The Department of Art Education at the Sultan Qaboos University's College of Education had organized a public workshop on the project Exploring Visual Cultures - in cooperation with the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. Unfortunately, this workshop was cancelled after the academy closed due to the Corona crisis. Nevertheless, a very small group of professors met and exchanged ideas (while adhering to hygiene requirements).

 

They closely examined the artistic projects at the university - giving special attention to painting, ceramics and digital media. This included an intensive discussion on one painterly project in particular: the abstraction of motifs based on the traditional curved dagger. The artistically decorated curved dagger represents a long and venerable tradition of handicraft in Oman. It is present in the national coat of arms and is also a popular motif, e.g. for tourist souvenirs. The students selected details of curved daggers, which they increasingly abstracted in black and white or in colour.