ART, culture and history will be the main focus of events taking place as part of the Spring of Culture festival.
The annual festival will feature concerts, street theatre, poetry, performing arts and exhibitions, in addition to a performance by Grammy winner Lauryn Hill on February 28 at Bahrain Bay.
However, a number of activities are being held in the lead up to the official launch of the festival on February 25.
The ‘Dive into the Jurassic’ exhibition at Bahrain National Museum will be held until March 16, every day except Tuesdays.
The exhibition takes visitors on a journey beneath the waves to meet the amazing creatures that inhabited the oceans 200 million years ago at a time when dinosaurs ruled the land.
It brings together immersive CGI films with original fossils and replica casts from the Natural History Museum’s unique marine fossil collections to bring the ancient seas to life.
A special audio-visual show will also be held every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at the Bahrain Fort, which tells the story of the Kingdom of Bahrain.
The Sound and Light Show is an interactive and moving audio visual experience which takes the audience through a guided journey from the present into the past, and back.
The show starts at 6pm in English and 7pm in Arabic.
Tomorrow at 5pm, the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities (Baca) will host one of its weekly cultural activities at the outdoor space in the heart of Bab Al Bahrain.
The activities span from music, arts and workshops, with the festivities spotlighting different realms of heritage each week.
An art exhibition will also launch on Saturday that explores feelings of belonging and connection, emptiness and loss at the Bin Matar House.
The exhibition titled “Where Do We Sit?” represents Hala Al Khalifa’s latest body of work.
The opening will be at 7pm, following which the exhibition will remain open everyday except for Fridays until March 26, from 9am to 1pm and from 4pm to 7pm.
Also tomorrow, there will be a free performance at 8pm by the Mohammed Bin Faris Band in a lyrical voyage which regales audiences with tales of a pealing diver’s life from festive melodies to working songs and farewell ballads.
The event is free at the Mohammed Bin Faris Music Hall in Muharraq although the seating is limited, but the shows will be held every Thursday until March 5.
Another exhibition by Bahraini artist Mohammed Al Mahdi will launch next Tuesday at the Albareh Art Gallery, titled ‘Greetings To Fernando Botero’ which will run until March 10.
In this exhibition Mr Al Mahdi pays tribute to Colombian figurative artist and sculptor Fernando Botero, the opening will start at 7pm until 9pm and from then on it will be open throughout the week except for Fridays from 10am to 2pm and from 4pm to 8pm.
Also on February 18, an exhibition will be held showcasing unique Japanese architecture and design by Atelier Bow-Wow, a Japanese Architectural firm founded by Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kaijima in Tokyo.
The opening will be at 7pm and will run until June 14 at the House of Architectural Heritage in Muharraq, and will be open throughout the week except for Fridays, from 9am to 1pm and from 4pm to 7pm.
All the while the 46th Bahrain Annual Fine Arts exhibition will be running throughout the week from, 8am to 8pm, except for Tuesdays.
The annual celebration, held under the slogan ‘Dilmun: Land of Density’, will coincide with Arab Tourism Day, an occasion adopted when Manama was named Capital of Arab Tourism in 2013 and to mark the birth date of the great Arab traveller Ibn Battuta.
The festival, which will run until April, is being organised by Baca along with Economic Development Board, the Shaikh Ebrahim bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Centre for Culture and Research, in co-operation with the Albareh Art Gallery and La Fontaine Centre for Contemporary Art, Manama.
&uuid=(email))