Join Hafifa Ahmed for a calming, creative workshop exploring the shapes and rhythm of Arabic letters.

Using brushes, inks, and traditional reed pens, you’ll experiment with mark-making and movement to turn script into expressive, abstract art, turning letters into art.

You will be introduced to the shapes and flow of Arabic letters through playful, creative exercises that focus on rhythm, pattern and expression rather than perfect writing. The workshop encourages imagination, personal interpretation and hands on exploration, offering a calming creative space to connect with a new visual language through mark making and movement. No language or art experience is needed.

This workshop is part of our ‘Kitchen Tables’ workshop area – a space for exploring making connected to the many uses of our dining spaces, and what they mean to us.

Key Details:

• Suitable for ages 12+
• This workshop is free
• Sign up on the day or book ‘A Know Before You Go’ session
• There are 8 places available each session
• The workshops will last approx 1 hour
• Location: Bell tent in Cathedral Square
• There are 5 workshops which will take place at varying times within the same Kitchen Tables venue

Know Before You Go

This is a ‘Know Before You Go’ workshop. Here you have the opportunity to pre-book a selection of activities that are otherwise ‘sign-up on the day’ or ‘drop-in’.

We have also included additional information such as an explanation of what to expect, steps to the workshop activity and a description of the environment.

This new approach is designed to help you feel informed, supported and welcome before you start the experience, and allow you to book to guarantee a space.

Please only book if a ‘Know Before You Go’ workshop would benefit you. This workshop is also available to sign up on the day from 12:00 pm onwards. 

About Hafifa Ahmed

Hafifa Ahmed is an artist working across Arabic Calligraphy, Sculpture and Installation. Her practice explores the intersections of Text, Memory and Narrative, drawing on personal and collective histories to create deeply resonant works. Rooted in the tradition of Arabic script, her calligraphy often takes abstract and experimental forms, transforming letters into visual meditations that speak to identity, language and cultural transmission.

Alongside calligraphy, she creates sculptural and installation pieces that give physical presence to intangible experiences- memories carried in language, the echo of spoken words, or the silence between generations. Her work is informed by a sensitivity to materials and space, often incorporating metal, found objects, and fabric to evoke a sense of time, place and belonging.

Through workshops and participatory projects, she invites communities to engage with the poetic and political dimensions of language, especially those shaped by migration and oral histories. Whether through large-scale installations or intimate works on paper, her practice offers a contemplative space for reflection, story and the layered textures of lived experience. Her work has been shown in galleries, festivals and public spaces and continues to evolve through dialogue, research and collaborative making.