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Arab Art Institutions and Their Audiences
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 March 2016
Extract
Leaders of Arab art institutions are negotiating new grounds for the arts with new money, new audiences, and—in the case of the Gulf countries—also new locations. They are playing a key role in devising alternate strategies to reach audiences and create civic dialogue through the arts, while negotiating economic, political, and artistic concerns that are helping to shape future cultural policies in the region. This paper explores the institutionalization of Arab art practices in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and the United Arab Emirates, and the relationship of these arts organizations to their audiences. The reasons for selecting these four countries is that compared to other Arab countries, they have a large number of individual art initiatives, as well as new and diverse types of institutions. Each country has a specific context in which the art organizations were established and function. However, the focus of this paper is the relationship of the art institutions to their audiences and the strategies they use to encourage discourse on art and its content in the public sphere. The paper is based on discussions with twenty-one art professionals who represent almost all leading art institutions in the Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and United Arab Emirates (UAE).
- Type
- Special Section: Art Without History?
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Middle East Studies Association of North America 2008
References
End Notes
1 The author conducted mostly face-to-face interviews and telephone communications with twenty-one leaders in the art profession between April-May 2007 and June to October 2007 while based in Amman, Jordan. The study also was informed by research data gathered while working in 2006 as a UNDP consultant for a Palestinian art NGO for a period of seven months in Jerusalem.
2 Palestine is an exception because there is an almost equal number of males and females in this field, with females in half of the leadership positions and most of the middle ranks of the art institutions. I propose that for the Palestinians, the preservation and presentation of their art and culture is considered a national duty that overcomes any gender imposed relationship in the art professions.
3 The Saadiyat Island project envisions transforming the 27-square-kilometer island into an international cultural hub by 2018. The cultural institutions planned include the Guggenheim Museum, a contemporary art museum designed by Frank Gehry, the Louvre Museum by Jean Nouvel the Maritime Museum by Tadao Ando, Sheikh Zayed National Museum, Saadiyat’s Performing Arts Centre designed by Zaha Hadid Biennale Park and 19 international pavilions for the biennale of art. A college for the arts is also in the planning stages. Most of the art work will be on loan from Louvre and Guggenheim. (Information from a visit to the Saadiyat Island Cultural District Master Plan exhibition, Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi, April 2007).
4 Hoda Kanoo, interview with the author, 10 April 2007.
5 Ali Khadra, interview with the author, 8 April 2007.
6 Sunstein, Cass R., “All Rights Reserved: Public Forums and MyMuseum.com,” in The New Gate Keepers: Emerging Challenges to Free Expression in the Arts, ed. Christopher Hawthorne and András Szántó (New York: Columbia University National Arts Journalism Program, 2003), pp. 74–86.Google Scholar
7 Ayloul Festival was the first public space art project organized by Pascale Feghali in 1991.
8 Christine Tohmé, interview with the author, 22 September, 2007.
9 Ibid.
10 Ola Khalidi, interview with the author, 18 July, 2007
11 Zeina al Khalil, email communication, 1 May, 2007
12 Hoda Khalidi, interview with the author, 18 July, 2007.
13 Kadoyama, Margaret, “The Spot Where It Flows—Practicing Civic Engagement.” American Association of Museums, web journal, (July 2007), http://www.aam-us.org/pubs/civic.Google Scholar