Abu Dhabi Public Art aims to bring accessible art to UAE capital

DUBAI: After 12 years of preparations, which hosted last year’s prestigious FIFA World Cup – 12 years that transformed the small gas-rich Gulf state of Qatar – the country is focusing on maintaining its momentum and boosting its tourism and cultural industries.

Sheikha Reem Al-Thani, acting deputy chief executive of exhibitions and marketing at the Qatar Museum, told Arab News: “The World Cup is an added bonus for us to what we are already doing in the cultural field.”

Al-Thani said much of Qatar’s tourism and cultural prosperity is part of Qatar’s National Vision Strategy 2030, which was formalized in July 2008, the same year the Museum of Islamic Art, designed by renowned Chinese-American architect IM Pei, Opened in Doha.

The World Cup crowd may have left, but many projects are still underway, heralding further growth. Throughout Doha and the nearby desert landscape, there are dozens of specially commissioned public art installations, 30 percent of which were commissioned in the year leading up to the World Cup. Works by Qatari artists such as Shouq Al-Mana, Ghada Al-Kater, Mubarak Al-Malik and Salman Al-Malek sit alongside those of international luminaries such as Jeff Koons A stainless steel sculpture of a marine mammal symbolizing Qatar’s natural heritage is located near the Corniche. Richard Serra’s “East West/West East,” like KAWS’ “The Promise,” stands in the Qatari desert and depicts a parent and child gazing at the Earth—emphasizing the need to protect the environment.

“Public art underscores who we are, while also providing a context for what’s happening in Qatar,” Al-Thani said. “For example, before Richard Serra’s art, people didn’t have much reason to go to that area in the desert. Now they go to explore the local landscape.”

The total attendance for all World Cup matches was 3.4 million, according to the Qatar News Agency. Tourists are still flocking to Qatar. According to air transport statistics released by the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority, in January 2023, 3,559,063 people registered to arrive in the country by air, an increase of 64.4% over the same period in 2022.

The country has set several ambitious goals. By 2030, it aims to attract 6 million tourists a year and increase tourism’s contribution to gross domestic product from 7 percent to 12 percent. To that end, the country is investing billions of dollars in culture, arts, technology and tourism. In February this year, Doha was recognized by the Arab Tourism Organization as the 2023 Arab Tourism Capital.

Qatar Creates, a year-round, government-backed cultural movement, conceptualized at the opening of the Qatar National Museum in 2019, has evolved into an event that combines museum exhibitions, film, fashion, hospitality, cultural heritage, performing arts and private A pageant of departmental initiatives.

Earlier this month, Qatar Creation Week featured a series of exhibition openings and events, including the Qatar Tasweer Photography Festival – a second biennial exhibition, awards, commissions and collaborations aimed at “bringing Qatar and Diversification of the practice and dialogue of Western photographers “Asia and North Africa”, “Beirut and the Golden Sixties”, an exhibition at the Mataf Arab Museum of Modern Art, and the Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson at NMOQ’s “Desert of Curiosity,” brings together a dozen new site-specific installations in the desert near the Al-Thakhira mangroves in northern Qatar, along with an extensive gallery display.

Other highlights include Doha Film Academy’s Qumra, an initiative that provides mentorship and other opportunities to filmmakers in Qatar and around the world.

Additionally, ‘Museum Lusail: Stories of a Connected World’ at Al-Riwaq, Qatar Museum Gallery, Doha, presents a new Herzog & de Meuron-designed museum currently under development in Lusail, Qatar’s second largest city. It will be dedicated to oriental art, archaeological artifacts and media from prehistoric times to the 21st century.

The Lusail Museum is one of three new museums announced in March by Qatar’s global patron of the arts, Sheikha Al-Mayassa Al-Thani, to expand the country’s cultural offerings. The others are the Qatar Automobile Museum and the Art Mill on Doha’s Promenade, which are due to open in 2030 and will transform a former industrial flour mill on Doha’s Corniche, alongside the existing Jean Nouvel-designed NMOQ and Islamic art. museum. Designed by Chilean studio ELEMENTAL, Art Mill aims, according to its website, to be, “a pioneering institution in the non-Western world representing modern and contemporary art from all regions of the globe on an equal footing.”

While cultural events in Qatar continued, officials emphasized how the cultural scene evolved in tandem with, and even before, the country’s bid to host the World Cup. The Mahaf Museum of Modern Art opened in Doha in 2010—the same year the state won a tender and two years after the Museum of Islamic Art opened. Since then, Qatar has poured billions into culture and tourism, especially under the patronage of Sheikha Al-Mayassa. It aims not only to build a strong arts scene and strengthen its national identity, but also to diversify its economy to reduce its dependence on oil and gas.

Even during a five-year blockade between 2017 and 2021 that saw Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, the country has continued to develop its culture and tourism.

“The World Cup definitely gave us momentum,” Al-Thani said.

“However, for us, it’s always been about sustaining and growing our culture and creative economy, educating people and really making sure that what we’re doing is (done) in a very thoughtful and local way.”

During the World Cup, 80 percent of the exhibitions were conceived by the Qatar Museum through its collection, she added.

“Very few come from the outside,” she said. “We want to focus primarily on MENASA.”

In February, Qatar’s $450bn sovereign wealth fund said it was looking to rebalance its portfolio and consider investments in football, finance and technology.

“The World Cup has greatly raised our awareness and exposed Qatar to many (new) people,” Qatari businessman Tariq Al-Jaidah told Arab News. “This event has given us tremendous exposure globally. We are already feeling its impact, especially with the upcoming increase in regional visitors.”

Qatar Peninsula reported in February that 58 cruise ships were expected to arrive in Qatar by the end of April, carrying about 200,000 tourists. Opening in November 2022, the new Grand Cruise Terminal is strategically located within walking distance of the Qatar National Museum, Msheireb City Center and Souq Waqif – all adorned with public art works – and more.

“The World Cup, new hotels, and existing and upcoming museums all contribute to Qatar’s cultural maturity as a tourist destination,” Al-Jaidah added.

The country looks poised to take that exposure and turn it into cultural and economic prosperity.