Art Dubai and The Cultural Office of Her Highness Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum announced ‘Creating New Worlds’ as the theme for the seventh edition of the Sheikha Manal Little Artists Program. American artist Sally Curcio will be the lead artist for the upcoming iteration, taking place at Art Dubai from March 20-23, 2019.

Curcio will invite children and teenagers to explore and create cityscapes and urban landscapes through the use of miniatures and prototypes, allowing them to create their own imaginative utopia. Curcio’s goal with this project is to motivate an inventive spirit; co-operation as well as to encourage participants to explore how different materials can be composed to create new imagined environments. Materials such as coloured beads, balls, pipe cleaners, blocks, bottle caps, and other found and recycled material will be used to create the new worlds, and their use for representing cityscapes of varying scale and perspective enriches idea development and creative processes that are of value in a range of artistic and work endeavours.

Newly appointed lead artist Sally Curcio said: “I’m delighted to have been chosen as the lead artist for the seventh edition of this prestigious program. One of the key areas of focus in my work is engaging with children and teenagers, and I look forward to working with them on creating their own little utopias, while learning how to use their imagination, co-operate with each other and employ an inventive spirit.”