Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar gain cultural edge by investing heavily in creative economy

DUBAI: 2022 has seen what could be described as a frantic sprint to make up for lost time after the COVID-19 pandemic’s lockdowns, closures and travel bans devastated tourism, entertainment and concerts.

While prospects for a post-pandemic economic recovery in the rest of the world dim due to the war in Ukraine, Gulf energy exporters — notably Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar — are clawing back much of their windfall profits into activities in the cultural sector.

Over the past decade, these countries have invested billions of dollars in cultural enterprises, building new museums, exhibition spaces and music venues to boost tourism, economic growth and instill a sense of national pride.

These investments appear to be paying off, with the Gulf states enjoying a cultural renaissance fueled by state-led and private sponsorship. This comes at a time when governments elsewhere in the world are cutting their arts budgets.

In the UK, for example, leading galleries and museums have slashed Arts Council UK funding until 2023, while former capitals of Arab culture such as Damascus, Baghdad and Beirut, ravaged by war, instability and brain drain, are now mere shadows of their former self. Own.

When Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched Vision 2030 in 2016, he put culture and building a new creative economy at the center of the kingdom’s development agenda.

The plan aims to diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy away from oil and gas and implement economic, educational and administrative reforms alongside social transformation.

Since its inception in 2018, the Ministry of Culture has spearheaded a growing number of cultural events in the Kingdom and internationally. According to reports, in 2021 Saudi Arabia will host 100 cultural events led by 25 new cultural organizations.

Recent and upcoming highlights include the Diriyah Biennale of Contemporary Art, debuting in December 2021, and the Hajj terminal at Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport on January 23 Opening of the Biennale of Islamic Art.

Some 10.5 million domestic tourists visited the country’s cultural sites in the first 10 months of 2021, surpassing the 2019 total of 8.5 million visitors, according to the ministry’s “2021 State of Culture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Report: Culture in Public Places”.

In December, the ministry opened a cultural center called Fenaa Alawwal at the former headquarters of the kingdom’s first commercial bank in Riyadh. It established the center as part of Vision 2030’s goal of “encouraging culture as a way of life”.

The center will be used to host a range of cultural events aimed at bringing together Saudi and international creative talent.

While the idea of ​​the Renaissance marked a flourishing of artistic activity, it also pointed to the idea of ​​breaking down barriers and providing a platform for the free exchange of ideas.

“Historically, there have been many turning points important to art movements, from the Renaissance in Italy to the Nahda in the Arab world, all of which were characterized by enormous creativity and a thriving art scene,” Manuel Rabate, director of Abu Dhabi than the head of the Louvre told Arab News.

“It is undeniable that the Gulf region has experienced significant cultural development in recent years, fueled by continued investment, cross-cultural collaboration and awareness of the importance of culture and the arts in deepening understanding and fostering dialogue.”

The kingdom’s social changes are nothing if not obvious. From big raves in the desert to festivals like Riyadh Season, Art Biennale and Film School, the process is sparking creative thinking and intercultural dialogue.

“For the community, there is definitely an increase in the variety, quantity and quality of art exhibitions in every major Saudi city,” Qaswra Hafez, founder and director of Hafez Gallery in Jeddah, told Arab News.

“We contribute, as always, by staging professionally curated exhibitions primarily for Saudi artists, and promoting the exposure of our artists through participation in local, regional and international art fairs.”

Saudi Arabia’s neighbor Qatar has its own state-led cultural programme. Qatar has been investing billions of dollars in its cultural sector for more than a decade, in parallel with the country’s 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Like Saudi Arabia, it aims to wean its economy away from an overreliance on oil and gas and toward tourism and cultural events.

At the helm of Qatar’s cultural movement is Sheikha Al-Mayassa Al-Thani, a global art patron and collector and Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Hamad Al-Thani) sister.

In March 2022, Sheikha Mayassa announced that three new museums will be built in Qatar – the Lusail Museum, the Art Mill Museum and the Qatar Automobile Museum.

The new venue will be operated by Qatar Museums, a government entity established in 2015 to oversee cultural institutions including the Mataf Museum of Arab Modern Art and the Museum of Islamic Art.

“Culture is the most powerful tool. It has no religion, it has no language; it is just open,” writes Sheikha Al-Mayassa in her 2022 book, The Power of Culture. But, as she emphasized in her 2014 TED Talk, arts and culture are also about building national identity.

“We are correcting ourselves through our cultural institutions and cultural development,” she said at the time. “The arts became a very important part of our national identity.”

Reem Al-Thani, acting deputy chief executive officer of exhibitions and marketing and director of centralized exhibitions at the Qatar Museum, said there was a strong desire to share the country’s cultural identity with the outside world.

“We wanted to show our history and the larger context of our country; it’s not just because of oil that we suddenly came here,” she told Arab News.

“This is who we are. This is our history, this is our homeland, this is our heritage, our wisdom and wisdom.

“It’s also the role of the museum to show that in a very concise way. We also want to make sure that the current generation of Qataris understands their past.”

The UAE has been pursuing a similar strategy for more than a decade, while trying to attract internationally renowned galleries to the Arabian Peninsula.

The Saadiyat Cultural District in the UAE capital is home to Louvre Abu Dhabi, which opened in 2017 as part of a $27 billion tourism and cultural development on Saadiyat Island

It is also home to the Guggenheim Museum, due to be completed in 2025, the Abraham Family House, due to be completed in 2023, and the Zayed National Museum, due to be completed in 2025.

“All these museums represent the UAE’s commitment to cultural development and its aspiration to become a global leader in the arts,” Rabat told Arab News.

Like Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the UAE has implemented state-funded programs to develop the cultural sector and its contribution to the economy.

In 2018, the UAE’s cultural authorities agreed a national cultural strategy that will move in a “more strategic, sustainable and ambitious direction”, dubbed the Cultural Agenda 2031.

The UAE’s National Strategy for Cultural and Creative Industries, launched in 2021, aims to increase the contribution of cultural and creative industries to GDP by 5% by 2031.

One of its main objectives is to “strengthen the UAE’s position on the global cultural and creative map” and “to stimulate creative thinking and attract cultural talent and creative entrepreneurs from around the world”.

The roadmap places a strong emphasis on business and entrepreneurship, with goals including “attracting freelancers and creative start-ups to set up, live and work in the UAE”.

The arrival of foreign players in particular has stimulated Dubai’s private arts sector. Notable is the number of international galleries that have opened in recent years, including French art dealer Emmanuel Perrotin, who opened his first space in Dubai in 2022.

Others, such as Efie Gallery, Dubai’s first African-owned contemporary art gallery, opened in 2021 and its co-founder, Kwame Mintah, says its mission is to be “at the forefront of the burgeoning global contemporary African art scene”.

“The choice of Dubai as our first location was due to the relative nascent nature of the local art scene here, which in turn provides the perfect terrain for expansion and innovation,” he told Arab News.

Foreign gallerists are not only flocking to Dubai to take part in the UAE’s cultural expansion; they are attracted by the Gulf’s open and welcoming business environment.

“It’s easy to do business here — probably easier than anywhere else in the world — and there’s a lot of support from the government for us to set up shop here,” says Indian collector and art entrepreneur Tushar Jiwarajka, who launched Mumbai’s Volte Art Project. September 2021, told Arab News.

“Dubai offers a relatively blank canvas in terms of the cultural landscape – it’s one of the few places in the world that can really help shape it.”