A Slow Papermaking Sunday with The Memo Club
Description
This session invites participants to slow down and reconnect with the tactile nature of making through the art of handmade paper. In a time shaped by constant digitisation and screen-led routines, papermaking offers a return to a grounded, physical process that values patience, imperfection, and presence. Through guided instruction, participants will learn the fundamentals of creating paper using found and repurposed materials.
Each sheet becomes a unique imprint of the maker’s hand and intention. Participants will be encouraged to experiment with pulp and embedded materials such as dried flowers and printed ephemera, exploring texture and material transformation.
Artist
The Memo Club
The Memo Club is a collective founded by three emerging artists based in Abu Dhabi, whose work revolves around memory, identity, and community-building. the memo club is a community initiative, bringing people together to reconnect with tactile experiences, starting with print.
The Memo Club started because they wanted a special place for people to come together. Grown-ups can get really busy with work and everyday life, and sometimes it’s hard to find time to make art or be creative. So, they dreamed up a space where friends—and friends of friends—could meet, share ideas, and make things together. It’s all about taking back time to imagine, create, and have fun.
Who makes the memo club?
Sumayya Sideek (b.1996, Colombo) is a UAE-based creative with a background in Media Studies. She has experience spanning various industries within the field of communications for organizations globally. Her work focuses primarily on documentation and storytelling in the narratives of impact-driven projects surrounding community, art, and social advocacy. Sumayya also works with MENASA-based designers and artists in their communications and archival processes. In the past, she has also performed as a spoken-word poet in the UAE.
Zoe Cusi (b. 1997, Abu Dhabi) is a Filipina interdisciplinary artist living and working in Abu Dhabi. Her artistic practice explores the idea of connection – what it means to build, lose, and form something inherently and deeply human.
Though most may argue that the definition of ‘connection’ is broad or vague, Zoe believes that is where its beauty lies. It has the ability to shape-shift, mould, and adapt to a world of narratives and perspectives, whether by force or choice. A storyteller by both trade and virtue, Zoe uses paint, poetry, paper, clay, photography, and oral history to tell stories of her lived experiences.
Zoe is a recipient of the Salama bint Hamdan Emerging Artist Fellowship (2025) and holds a Bachelor of Communications in Public Relations and Journalism.
Nada Almosa (b. 1999, Sharjah) is a Palestinian artist and creative writer, based between Abu Dhabi & Sharjah. Her practice navigates memory, identity-making, and play through mixed media, photography, and creative writing. Her works draw inspiration from her Palestinian heritage as well as the desire to preserve memory and chronicle stories of diaspora.
She is a graduate of Literature & Creative Writing from New York University Abu Dhabi (2021). Nada is currently a Teaching Artist fellow at Manarat Al Saadiyat (2025/26). has participated in the VICE residency by Exit 11 Performing Arts Company (2022), a mentorship program with Nujoom Al Ghanem (2023), and the Spectrum: Photographers in Residence program at Manarat Al Saadiyat (2024). She has published works in Wasafiri Magazine, Corniche Comic Anthology, Mizna, & Strange Horizons.