Jameel Arts Centre. A Museum With a Difference

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by Alexandra Mansilla

Jameel Arts Centre. A Museum With a Difference

8 Mar 2024

The Centre opened its doors in November 2018, courtesy of Art Jameel, at the Jaddaf Waterfront, and immediately became a hub for... everyone. We are not quite sure how they have managed it, but even if you haven't set foot in the centre, you feel like you have. It captivates you from the get-go, drawing you in and fully immersing you.

The Financial Times dubbed it "an oasis of culture in a landscape of development" — and honestly, it is one of the most fitting descriptions of the space. So, let's delve deeper into it and hear some insights from Antonia Carver, Director of Art Jameel.

The hub of arts and ideas

Jameel Arts Centre is more than just "the first non-governmental contemporary art space," as it is often described. It serves as a space where everyone, regardless of their level of involvement in the art industry, can discover something intriguing.

Source: jameelartscentre.org

Antonia Carver, Director of Art Jameel, explains: “Jameel Arts Centre is known as Dubai’s hub for contemporary arts and ideas, and is often referred to as the city’s art museum — but we are a 'museum with a difference', with free entry and a really dynamic and lively programme of talks, events, workshops, music, as well as exhibitions. There is something for everyone! The Centre is founded and supported by Art Jameel, an independent organisation that supports artists and creative communities, and is located in the Jaddaf Waterfront, and surrounded by a wonderful Sculpture Park plus walkways along the Creek.

Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai is joined by Hayy Jameel, a dedicated home for the arts and creativity in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Both are grounded in a dynamic understanding of the arts as fundamental to life and accessible to all.”

Everyone has the right to express their art

The Centre aims to position itself as a premier contemporary art institution, not only within the UAE but also across the broader Middle East, South Asia region, and beyond. They are making significant strides toward this objective.

The space serves as a gathering place for creatives from the region, offering each of them a platform to showcase their work.

“Art Jameel’s model is dynamic, collaborative and community-oriented. We worked with museums all over the world, and of course, being Dubai’s contemporary art museum means we are top on cultural tourists’ to-do lists. Still, we work most closely with the local community — from artists through to enthusiasts and newcomers to the arts. Our exhibitions and programmes aim to be conversation-starters — and we often see visitors come out of exhibitions and events deep in discussion and heading to our restaurant, "Teible", or into the park with a coffee from our shop to continue the conversation. This is not a place just for 'pictures on a wall' — stunning as they often are — it is about an expanded sense of what arts and culture can be and what they can offer to everyone. Through the Jameel Library and our exhibitions, commissions, library and learning programmes, we aspire to be an inspirational space for experiencing, creating, and thinking in public,” shares Antonia.

Some seasons: Fereydoun Ave and the Laal Collection, 1959–2019. Source: jameelartscentre.org

Moreover, Art Jameel extends significant support to artists and creatives through a variety of initiatives: “Art Jameel offers regular Open Calls and Commissions for artists and creatives, ranging from educational and research initiatives to art production grants. The most recent is the Curatorial Open Call at Hayy Jameel in Jeddah and several sustainability focussed grants in Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, including "Anhar: Culture and Climate Platform", a three-tiered programme that offers grants totalling £250,000 and Research and Practice Platform (RPP), and a grants programme run together with Dubai Culture, for UAE-based artists looking to adopt sustainability themes and practices into their work.

Some of our residencies and programmes result in physical works, others digital — such as 'Liquid Dreams' by Nadia Christidi, a beautifully illustrated e-publication all about the future of water in Dubai, and part of the scholar’s residency at the Jameel Arts Centre in 2019 as part of Art Jameel’s Arts Writing and Research commission.”

Open and inviting building

The building, crafted by UK-based Serie Architects, spans 10,000 square metres across three floors, creating a versatile, multidisciplinary space. Its design perfectly embodies the idea of the Centre — not towering or imposing but inviting and inclusive, as if beckoning visitors and artists alike: “Welcome, this is your place.”

“We were very much inspired by the Jameel’s position right on the water, and we wanted a building that felt different and surprising for Dubai, and an impressive work of architecture that suits the prestige of being the museum for the city, but at the same time, accessible and friendly, a home-from-home for creatives which also allowed the art ‘to do the talking’. The feedback from our artists and audiences seems to show the architects succeeded,” says Antonia.

The building's design came about through an architectural competition involving several studios, with Serie Architects ultimately winning. The development process then unfolded naturally, with significant input from the Dubai/Tokyo-based practice Waiwai as well.

“Fady Jameel, our co-founder and chairman, specifically encouraged the architects to think of a low-rise building that was open and inviting. We have so many comments from visitors that once they step into our park and into the centre, they suddenly feel as though they have left the city — and we take pride in the Jameel being right at the heart of Dubai, on the Creek, and 10 minutes from the airport, and yet feeling like a refuge from the everyday. It is not always serene, especially when we have schools visiting (!), which is most weekday mornings, but it is definitely a very different kind of experience in our busy metropolis. The building includes three floors of gallery spaces; an open-access research centre and library; dedicated projects and events spaces; a rooftop terrace designed for installations, film screenings and events; multiple desert gardens plus the sculpture park; and "Teible", our award-winning farm-to-fork restaurant, plus the Art Jameel Shop — a boutique for arts and design objects and books, including lots of great ceramics and other commissions by locally-based artisans and designers.” says Antonia.

Seven gardens, diverse characters

Art Jameel wouldn't be Art Jameel without the garden around it holding some significance. And indeed, the garden was purposefully crafted.

Antonia explains: “The gardens funnel light into the Centre and provide moments of pause and reflection — and help audiences, from school kids to life-long-learners access information about native plants of the UAE and the importance of growing sustainably. Indeed, sustainability and understanding the role of the arts in addressing the climate crisis are critical to Art Jameel’s programme. We believe in understanding the ways in which the human and more-than-human, the natural and built environment co-exist. During COP28 UAE last year, we launched a major new commission — Tarabot: Weaving A Living Forum — an immersive pavilion designed by Beirut-based regenerative consultancy and architecture practice theOtherDada. Made of modular and nested cone components crafted from locally sourced, sustainable materials including clay, mycelium, date palm waste and upcycled fabric, it acts as an interspecies ecotone — an area where two biological communities meet and integrate — hosting a shared space between humans and other species and organisms, and creating synergies between the natural world and manmade environments. We invite and advise everyone to come see and hang out in it now while the weather is so lovely… it is really something incredibly dynamic to experience.”

Tarabot: Weaving a Living Forum. Source: jameelartscentre.org

Landscape architect Anouk Vogel, the creator of the gardens, endowed each of them with its own unique characteristics.

Antonia's words about the gardens: “Anouk is a specialist in desert environments, and one of the truly special elements of the building is its seven desert gardens, plus the Artist’s Garden — wherever you are inside the building, you see both art and nature, with natural light throughout. Each of the desert gardens has a particular design and character, and each represents a distinct desert environment, named after a country, region or particular species: Namib, Socotra, Chihuahuan, Australian, Silk Floss, Arabian, and Spiny Woodlands. Each of the seven gardens features a collection of sculptural plants native to the world’s varying desert ecosystems. Rare plants, such as dragon blood, adenia ocotillo and turtle plants, as well as more familiar plants, including fan aloe and marble cactus, make up a few of the 149 varieties featured. Some days, I think the Jameel attracts as many ecologists, gardeners, and plant-lovers as it does arts enthusiasts!”

First open-air art and sculpture park

Did we mention that you can find almost everything here? We think we did. In addition to exhibitions, the building itself, and gardens, there's also a sculpture park. By the way, it is the first of its kind in the entire UAE.

Source: jameelartscentre.org

"Jaddaf Waterfront Sculpture Park is the UAE’s first open-air art and sculpture park — a collaboration between Art Jameel and Dubai Holding, which features a range of permanent sculptures plus temporary experiences and structures — from an artist-designed playscape to sound works, performances and more. The Park was designed by Waiwai and inspired by the rippling water of the Creek with the stacked geometry of the Jameel. It is a beautiful space to have a picnic, grab a takeaway coffee from Teible or Art Jameel Shop, and start a series of Creekside walkways. The Park has some favourite, permanent works by world-renowned artists, but these are accompanied by a constantly changing programme," shares Antonia.

The library as the brain of the space

At the Jameel Art Centre, the library isn't simply a library — it is so much more (like everything here). It functions as an open contemporary art research centre, brimming with an extensive array of literature in multiple languages focused on the region's arts and culture. You will certainly want to spend some time delving into its treasures.

Instagram: @jameelartscentre

Antonia calls the library as the organisation's brain, or even heart: "It is a very special place that nurtures all kinds of thinking — from high school students through to lifelong learners of all ages and backgrounds, and is the only open-access arts library of its kind in the Gulf region. The collection includes around 8,000 items — from zines and artist-created comics to rare books via exhibition catalogues and special ephemera that tell the story of this region and its art scenes. The languages represented include English, Arabic, Japanese, Farsi, Malayalam, Tagalog, among others. The library also stages fantastic reading groups, discussions, online commissions and Library Circles — research shows co-created with UAE practitioners. To give a flavour, at the moment, we have a must-see delve into UAE stamps through the ages — from the 1950s onwards, collected and displayed by Rashed Almulla, with accompanying nuggets of commentary that bring this history and the beautiful designs alive."

by Alexandra Mansilla