Dubai, 18 November, 2015: Global Village, the leading cultural shopping and entertainment destination for families in the region, has launched a new creative community initiative called ‘Project Dirham’ which will engage with schools across the UAE.

To celebrate Global Village’s 20^th season and also the UAE’s 44^th National Day, ‘Project Dirham’ will challenge students across the UAE to paint and embellish metal plates engraved with one of four national symbols that are inspired by the UAE Dirham coin. The symbols which include the Falcon, Dhow, Dallah and Oryx will then be created into unique works of art and placed inside a 3.2m x 10m art installation shaped of the ‘Dubai’ logo that will be placed at Global Village as of December 2^nd and will remain there until the end of the season for all the guests to see the UAE schools’ work of art.

15,000 students from over 70 schools in Dubai will participate in ‘Project Dirham’ giving a chance for every child to create their own original, artistic creation.

The finished plates will be judged by one of the local artists and the top 3 students will win AED 50,000, AED 30,000 and AED 20,000 respectively for their schools. Every participating student will also receive a certificate of participation along with free entry passes for all the participating students.

The judging artists will include Mr Khalil Abdul Wahid (Manager of Visual Arts at Dubai Culture Arts & Authority) and Ms Manal Bin Amro  (Emirati Writer, filmmaker and digital artist).  Mr Khalil and Ms Manal were also part of the judging panel for Project Dallah 2014-2015.

‘Project Dirham’ followed on from the success of last year’s ‘Project Dallah’ which celebrated the 43^rd UAE National Day and saw students creatively paint ceramic customized Dallahs. Both campaigns are part of Global Village’s continued initiative of community involvement and development.

Global Village has opened for its 20^th season on November 3^rd, 2015 and will be open until April 9^th, 2016.