The King’s Foundation and Community Jameel announced today the Jameel House of World Traditional Arts in Scotland, a new global centre for international artisans, craftspeople and students to learn and practise the traditional arts.
With a year-round programme of workshops, short courses and residencies led by The King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts, the centre will welcome students from all levels of expertise and from around the world to master practices ranging from sacred geometry and colour harmony to woodwork and gypsum carving.
The announcement follows a visit to Dumfries House by His Majesty The King, royal founding president of The King’s Foundation, Mohammed Jameel KBE, founder and chairman of Community Jameel, and Hassan Jameel, vice chairman of Community Jameel.
Set in the grounds of Dumfries House, the 18th century stately home that is the headquarters of The King’s Foundation, the Jameel House in Scotland comprises two buildings: a residential centre in a converted farmhouse with accommodation for visiting students and practitioners, and the main workshop.
The King’s Foundation and Community Jameel have a long history of partnership dating back over 15 years, anchored in a shared vision of the important role of traditional knowledge in tackling contemporary global challenges and a common commitment to providing new opportunities for the study and practice of the traditional arts, especially in the Arab world.
The new centre in Scotland is the latest addition to a network of Jameel Houses established by Community Jameel and The King’s Foundation worldwide. In 2008, the Jameel House in Cairo was opened to sustain the practice of traditional arts in Egypt, following the official visit of the then Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall. Today, more than 200 Egyptian artists and craftspeople have graduated from the two-year programme delivered by The King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts.
From 2015 to 2021, Community Jameel and The King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts partnered on the Jameel House in Jeddah, a centre pioneering traditional arts education in Saudi Arabia. Today, The King’s Foundation continues to deliver programmes in Saudi Arabia in AlUla and at The Royal Institute for Traditional Arts in Jeddah, in collaboration with the Saudi Ministry of Culture.
The Jameel House in Scotland is set to open its doors in early 2025. Graduates from the Jameel Houses in Cairo and Jeddah are among those expected to study at the new global centre in Scotland.
To expand their support for Arab students of traditional arts, The King’s Foundation and Community Jameel today also announced a new Jameel House Scholarship at The King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts. Eligible to citizens of Arab countries and launching in 2025, the scholarship will provide financial aid to students enrolled in the various programmes at the Jameel Houses in Cairo and Scotland, the main London campus of The King’s Foundation School and future activities of the Jameel House in Jeddah.
Khaled Azzam, director of The King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts, said: “We are looking forward to introducing the new Jameel House Scholarship which will continue to strengthen the international reach of our programmes and ensure there are valued opportunities for students to learn from the great art traditions of the world. It is an exciting prospect to have a new hub for the School of Traditional Arts on site at Dumfries House, where so much of our pioneering educational work – all inspired by His Majesty’s philosophy of Harmony – takes place.”
George Richards, director of Community Jameel, said: “Sustaining traditional knowledge is a key pillar of our mission to advance science and learning at Community Jameel. Extending our collaboration with The King’s Foundation from Egypt and Saudi Arabia onto a global basis, while reaffirming our commitment to students from the Arab world with a new scholarship, we are excited to see future generations of artists and craftspeople sustain the traditional arts through their study and practice at the Jameel House in Scotland.”
Beyond the traditional arts, The King’s Foundation and Community Jameel have collaborated on urban design in the face of climate change, and the role of the arts in improving health and wellbeing.
In December 2023, The King’s Foundation and Community Jameel convened a meeting at the global climate conference COP28 in Dubai to deliver climate action in cities. Attendees included leaders from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT), the Commonwealth, the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and C40 Cities.
In August 2024, the Health and Wellbeing Centre at Dumfries House hosted a series of workshops exploring the effects of the arts on health as part of Healing Arts Scotland, the week-long, nationwide celebration of arts and health convened by Scottish Ballet and the Jameel Arts & Health Lab during the Edinburgh International Festival.
As well as the new Jameel House Scholarship, Community Jameel supports the Jameel-Toyota scholarship for undergraduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Andrea Bocelli Foundation – Community Jameel scholarship for students of opera at the Royal College of Music in London.
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