ShopMeet the Recess Mentors and Teaching Artists!
A group of artists and mentors accompanied the Recess students throughout their learning and research journey. Together, they shared diverse practices and knowledge, spanning sound listening, documentation, design thinking, material exploration, and creative innovation.
Through these encounters and hands-on experiences, the students developed their own tools for research and artistic expression, culminating in the works presented in their final exhibition, ‘Time Reflected on Water’.
Zaina Hamza
Zaina Hamza is a Digital Curator and program co-developer for this cycle of Recess. She strongly believes that creative expression plays a vital role in uniting communities and driving innovation. Initially, she concentrated on Human Centered Design in the digital realm, which eventually led her to contemporary museum studies, oversee Art Spaces, and developing programs that prioritize community engagement both online and offline.
Nayla Attar (The 7th Floor Studio)
Nayla Attar is an arts professional and educator working at the intersection of design, traditional craft, and creative wellbeing. Through her atelier, The 7th Floor, she leads initiatives that support local artists and expand access to the arts in Jeddah, rooted in the belief that creative practice can strengthen communities and sustain lifelong learning.
This cycle, Nayla joined Recess as co-developer leading on natural materials and pigments from the history of mark-making and lino printing at her studio, to the natural dye and pigment experiments that became one of the summer’s defining threads.
Nouf AlHarthi
Nouf AlHarthi is an interdisciplinary researcher and writer working across sound, poetry, and music. Her practice moves through textual experimentation, listening, and the unstable relations between language, voice, memory, and place. Treating writing as both method and material.
Her work has been presented across Saudi Arabia and the UK. She holds an MA in Social Anthropology from SOAS, University of London, and is currently pursuing an MMus in Musicology at the Reid School of Music, University of Edinburgh.
(left to right) Lujain Ayyad, Dania Jaber and Eiman Al Naiem
Lujain Ayyad is a multidisciplinary artist and fine arts graduate from LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore. She has participated in several exhibitions during her time in Singapore, including “Devotion: In The Name Of Love” (2025) and “The Maketh Corner” (2023). She is passionate about the experiences that bring culture to life. People and their stories, with a deep interest in the ecosystem surrounding art. She currently works as an Assistant in the Events & Programmes team at Hayy Jameel, where she engages with a side of the creative world distinct from studio practice.
Dania Jaber is a multidisciplinary professional with a background in architecture, design, and museum studies, specialising in the art and culture sector. Before joining Art Jameel as Events and Programmes Coordinator, she contributed to major projects including Noor Riyadh and Tuwaiq Sculpture. This summer, Dania brought her expertise in space, sound, and community engagement into the Recess studio as part of the Hayy Sounds team; guiding the cohort through the art of listening and helping them find the sonic life of their city.
Eiman Al Naiem leads public programmes and community-driven strategy at Hayy Jameel, developing inclusive cultural initiatives that engage diverse communities across Jeddah and beyond. With over a decade working across cultural diplomacy, education, and the creative industries, she has shaped some of Hayy Jameel’s most beloved programmes including Hayy Sounds, which brought its sonic urbanism practice directly into Recess this cycle, introducing the cohort to listening as a method of inquiry, sound as a medium, and the city itself as an archive.
Hadeel Bahjatt
Hadeel Bahjatt is a psychology student and part of the Learning Team at Hayy Jameel. She designs creative, art-based experiences that weave storytelling, analysis, and self-expression, encouraging students to explore their ideas and psyche. She draws on the idea that tales exist in everything, using different creative mediums to encourage new ways of thinking. As a Recess facilitator, she guided students to look beneath the surface of art, focusing on the hidden symbolism and subconscious cues that shape how we absorb it.
Khaled Alqahtani
Khaled Alqahtani is a storyteller and biologist from Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. Khaled writes and dreams about desert ecosystems, the Saudi art scene, and Arab art history as the current editor-in-chief of Ward Magazine and previous one of Thmanyah’s أها! newsletter. Based in Jeddah, he currently works as the Library and Research Coordinator at the Jameel Library in Hayy Jameel.
Leen Kahaleh
Leen Kahaleh is a visual and product designer with a degree in Visual Communication from the American University of Sharjah. Her work explores social and cultural themes in the Arab region through editorial, printmaking and product design. With a passion for creating, making, and exploring new technologies, she seeks to elevate the local design scene, inspire audiences, educate children, and develop creative solutions to diverse challenges. Beyond her design practice, she works in creative programming, developing workshops and experiences that encourage making and knowledge exchange.
Tala Qari
Tala Qari is a multimedia artist and arts educator based in Jeddah with a degree in Fine Arts. Her practice bridges creative expression and cultural learning, using art as a tool to educate, inspire, and connect communities. Drawing on her background in fine arts and museum education, she designs inclusive workshops and public programmes that encourage self-expression, critical thinking, and dialogue. Tala’s mission is to make creativity accessible and transformative, an integral part of everyday life.
Danya Bayoumi
Danya Bayoumi is a multidisciplinary creative and product designer who with a Masters degree in Furniture and Product Design. Her creative practice moves fluidly between large scale murals, art direction, and hands on material exploration across a number of disciplines.
A recurring theme in her work is the relationship between process and form, she has worked extensively with silicone mould-making, jesmonite casting, and surface texture experimentation to produce original artworks and functional objects.