Dubai, UAE | 16 September – 4 November 2026

What happens when a legendary creature walks into a classroom?

This autumn, children across the UAE are finding an answer that begins with imagination.

Across 80 schools in all seven emirates, a mysterious and oversized fictional visitor has become the unlikely protagonist of a new art and education project. The Bigfoot Project, the centrepiece of the sixth edition of the A.R.M. Holding Children’s Programme, invites children aged five to 17 to imagine Bigfoot arriving in an unfamiliar world — and then create a place where the creature can feel safe, comfortable and at home.

It may sound like a playful exercise. It is. But behind the fantasy lies a bigger question: how can children learn to understand a world that is changing faster than ever?

Created by Lithuanian artist Tomas Daukša, the project uses art as a starting point for exploring empathy, perspective and problem-solving. Rather than asking children to simply reproduce an artwork or follow a predetermined formula, the workshop gives them a character, a situation and the freedom to decide what happens next.

Bigfoot becomes a traveller.

The children become its guides.

Learning Through Imagination

At the heart of the project is a simple act: imagining life from another perspective.

Children are invited to consider what Bigfoot might encounter when arriving in an unfamiliar environment and what kind of habitat it would need to feel secure. They then translate those ideas into miniature worlds of their own.

The process encourages them to think beyond their first answer. What does another being need? What makes somewhere feel like home? How can a space respond to a completely different perspective?

Through making, experimenting and imagining, concepts such as empathy, critical thinking and problem-solving become experiences rather than abstract lessons.

It is an approach that feels particularly relevant at a moment when classrooms themselves are changing.

When Technology Changes the Classroom

Artificial intelligence is becoming an increasingly visible part of education, changing how information is accessed, how ideas are developed and how children create.

As technology takes on more tasks, attention is also turning towards the capabilities that remain distinctly human: creativity, curiosity, adaptability, critical thinking and judgement.

The A.R.M. Holding Children’s Programme has placed these ideas at the centre of its work since launching in 2021 in partnership with Art Dubai. Rather than treating art education as an activity separate from learning, the programme explores how artistic practice can become a way of thinking.

Over six editions, it has grown from workshops held during Art Dubai to a nationwide school-based initiative. More than 35,000 children have participated since its launch, while the programme has expanded to include adapted workshops for people of determination and dedicated learning opportunities for educators.

This year, teachers across the UAE will also take part in online workshops designed to provide practical approaches for encouraging creativity in the classroom.

From the Art Fair to the Classroom

The programme’s journey from the art fair to the classroom is significant.

Art fairs are traditionally spaces for artists, galleries and collectors. The A.R.M. Holding Children’s Programme takes some of that creative energy beyond the exhibition environment and places it directly into schools, where children encounter art not simply as something to look at, but as something to question, make and experience.

Each year, an international or local artist or designer is invited to create a bespoke workshop for children in the UAE. The result is less a conventional art lesson and more an introduction to the artist’s way of thinking.

Daukša’s practice is particularly suited to this approach. His work moves between art and science, reality and fiction, often using playful ideas to explore more complex questions.

With Bigfoot, the starting point is familiar enough to immediately capture a child’s imagination, while open-ended enough to take them somewhere unexpected.

A Small Habitat, A Bigger Question

There is something fitting about asking children to build a home for a creature that does not officially exist.

The exercise asks them to imagine the unfamiliar before judging it, and to design around the needs of someone — or something — that sees the world differently.

A child designing a habitat for Bigfoot is, in a simple way, being asked to consider questions that extend far beyond the workshop: What makes a place feel like home? How do we understand something different from ourselves? What happens when we look at a familiar environment from another perspective?

The project also connects with the programme’s growing interest in ecology, environmental themes and local context, encouraging children to think about the relationship between living beings and the spaces they inhabit.

A Creative Future

Running until 4 November 2026, The Bigfoot Project will reach children aged five to 17 across 80 schools in all seven emirates.

Schools can register through Art Dubai until 25 September 2026, with limited places available.

Ultimately, the project’s most interesting idea may have little to do with Bigfoot itself.

It is about giving children permission to wonder before they know, imagine before they solve, and look at the world from somewhere other than their own point of view.

And in an age increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, perhaps that is precisely where art still has something important to teach.