UAE's Two-Decade Art Infrastructure Build: From Desert to Global Cultural Hub

Building a Cultural Nation: How the UAE Created One of the World’s Most Dynamic Art Ecosystems

The transformation of the United Arab Emirates into a global artistic centre happened not through sudden architectural spectacle but through two decades of deliberate institutional construction, intellectual infrastructure and human commitment. Twenty years is a remarkably short timeframe for such a shift, yet today the country occupies a position that seemed improbable at the turn of the millennium. Its biennials shape international curatorial discourse. Its museums attract global audiences. Its art fair ranks among the world’s most influential. Its foundations publish scholarship redefining the histories of Arab and Global South art. Its public art programmes are changing how citizens engage with their cities.

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This transformation formed the backdrop to the opening conversation of the 20th Global Art Forum, presented as part of Art Dubai. Rather than discussing technology, artificial intelligence or geopolitics, subjects that have frequently dominated the Forum, the session looked backwards. Moderated by writer and cultural theorist Shumon Basar, Commissioner of the Global Art Forum, it brought together Antonia Carver, Director of Art Jameel; Sunny Rahbar, co-founder of The Third Line and Bidoun magazine; and Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, founder of the Sharjah-based Barjeel Art Foundation. Together they reflected on the people, institutions and moments that quietly transformed the UAE’s cultural landscape long before international headlines proclaimed it an artistic powerhouse.

The discussion challenged one of the most persistent misconceptions surrounding the Gulf’s cultural rise: the belief that contemporary art arrived alongside spectacular architecture. Again and again, the speakers reminded the audience that culture came first. One of the most revealing moments came when the conversation returned to 2003. Although Art Dubai would not be founded until 2007, both Antonia Carver and Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi identified an earlier turning point: Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi’s appointment to lead the Sharjah Biennial. Under her direction, the Biennial was transformed from a regional exhibition into one of the world’s most intellectually rigorous platforms for contemporary art, championing artists and curatorial practices from across Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East long before the Global South became central to international museum discourse.

That transformation did not end with the Biennial. Under Hoor Al Qasimi’s leadership, Sharjah Art Foundation evolved into one of the world’s most respected cultural institutions. Exhibitions became only one part of its work. Publishing, artist residencies, film, music, performance, education, conservation and research all became integral to its mission, creating a year-round institution whose influence extends far beyond the Biennial itself. Today, Hoor Al Qasimi stands among the world’s leading curators, having served as Artistic Director of Aichi Triennale 2025 and the 25th Biennale of Sydney (2026), while topping ArtReview’s Power 100 in 2024.

The significance of Sharjah lies not simply in the exhibitions it presents but in the model it established. It demonstrated that cultural institutions could generate knowledge rather than merely display objects. That principle echoed throughout the conversation. Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi recalled growing up in Sharjah, surrounded by libraries, theatre productions, public performances and book fairs, reminding the audience that the UAE’s artistic history reaches far beyond the institutions now most familiar to international audiences. Recent archival discoveries revealing exhibitions held in Dubai during the 1960s reinforce this longer history, challenging simplistic narratives that suggest the country’s cultural life began only in the twenty-first century.

Antonia Carver’s reflections offered another perspective on those formative years. Arriving in Dubai in 2001 after working in publishing in London, she encountered a city whose creative energy defied easy categorisation. Writers collaborated with architects. Journalists worked alongside artists. Film, theatre and literature intersected with emerging contemporary art practices in ways that dissolved conventional disciplinary boundaries. Rather than importing existing institutional models, practitioners responded organically to the opportunities around them, creating organisations that reflected the city’s own rapidly evolving identity.

Sunny Rahbar’s recollections added another crucial dimension. As co-founder of both Bidoun magazine and The Third Line, she spoke from the perspective of someone who helped shape Dubai’s independent cultural infrastructure from the ground up. If galleries provided spaces for artists, Bidoun provided a platform for ideas. At a time when narratives about the Middle East were largely being produced elsewhere, the magazine became one of the most influential voices documenting the region’s artists, writers and thinkers on their own terms. Meanwhile, The Third Line demonstrated that a commercial gallery could also function as a cultural institution, nurturing artists through long-term relationships, publications and public programmes rather than simply facilitating sales.

Collectively, these initiatives established something far more significant than the sum of their individual organisations. They created trust. They built networks. They cultivated audiences. And perhaps most importantly, they demonstrated that culture is never the product of a single institution. It is the product of an ecosystem.

If Sharjah demonstrated how a biennial could become an intellectual engine, Dubai revealed how an art fair could evolve into something far more ambitious than an annual marketplace. Art Dubai has undoubtedly become one of the world’s leading commercial fairs, connecting galleries from the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and beyond with international collectors and institutions. Yet to understand its significance solely in terms of sales would be to misunderstand its broader ambition. From its earliest editions, the fair positioned itself as a platform where commerce and culture could coexist, recognising that healthy art markets depend upon robust intellectual, educational and institutional foundations.

The Global Art Forum has been central to that vision. Since its inception, it has resisted becoming a conventional conference attached to an art fair. Instead, it has developed into one of the region’s most respected platforms for interdisciplinary thinking, bringing together artists, architects, economists, scientists, technologists, philosophers and writers to examine the forces shaping contemporary society. Under Shumon Basar’s direction, the Forum has consistently anticipated many of the questions now dominating international cultural discourse, from artificial intelligence and digital economies to climate change, migration and the future of cities.

Rather than limiting its activities to a single week each spring, Art Dubai has steadily expanded into a year-round cultural institution. Through Art Dubai Projects, it has commissioned ambitious public artworks, performances and site-specific installations that engage directly with Dubai’s urban environment, encouraging audiences to encounter contemporary art beyond museums and galleries. One of the most ambitious manifestations of this philosophy is the Dubai Public Art Strategy. Developed in partnership with Dubai Culture, the initiative seeks to integrate contemporary art into the city’s parks, waterfronts, public squares and neighbourhoods, transforming the urban landscape into an accessible, open-air cultural experience. Rather than treating public sculpture as mere civic decoration, the strategy positions artists as active participants in shaping the city’s identity and experience.

Equally important has been Art Dubai’s sustained investment in education. Campus Art Dubai has become one of the region’s most influential professional development programmes, nurturing emerging curators, writers and cultural practitioners from across the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. The A.R.M. Holding Children’s Programme reflects an equally long-term vision. By introducing thousands of young people across the UAE to contemporary artistic practice through artist-led workshops and sustained creative engagement, the programme invests not simply in future artists but in future audiences, ensuring that cultural participation begins long before adulthood.

Antonia Carver played a formative role in shaping Art Dubai during its early years, helping establish initiatives that expanded the fair’s intellectual and educational ambitions. Today, through Art Jameel, she continues to oversee one of the region’s most influential independent arts organisations, whose work spans exhibitions, heritage, publishing, research, commissions and learning programmes across the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Jameel Arts Centre, which opened on Dubai Creek in 2018, represents another milestone in the UAE’s cultural evolution. More than a contemporary art museum, it functions as a space where exhibitions, libraries, educational programmes, artists’ gardens and research intersect. Like Sharjah Art Foundation, its success lies not simply in presenting art but in creating the conditions through which artistic practice can be studied, debated and shared.

If Art Dubai demonstrates how a fair can become a year-round cultural institution, the Barjeel Art Foundation illustrates how collecting can become an act of scholarship. Founded by Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi in Sharjah in 2010, Barjeel has grown into one of the world’s foremost collections of modern and contemporary Arab art. Yet, as Al Qassemi reflected during the Global Art Forum, the Foundation was never conceived simply as a repository for artworks. Its purpose has always been to make Arab art visible, accessible and intellectually legible through exhibitions, publications, research and partnerships with museums and universities around the world. In doing so, Barjeel has helped rewrite the narrative of modern Arab art, challenging its historical marginalisation within dominant art historical canons.

That commitment to scholarship is perhaps one of the defining characteristics of the UAE’s cultural landscape. Throughout the conversation, collecting was repeatedly discussed not as an end in itself but as a responsibility. Works of art achieve their fullest significance only when they enter public life through exhibitions, catalogues, archives and critical writing. Collections hidden in storage remain private possessions; collections that are researched and shared become part of cultural memory.

By contrast, the conversation also pointed towards institutions beyond those represented on stage. The Department of Culture and Tourism, Abu Dhabi has, through figures such as Reem Fadda, developed complementary models centred on research, public engagement and international cultural exchange, further strengthening the UAE’s cultural landscape. Rather than competing, Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi have cultivated distinct yet interconnected identities, each contributing to a national ecosystem whose influence extends far beyond the country’s borders.