghayathi’s past and present, touching on themes of memory, loss, and neglect. By transforming natural materials, Almansoori metaphorically documents the shifting cultural landscape of her hometown.
About the artist
Salmah Almansoori (b. 2001, Ghayathi, Al Dhafra) is an artist and researcher who resides in Abu Dhabi. She earned her BFA in Visual Arts from Zayed University (Abu Dhabi) in 2023.
Her art practice spans painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, and installations, all centred around themes of place and memory. She believes that places are more than just physical locations: they hold emotions, thoughts, and histories that shape personal and collective identities. Her work, often inspired by Ghayathi and the broader UAE landscape, navigates the complex relationship between belonging and self-exploration.
Almansoori has displayed her art pieces in various exhibitions and art events, which include Abu Dhabi Art (2024); Memories Are Home (solo) (Cala Del Forte, Ventimiglia, Italy, 2024); Unfolding (Sikka Art Fair, Al Fahidi Historical District, Dubai, 2023); and the 4th INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL MEDIA TRIENNIAL RADOM 2021 (Uniwersytet Technologiczno-Humanistyczny, Radom, Poland), among others.
Almansoori’s achievements include participation in the Cultural Foundation’s Mentorship Programme (Abu Dhabi, 2024), the “I’M NOBODY” Residency at BONFIRE (2023), and the Belgrade Art Studio Online Art Residency (Belgarde, Serbia, 2022), to name a few. She was also awarded the Young Historian Award by the National Archives (Abu Dhabi, 2019) and recognised on the Dean’s List for Outstanding Academic Achievement at Zayed University (2019-2022).
To learn more about the National Grant Program for Culture and Creativity, please go to the initiative’s official website.
In addition, you might be interested in reading our article about three sustainable female designers from the Middle East. We also recommend that you explore Sharjah Biennial 16 organised by the Sharjah Art Foundation.
