Ex downing street official artist to stage Abu Dhabi workshops

Sutton's visit to the UAE capital is linked to the 'Picasso Abu Dhabi: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris' a major exhibition currently running at the Emirates Palace - the Arab world's first showing of the works of Pablo Picasso.

Being brought to the UAE capital by Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC), one of Abu Dhabi's leading developers and the name presenting the Picasso exhibition in the emirate, Sutton, a former consultant to London's Royal Academy of Arts, will focus his drawing workshops on portraiture in the style of Picasso.

The three hour long, free-to-attend workshops - two for adults and two for children - will be held on Wednesday July 16th and July 17th in the Education Room of Gallery One at Emirates Palace.

The workshops, which will include demonstrations by Sutton, are part of TDIC's continuing arts and culture education programme mounted to nurture a local and regional audience in advance of the opening of major cultural institutions in the Cultural District of Saadiyat Island, which lies just off the coast of Abu Dhabi city.

'We chose Jacob Sutton for this initiative because he has a great depth of experience in arts education, particularly with the youth and disadvantaged, and extensive expertise within the region having previously been involved with programmes in the UAE,' explained Lee Tabler, CEO, TDIC.

Sutton, who was Downing Street's official artist and personal photographer to former British Premier Tony Blair from 2006-2007, during his stay in Abu Dhabi, he will also host a complimentary workshop for students from The Future Centre For Special Needs- a school for children with special needs in the UAE capital.

Sutton's Abu Dhabi workshops, which are limited to 20 people per class, will include drawing from memory and live portrait drawing, a tour of the Picasso exhibition and a discussion on its contents as well as a short talk about Picasso's work and styles.

'Picasso Abu Dhabi: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris,' which features 186 paintings, sculptures and drawings by the Spanish master, runs at Emirates Palace until September 4, 2008.

The exhibition is attracting up to 700 visitors a day peaking at 1,800 at weekends.

The mounting of such temporary exhibitions are part of TDIC's arts and cultural programme which will ready a local and regional audience for the opening of the world's greatest concentration of major cultural institutions in Saadiyat Island's Cultural District.

These include: the Sheikh Zayed National Museum, designed by Lord Norman Foster; the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Museum, by Frank Gehry; the Louvre Abu Dhabi by Jean Nouvel; a performing arts centre by Zaha Hadid and maritime museum by Tado Andao.