CUTURAL COOPERATION

Since October 2010, the Italian Embassy in Abu Dhabi is the headquarter of the first Italian Cultural Department for the Gulf Area. The Department’s objectives are:
• the promotion of the diffusion of the Italian language and of university exchanges;
• the facilitation and/or direct management of great cultural events with regards to art, music, cinema and design.
The Cultural Department has the overall aim of enhancing the cultural dialogue between the two Countries, by enrolling its expressions in an Institutional framework and also by facilitating the reach of artistic expressions from the Gulf to Italy and Europe.

Promotion of the Italian language

• Italian language courses are organized both by local universities and schools, and by Italian cultural associations located in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
• There is an active area of Italian Language courses for the local Army and, for the first time, for Italian children resident in the UAE.

International exchanges

• Bilateral agreements between Italian and Emirati universities and research centers are at an advanced stage of design and, in some cases, of implementation .
• Since 2007, there is the “Study in Italy” (www.study-in-italy.it/) project, through which Emirates Foundation sponsors, through scholarships, Emirati students who wish to have a training period in the most famous Italian Universities involved in the project.
• In August 2009, in Rome, “Istituto per l’Oriente Carlo Alfonso Nallino” (www.ipocan.it/) signed an agreement on reciprocal translation of literary works of both Countries with the Abu Dhabi Authority for Cultural Heritage (www.adach.ae/en/).
For more information about the Italian Academic Offerings visit the Ministry of Education website: www.miur.it

EVENTS: music, theatre, films and art exhibitions in the UAE

• Official Governmental Agreements are in the process of being discussed and signed, in the field of culture, art and in the field of scientific cooperation, the latter following the pattern designed by the MOU signed by the Italian Ministry of Education and Research and the Emirati Ministry of Higher Education and Research.
• Top level Italian" events, in the field of art, design, cinema, music and opera, are being designed by the Cultural Department in cooperation with the major Italian Cultural Institutions and Authorities and their counterparts in the Gulf.