Fujairah, or When Culture Becomes a Way of Life

Saïma Mezoughi
In Fujairah, culture is felt as life itself is felt—gradually woven into the everyday, nourished by the relationship between place and its people, and by the memory that forms between mountain and sea, between the individual and the community. In this horizon, culture emerges as an inseparable part of the collective fabric, permeating social rhythms, shaping modes of expression, and influencing how one listens to oneself and to others. Here, cultural policies are understood as a conscious choice to nurture a human being capable of thought, attuned to beauty, aware of their place in a changing world, while remaining rooted in their origins.

The cultural experience in Fujairah unfolds by granting art and thought a tangible presence in the public sphere, seeing them as tools to expand consciousness rather than mere parallel activities. Culture accompanies the individual in the formation of self-awareness, helping them read time as lived experience rather than a sequence of events. In this context, creativity becomes a bridge between the individual and the world—a means to understand transformations and to build personal and collective meaning simultaneously. Culture thus advances as a quiet force, working deeply, reconnecting humans with their profound questions, with their right to reflection, difference, and the continual pursuit of broader horizons.
The support of His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi for culture, arts, and media manifests as a civilizational choice that listens to the human being, placing meaning at the heart of development. This support arises from a vision that sees culture as an energy shaping consciousness, art as a living vessel of collective memory, and media as a space for the exchange of ideas and aesthetic values. Within this vision, a cultural environment thrives—encouraging free expression, celebrating diversity of voices, and granting creativity its place as a symbolic force that reinforces social cohesion and the sense of shared destiny.
This horizon opens wide spaces for artists and intellectuals to engage and participate, producing a climate where creators feel their voice is part of the public domain. Creativity moves within a climate of mutual trust, transforming into ongoing dialogue with society, where individual experience intersects with collective questions, and human concerns take on aesthetic and cognitive forms capable of touching emotions, stimulating thought, and expanding the circle of reflection.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi further adds a clearly defined future dimension to this path by sponsoring cultural initiatives that place the human being at the center of development, with special attention to youth. These initiatives become pathways for learning and growth, equipping individuals with tools for expression, sharpening critical awareness, and reconstructing their relationship with knowledge in a changing world. In this framework, culture becomes an open school, accompanying the individual in development, fostering a deeper capacity for understanding, interaction, and the creation of meaning.
At the heart of this movement, the Fujairah Culture and Media Authority stands as a system combining careful organization and clear vision, operating with a delicate balance between local specificity and a broad human horizon. Cultural programs arise from the spirit of the place and open to the world in a dialogue of exchange. Heritage is presented as living material, open to interpretation and interaction, becoming a bridge connecting past and present, granting the cultural scene a depth where creativity meets reflection and art meets contemplation.
Festivals and cultural gatherings take the form of vibrant human experiences. The Fujairah International Monodrama Festival, for instance, places the human being at the heart of theatrical action, turning the stage into a calm encounter with oneself and the great existential questions. Performances unfold as collective moments of contemplation, where audiences share a simultaneous emotional and intellectual experience, allowing sensation and thought to converge in creating meaning that transcends the limits of the performance into a broader horizon of consciousness.
The focus on children reflects an early vision of building human beings from within, through imagination and knowledge. The Fujairah International Children’s Book Fair presents reading as a journey of discovery, transforming books into spaces for play, imagination, and learning. Children experience this fully, developing an intimate relationship with knowledge, with culture becoming a first love accompanying them through life and shaping their awareness of the world.
The Fujairah Photography Award opens broad spaces for visual expression, turning images into a language of thought and narrative. The lens captures moments and reframes them as visions, giving reality a human depth and revealing small details carrying vast significance. This emphasis on visual arts strengthens the presence of imagery as a tool for understanding the world, documenting memory, and re-reading everyday life with greater sensitivity.
Art academies and schools further enrich this scene by linking practice with reflection, following a learning path rooted in experience and dialogue between theory and application. Artistic education here nurtures critical sensibility, hones talent, and grants learners an artistic and intellectual awareness that enables engagement with both heritage and contemporary life.
Local media accompanies this cultural momentum, giving it daily visibility through coverage that fosters interaction and integrates cultural action into public life. Culture enters homes, becomes a shared topic of discussion, expanding participation and strengthening collective awareness, recognizing culture as a shared endeavor rather than an isolated activity.
Local initiatives and cultural associations add a living social dimension, transforming participation into experiences of belonging and empowerment. Events are built on relationships and nurtured by collaboration, making society an active partner in creating culture. In this context, art becomes a medium of connection, rediscovering oneself through others, and deepening the sense of shared life.
Through this quiet accumulation, Fujairah emerges as a holistic human experience, where culture interweaves with everyday life, becoming an ongoing practice that nurtures awareness, refines sensibility, and expands the horizon of beauty. Culture lives in the small details, in forms of expression, in the relationships one builds with oneself and one’s surroundings, transforming into conscious practice and a way of life accompanying personal growth and transformation.
This experience demonstrates how support for culture, when driven by a profound human vision, can produce a society more in harmony with itself, more open to creativity, and more capable of building a vibrant connection with meaning. Here, culture is measured not by the scale of events alone, but by the long-term impact on collective consciousness, and by the possibilities it opens for reflection, dialogue, and the creation of broader human horizons.