ADACH hosts "Treasures from Sudan"

The exhibition ran from 9 March to 8 June 2008 in the Nakheel Hall in the Cultural Foundation building and attracted over 11,000 visitors and school children.

Over 300 objects dating from the 9th millennium BC to the 19th century AD were loaned by the National Museum in Khartoum, ranging from life-sized statues to unique pieces of jewellery.

The artefacts were housed in a specially designed state-of-the-art structure that included 33 showcases, a footage room and large-format pictures and interpretive panels.

A series of events and outreach activities was launched to raise public awareness of the exhibition and the relatively unknown history of Sudan.

These events included a one-day seminar on the archaeology of Sudan, guided tours in various languages and cultural evenings featuring the music, dance and art of Sudan which were scheduled to mark the closing of the exhibition (these have been postponed until a later date).

In addition, a media campaign was launched to run for the entire duration of the exhibition.

This included features in local and national newspapers such as Al-Hayat and The National, as well as a 20-minute report on Al-Arabiya TV.

The exhibition was also promoted on local radio stations and in several newspapers and magazines published in the UAE and Sudan.

As part of its outreach activities and efforts to foster education in the arts and culture, ADACH also produced an activity booklet for children between the ages of 7-12 in both English and Arabic.

The booklets were distributed to over 22 schools in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

In addition, a series of presentations detailing the content of the exhibition was planned for educators representing the various schools.

This provided teachers with the opportunity to appreciate in greater depth the value of the artefacts on show and their links to the rich history of Sudan.

On the basis of the feedback received from the hundreds of questionnaires distributed, the public's perception of "Treasures from Sudan" was largely positive.