Jeddah’s Jameel Library is an arts and culture, multilingual research library featuring an extraordinary collection of print, moving image, multimedia resources and ephemera. It is open first to artists, practitioners and researchers, and extends to the curious.
Through programmes such as community-led workshops, and groups that bring together readers and writers, the Jameel Library centers community, reflecting Hayy Jameel’s spaces and the stories that tie Jeddah together.
You can visit the Jameel Library during working hours:
Search the library catalogue here.
Recommend titles you’d like to see on our shelves here.
A platform for community members to propose and lead their own public programmes at the Jameel Library. Whether centered on an artistic practice, a research question, or an emerging curiosity, these initiatives create opportunities to learn together and exchange knowledge. The Community Programmes include recurring monthly offerings for creatives to connect and learn, such as reading circles, writing circles, thinking spaces, lectures, film screenings and discussion groups. They emphasize research-in-progress, giving the facilitator a platform and the chance to work through their research as it develops.
These programmes are usually proposed by community members who end up facilitating them. Have an idea? Submit your proposal here.
A series of exhibitions that invite book artists, librarians, and publishers to reimagine the library through curated displays and reading lists. Each exhibition becomes a library within the library, offering new ways to encounter collections, ideas, and acts of reading.
Currently on view: Khaleeji Women’s Library & Archive, curated by Jood Althukair, open for visitors to browse, October, 2026 – April 2027.
The Jameel Library keeps a dedicated shelf for reading lists, small selections of books chosen by the library team. The lists usually accompany the programmes we host and the occasions that shape life at Hayy Jameel, including the Baker’s Market, the Azka Farmer’s Market, National Day, Matsuri, Ramadan, and Hayy Arts exhibitions.
Each list offers visitors a way into the collection through a shared theme or moment. Browse the shelf, pick up a title, and take your time with it. If you’d like help choosing, the library team is happy to recommend something.
An intensive seven-day programme that brings together artists, writers, researchers, and practitioners to collectively investigate a shared theme developed and facilitated by both local and international researchers. Through reading, discussion, fieldwork, and experimentation, participants develop new ways of thinking, researching, and creating in dialogue with one another.
Grants and residency opportunities that support artists, writers, librarians, publishers, and researchers whose practices engage with books, libraries, publishing, and knowledge production on arts and culture. The programme provides time, resources, and a collaborative environment to develop new projects rooted in research and alternative pedagogies. The Jameel Library offers an Art Book Residency and an Exhibition History Grant.
Shop