As one of the results of the cultural event "Overlaps. North-Southeast", taking place in Sharjah in February 2000, Else Marie Bukdahl and Dorte Dahlin were asked to work out a proposal for an Academy of Fine Arts in Sharjah. The proposal were worked out in cooperation with Øivind Nygård, artist, former Assistant Professor at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and Artist Annemette Larsen. Consulting partner were Salim Abdali, Poet and PhD, Associate professor at the Technical University of Denmark.

Cultural exchange related to education is one of the basic ideas of Nomad Academy, which has been growing into a network of many centres.