L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts, has begun teaching in Arabic. Its first Arabic-language courses started in Dubai on 10 September 2026, and on 30 September the school opened a library corner at the House of Wisdom in Sharjah. Both steps are backed by Van Cleef & Arpels, which supports the school, and together they make a clear statement: the study of fine jewellery in the Gulf no longer has to happen in English or French.
The timing suits the market. The region buys high jewellery on a large scale, yet the vocabulary of the subject, from gemstone grading to the language of setting, has largely been taught in other languages. An Arabic curriculum, with Arabic-speaking lecturers, changes who feels welcome in the classroom. It also gives families, friends and colleagues a shared language for talking about the jewels they wear, inherit or give.
Three courses to start
The first three courses are called From Design to Mock-up, The Making of a Jewel and The Engagement Ring: A Love Story. According to Arab News and Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, which agree on the titles, the programme covers jewellery design, craftsmanship, gemstones and the history of jewellery. Lectures are combined with hands-on work, so students handle materials rather than only listen.
The courses are open to adults at every level, from complete beginners to established collectors. That mix is deliberate. A beginner may simply be curious about how a ring is drawn and then built, while a collector may want to read a stone or a setting with more confidence before buying.
Teaching takes place online and at the school’s Dubai campus. Talks and digital content are offered in both formats, and registration runs through a dedicated Arabic-language website with its own Arabic newsletter. No course prices or campus address were published in the sources reviewed, so readers should check the school’s website for fees and dates.
A podcast in Arabic
The school is also bringing its audio content into Arabic. Three Arabic episodes of its Voice of Jewels podcast, on the history of gold, are due in November. According to Arab News, art historians and lecturers in Paris and Dubai translated them in-house, without the use of artificial intelligence.
That detail matters for a subject built on precise terms. A word for a cut, a technique or a period has to be right, and the school says it chose people who know the field over automation.
Four campuses, one of them in Dubai
L’ÉCOLE was founded in Paris in 2012 with the support of Van Cleef & Arpels. It now has four permanent campuses: Paris, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Dubai. The Middle East campus opened in 2024 and sits in Dubai Design District, known as d3, according to the district’s own announcement.
Sophie Claudel, director of L’ÉCOLE Middle East, told Arab News that Arabic content is the spine of the school’s presence in the UAE and the wider Middle East. She said that teaching in Arabic will allow the school to reach a wider demographic. In plain terms, the school sees language as the way to widen its audience, not as an add-on.
Sharjah’s library corner
The second announcement moves from the classroom to the shelf. On 30 September a L’école Library Corner opened at the House of Wisdom, Sharjah’s library and cultural centre, which opened in 2020. It is part of a three-year partnership, according to Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, the only outlet found describing it.
The corner holds books on gemstones and craftsmanship, mineral specimens, publications from jewellery houses and a selection for children. Visitors also have access to online talks, readings and podcasts. The children’s shelf is a small but telling detail: it suggests that the school expects its audience to include families and young readers, not only buyers.
Why it matters
Connoisseurship tends to follow access. When the books, the talks and the teachers speak a reader’s own language, more people can take part, and the conversation about craft in the region becomes richer. For a collector, an Arabic course is a way to learn what to ask a jeweller. For a student, it may be the first step towards a career in design or gemmology.
What comes next is practical. The November podcast episodes are the next date to watch, and the school has yet to publish a full timetable of further Arabic courses in the sources reviewed. For now, the message is simple: the study of jewellery arts has a new home in Arabic, in Dubai and in Sharjah.
Sources: Arab News, Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, Dubai Design District