Opening Week: November 11 to 17, 2018

All are welcome to join the launch week of Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai’s new home for the contemporary arts, which will include the opening of multiple new exhibitions and commissions, along with an array of special events throughout the week.

Arts and media professionals based in the UAE or visiting from abroad, seeking accreditation or details of specialist events, are requested to be in touch ahead of the Jameel Arts Centre opening: please email opening@artjameel.org. Please scroll down for details of travel and hotel recommendations.

The Centre’s multiple gallery spaces host curated solo and group exhibitions, large-scale installations and sculptural works, drawn both from the Art Jameel Collection and through regional and international collaborations, plus new commissions. Visit the What’s On page for more details.

Jameel Arts Centre will be announcing news and special events regularly from now until the opening in November. Please check this page, and follow hashtag #jameelartscentre, @jameelartscentre on Instagram and Facebook, and @jameelartsctr on Twitter for latest news and updates.

Opening Day: Sunday, November 11:

10am-12 noon:
Children’s Opening: First-access to the Centre for tomorrow’s generation, this collaboration with UAE schools includes special activities, tours and learning resources. For more information, email: learning@artjameel.org

5pm-10pm:
Jameel Arts Centre Opening
– Curator-, architect- and artist-led tours of the building and opening exhibitions
– Jameel Library events and talks
– Jaddaf Waterfront Sculpture Park activations and events

For more information, email: opening@artjameel.org

Opening weekend: November 16-17

All welcome! Follow us on social media and signup for our newsletter to receive news of special events and performances taking place at Jameel Arts Centre and Jaddaf Waterfront Sculpture Park.

Jameel Arts Centre is located in Jaddaf Waterfront, nestled between Business Bay Bridge and Garhoud Bridge on the Bur Dubai bank of the Dubai Creek. Click here for opening hours and how to find us.

Partner events

In the UAE for our opening? November features multiple major art and design events across the Emirates:

Dubai

Dubai Design Week

Dubai Design Week is the largest creative festival in the Middle East, reflecting Dubai’s position as the regional capital of design. The six-day programme comprises more than 200 events covering design across a range of disciplines including architecture, product, furniture, interior and graphic design.

Staged in partnership with Dubai Design District (d3), Dubai Design Week provides an accessible meeting point for the global design community, a platform for regional design and acts as a catalyst for the growth of the creative community in Dubai. In 2017, the annual event attracted 60,000 visitors to Dubai Design District alone who attended and engaged with the varied programme of design-related events, exhibitions, performances, awards, talks and workshops and experiences.

As a partner of Dubai Design Week, Jameel Arts Centre hosts two design-dedicated events:

Architectural Walking Tour led by award-winning Serie Architects
Tuesday November 13, 10am-11.30am

Explore the interior and exterior spaces of the Centre whilst enriching your architectural knowledge. To celebrate the opening of their first completed project in the UAE, award-winning Serie Architects invites architecture lovers, students and industry professionals for a guided architectural walking tour.

Serie is an international practice specialising in architecture, urban design and research. Their work is known for its spatial intelligence, formal elegance and contextual engagement. They have a reputation for designing distinctive buildings in the public realm, with a special focus on cultural, civic and educational building. Fundamental to Serie’s work is a highly refined approach to design with emphasis on rigorous geometry and the innovative use of materials. This design focus is complemented by a meticulous and inventive approach to construction. This combination of capabilities has allowed the firm to develop a reputation for exciting, contemporary design.

Advance registration required (15 spaces available): please email sareh@artjameel.org

Architecture-focused Photo Walk led by Mohamed Somji of Gulf Photo Plus
Saturday November 17, 9am-10.30am

Bring your camera (or even your smartphone) on an architecture-focused photo walk led by photographer Mohamed Somji of Gulf Photo Plus, as he shows you how to work with angles, light, and leading lines to achieve striking architectural images. Part outdoor walking tour, part workshop, this experience will help hone your photographic eye.

Gulf Photo Plus (GPP) is Dubai’s centre for photography, equipping and inspiring the local and international photography community through photography workshops, free artist talks, state-of-the-art printing services, and the region’s longest-running international photography event, GPP Photo Week. GPP has garnered a reputation as a leader in photography events, both in the Gulf region and internationally, while developing the visual literacy of the community and pushing the boundaries of contemporary photography. GPP’s workshop programing is coupled with additional events including exhibitions, inspirational talks, and Slidefest evenings where developing artists can share projects and find further inspiration.

Advance registration required (15 spaces available): please email sareh@artjameel.org

Alserkal Avenue

Located in Al Quoz, Dubai and established in 2007, Alserkal Avenue is the region’s foremost contemporary arts and culture neighbourhood. Alserkal Avenue hosts 16 contemporary art galleries and not-for-profit spaces and over 40 creative businesses, cultivating a vibrant community of visual and performing arts organisations, designers, and artisanal spaces that has become an essential platform for the development of the creative industries in the United Arab Emirates.

‘Adapt to Survive: Notes from the Future’ (held in Concrete, Alserkal Avenue)
November 7-21, 2018

What might the future look like? Adapt to Survive: Notes from the Future, in collaboration with Hayward Gallery, London, brings together artworks by seven international artists who imagine how our world might look and feel in the future. Engaging with the idea that adaptation is necessary for survival, the artists present films, sculpture and text-based works that explore ideas of change and hybrid forms of architecture, biology, technology and language. In recent decades, futurology has become established as an area of research combining game theory, statistics, and speculation. Like futurologists, the artists in the exhibition make educated guesses about our society’s evolution and progression, but equally convey uncertainty and scepticism about our accelerating patterns of growth and consumption.

The exhibition features works by artists Andreas Angelidakis, Ann Lislegaard, Bedwyr Williams, Julian Charrière, Marguerite Humeau, Rainer Ganahl and Youmna Chlala, and is curated by Dr Cliff Lauson. It was previously on show at the Hayward Gallery HENI Project Space in London from 18 April – 11 June 2018.

The exhibition will be supported by a curated public programme.

Galleries Night
Monday November 12, 6pm-10pm

Galleries Night is a chance to see the new exhibitions on show at the contemporary art galleries that call Alserkal Avenue their home.

Sharjah

Sharjah Art Foundation

Located in Sharjah’s historic Art and Heritage Areas, Sharjah Art Foundation activities and events take place throughout the year and include exhibitions featuring the work of Arab and international artists, performances, music, film screenings and artist talks as well as extensive art education programmes for children, adults and families. The Foundation hosts the annual March Meeting and every two years presents the Sharjah Biennial.

Fikra Graphic Design Biennial
November 9-30, 2018

The inaugural Fikra Graphic Design Biennial, ‛Ministry of Graphic Design,’ proposes graphic design as integral to contemporary civic life, forming nearly every medium, message, and communication we encounter today. The fictional ‛Ministry of Graphic Design‘ starts with an expanded view of the field, considering professional, cultural, and conceptual perspectives. Moving away from existing disciplinary definitions and medium-specific approaches, the Biennial examines how today’s graphic designers play a crucial role in tasks as diverse as entrepreneurial development, content generation, meaning-making, strategic thinking, form-giving, project distribution, life-cycle planning, and policy creation. Anchored in Sharjah, UAE, but with a regional and international reach, the Biennial exhibition emerges over an extended time frame. It takes place in November 2018,it continues to develop after its kickoff period into the future. Neither comprehensive, conclusive, nor prescriptive, ‛Ministry of Graphic Design‘ creates a starting point for continued dialogue, research and understanding within the field.

Abu Dhabi

Louvre Abu Dhabi

Louvre Abu Dhabi celebrates the world’s vibrant cross-cultural connections in all their forms, from the birth of civilisation to the present day. Through its innovative curatorial approach, the museum reconsiders global art history and promotes stories from previously overlooked areas of the world. Its growing collection is unparalleled in the region and spans half a million years of human history, including prehistoric tools, artefacts, religious texts, iconic paintings and contemporary sculpture. The permanent collection is supplemented by rotating loans from 13 French partner institutions and international museums. Created by an exceptional agreement between the governments of Abu Dhabi and France, and designed by Jean Nouvel, Louvre Abu Dhabi opened on Saadiyat Island in 2017.

Abu Dhabi Art 

The 10th edition of Abu Dhabi Art will take place in the capital from November 14 – 17, 2018, with a full programme of events. Held at creative art centre Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi Art 2018 will feature a dynamic and collaborative programme of engaging exhibitions, public talks, performance art, workshops and more, all aimed at engaging visitors from Abu Dhabi, the wider UAE and from across the world. The public programme will launch in November with the beginning of the fair and will continue until January 2019.

Enquiries
For our Visitor Information Pack, please contact sobia@artjameel.org

For media enquiries including photography and interview requests, please contact Ciara Phillips ciara@artjameel.org and Sareh Faraj sareh@artjameel.org

For all other enquiries, hello@artjameel.org | +971 4 323 9980