Over the past two decades, Art Dubai has grown alongside the city itself — from a relatively modest fair into one of the key platforms connecting artistic practices across the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and beyond. But as Benedetta Ghione, Executive Director at Art Dubai Group, points out, its evolution has never been only about scale.

In this conversation, she reflects on how Art Dubai has shifted from an annual event into a year-round cultural infrastructure — shaping not just the visibility of artists and galleries, but the conditions in which they work, connect and build long-term practices. From early support of emerging voices to the development of public art, education and collecting initiatives, the fair has gradually redefined its role within a rapidly maturing ecosystem.

— This year, Art Dubai marks its 20th anniversary, and you’ve also said that it’s important for the fair to evolve each year. You’ve been part of the Art Dubai team for nearly a decade — how have you seen the fair change over that time? What kinds of shifts stand out to you most?

— Art Dubai began in 2007, held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, with around 50 galleries participating at a time when Dubai’s cultural infrastructure was still very much in formation. The fair emerged alongside the city itself, mirroring its pace, openness and sense of possibility.

20 years on, the change of scale is only part of the story. The 2026 edition brings together 120 exhibitor presentations from 37 countries, reflecting a far more globally connected and professionally mature ecosystem. What has shifted most noticeably, however, is the confidence and a sense that artists, galleries and audiences are no longer passing through, but actively building something over time. The fair has increasingly become a place where practices are encountered early and essential trajectories begin to take form. Artist collectives and individual practices have found early visibility and space for experimentation at the fair, often before they were widely recognised internationally. One example is the Khaleeji artist collective GCC, whose collaboration began through encounters at Art Dubai and later developed into a major commissioned work for the fair. In 2018, Art Dubai commissioned GCC to create GOOD MORNING GCC, an immersive, large-scale installation that unfolded over the course of the fair through daily performances and public interaction, deliberately moving artistic production into a more open and participatory space. In their early careers, figures such as Monira Al Qadiri, now known as one of the most important contemporary artists from the Gulf region, and Amal Khalaf, who will curate Bawwaba in 2026, were part of these moments of engagement and visibility within Art Dubai’s ecosystem.

Rather than holding onto a fixed format, Art Dubai has continued to ask how a fair can remain responsive to the way artists are working now. New curatorial sections have been introduced over the years to create space for practices that did not fit within conventional frameworks, including the launch in 2022 of Art Dubai Digital, the first dedicated fair section focused on digital art.

A particularly clarifying moment came during COVID-19 when Art Dubai became the first international art fair outside Asia to cancel, and then the first to return. That period prompted a deeper reflection on the fair’s responsibility to the ecosystem it operates within. Out of that moment came a clearer commitment to thinking beyond the annual edition, and towards a year-round role in supporting local and regional art scenes.

As part of our growing emphasis on education and capacity-building, the A.R.M. Holding Children’s Programme was launched in 2021 and by now has reached more than 30,000 students across the UAE, becoming the country’s most extensive cultural education initiative. Alongside this, year-round programmes have helped position Art Dubai as part of the cultural infrastructure that sustains the creative scene between editions.

Throughout this evolution, Art Dubai has remained independent, and that independence has been central to its ability to adapt, take risks and build trust over time. In many ways, the fair’s trajectory echoes the maturation of Dubai itself, which today hosts around 90% of the UAE’s commercial galleries and functions as the region’s primary art market centre. Since its founding, Art Dubai has built a trusted platform at the heart of the city’s cultural life that continues to grow and evolve without losing sight of why it exists in the first place.

— Looking back over the past 20 years, what do you see as Art Dubai Group’s most significant contribution to the regional art ecosystem?

— I would say the ability to translate cultural ambition into long-term institutional infrastructure. Rather than operating through one-off initiatives, the Group has consistently built sustained public–private partnerships, notably with Dubai Culture & Arts Authority and A.R.M. Holding, now in its 6th year. This commitment to continuity has allowed projects to develop over multiple years and deepen their impact. Last year also marked 10 years of partnership with Julius Baer, underscoring the Group’s ability to sustain meaningful collaboration over the long term.

Another great example is Dubai Collection, which launched in 2021 as the city’s first institutional collection of modern and contemporary art. Operating through an innovative loan-based patronage model involving private and corporate collectors, Dubai Collection differs from traditional collections by prioritising public access and education. Works are made visible through exhibitions, digital platforms, and integration into Art Dubai’s talks and learning programmes. In Art Dubai 2026, Dubai Collection continues to be activated through Modern and Collector Talks as well as an Exhibition, reinforcing its role as a living, public-facing cultural resource rather than a static repository.

Art Dubai Group is also delivering Dubai Public Art, a multi-year, city-wide commissioning strategy developed in partnership with government entities. Through this programme, commissioning practices typically confined to museums or biennials have been translated into the public realm, expanding access to art beyond institutional walls and into the city itself.

Collectively, these initiatives have helped shift the regional cultural landscape toward sustained institutional confidence, where more and more artists, curators, and cultural professionals choose to base their lives and artistic practices.

— If we look beyond individual projects to broader, systemic shifts, which changes in the professional landscape — among artists, galleries, and curators — would you directly connect to the emergence and development of Art Dubai?

— One of the clearest shifts Art Dubai has driven is making the city feel like a place where people can genuinely build long-term careers. By 2026, 28 of the fair’s exhibitors will have a presence in Dubai, which speaks to a real level of confidence, not just in the market, but in Dubai as a base for galleries, artists, and cultural professionals.

This confidence is reflected in the breadth of galleries now operating in the city. Efie Gallery, which specialises in artists of African origin, has been active in Dubai for years and recently opened its new permanent space in Alserkal Avenue. International galleries are also committing to the city, with Perrotin, founded in 1990 and operating across Paris, New York, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Los Angeles, establishing a base here, alongside more recent arrivals such as Dom Art Projects, a female-led private art institution that opened last year.

At the same time, Art Dubai has shifted how galleries and professionals think about networks. The fair has encouraged sustained exchange across the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, positioning Dubai as a connective platform. There has also been a clear change in collecting culture, particularly in Dubai. Collectors have become more research-driven and historically informed, with greater openness to supporting emerging and mid-career practices. Initiatives like Dubai Collection, the Art Salon, and the Modern and Collector Talks have helped foster that depth and confidence, especially with younger, newer collectors.

And of course, Art Dubai’s long-standing commitment to modern art from the Global South has helped reposition regional modernisms as central to global art history, influencing how collectors, scholars, and institutions frame artistic production. Combined with the fair’s independent model, which allows it to function as a testing ground for new gallery models and institutional approaches, from Dubai Collection to the multi-year public art strategy, these shifts have meaningfully rewritten the creative economy.

— The 2026 edition welcomes 36 first-time exhibitors. What can you tell us about this new group of participants?

— With over 41, we have a significant group of first-time entrants this year. It really shows the level of interest in the Gulf market, particularly within Art Dubai Digital, which accounts for 23 of these new participants and continues to be a dynamic space for new platforms. Working with the curators, this has been an opportunity to bring in galleries that are expanding how contemporary art is produced and presented.

As with previous editions, it is a balance between feeding curiosity and education, as well as creating an exciting and impactful experience. Many of the first-time exhibitors foreground non-Western narratives and geographies that reflect the communities present in Dubai today, capturing the fair’s enduring role as a space for practices that sit outside dominant Western frameworks. Among the newcomers is Tang Contemporary Art, founded in Bangkok in 1997 and now operating across Beijing, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Seoul and Singapore, bringing experimental practices shaped by different regional contexts into dialogue. LABOR from Mexico City joins the fair with a research-led programme and will present a solo exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Jerónimo Elespe, known for his miniature oil paintings on aluminium. AA Gallery Casablanca participates as both a gallery and artist residency focused on contemporary African art and Global South practices, while Art Exposure from Kolkata brings a programme that bridges modern and contemporary South Asian art across generations.

Alongside these, the newcomer group also includes galleries with well-established international programmes. MAISTERRA from Spain, known for its engagement with historic works by artists such as Velázquez, Goya, El Greco, Titian, Rubens and Hieronymus Bosch, joins the fair, as does Galerie Peter Kilchmann, founded in Zurich in 1992 and now operating in Zurich and Paris, which has built a strong reputation for presenting contemporary artists through rigorously curated exhibitions.

— What economic impact does Art Dubai have on the UAE?

— Each year, the fair attracts around 35,000 visitors and generates an estimated USD 40 million in economic impact over five days, coupling strong commercial reach with its role as a cultural anchor within the city.

Following the 2023 edition, an analysis by Ipsos found that Art Dubai generated AED 143 million in direct economic impact for Dubai, marking a 55% increase compared to 2019. Beyond sales within the fair itself, this impact is visible in the scale of hotel bookings and related activity linked to the event, underlining how cultural programmes feed directly into Dubai’s wider economy. In this sense, Art Dubai’s role extends towards being a driver of cultural tourism and a contributor to the city’s positioning as a global cultural hub.

— How would you describe Art Dubai’s educational influence on the UAE?

— It has developed through long-term thinking instead of isolated initiatives. A good example is the A.R.M. Holding Children’s Programme, delivered in partnership with A.R.M. Holding since 2021. Reaching more than 30,000 students across the UAE, the programme demonstrates how sustained private-sector collaboration can meaningfully embed arts education at a national level. Education also informs how Art Dubai approaches collecting and art history. Through programmes linked to Dubai Collection, audiences are introduced to these ideas in accessible yet rigorous ways, emphasising public access, institutional thinking, and the long-term responsibilities of collecting.

Within the professional ecosystem, education and trust-building have been equally critical. Through the Modern Talks and Collector Talks, the most extensive talks programme of any international fair, Art Dubai has played an active role in bringing collectors, scholars, artists, and curators into sustained dialogue, encouraging deeper engagement with contemporary practice and historical context. This work continues year-round through Art Salon, which engages collectors in museum visits, private collections, artist-led discussions, and collection-building masterclasses.

— Beyond the annual fair, what projects and initiatives does Art Dubai Group run throughout the year?

— Art Dubai operates as a year-round cultural platform, as well as a market catalyst and thought leader. The work extends beyond the fair itself, including contributions to the cultural strategy of partners such as A.R.M. Holding, particularly around their corporate collection, and to the development of the DIFC Art Strategy.

More broadly, Art Dubai Group functions across art, design and innovation. Alongside Art Dubai, it delivers long-term cultural infrastructure through initiatives such as Downtown Design and Dubai Design Week, as well as Prototypes for Humanity and Editions, which expand the conversation into research, technology and limited-edition design. These programmes position the Group as an active developer of ecosystems connecting creative practice with industry and public life.

One of our long-term initiatives is Campus Art Dubai (CAD), the first programme of its kind in the region. Over 9 iterations, it has continuously developed and reinvented itself, supporting artists, curators and cultural practitioners through hands-on professional development. The impact of the programme is visible in the trajectories of its alumni, for example Munira Al Sayegh, an independent curator and cultural instigator based in Abu Dhabi, who has been closely involved with Art Dubai’s programmes and has gone on to play an active role in cultural discourse in the UAE.

Art Dubai Group also runs Dubai Collection in partnership with the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, plus the Art Salon Programme brings together an invitation-only community of dedicated collectors and cultural enthusiasts based in the UAE. It creates space for sustained engagement, conversation and learning, supporting a more informed and connected collecting community over time.

— How has Art Dubai contributed to the transformation of Dubai’s art scene, from an emerging, transitional market with newly established galleries into a major global art hub?

— Art Dubai has played a stabilising role, giving galleries, artists and collectors a reliable annual anchor around which sustained practices could develop. In what was once an emerging and transitional market, this consistency helped normalise Dubai as a serious, long-term base for galleries and artists. Now, we have a consolidated local gallery ecosystem and a growing number of exhibitors with permanent representation in the city, including long-standing spaces such as Tabari Artspace, established in 2003, and The Third Line, which has now been operating in Dubai for 20 years.

At the same time, Art Dubai has consistently bridged regional practices with global contexts, positioning the city as a meeting point between the Middle East, Africa and South Asia and international art networks. Through its curated sections, talks and long-term programmes, the fair has introduced greater art-historical depth into a young market, steering how artists, galleries and audiences engage with the region’s cultural production.

Initiatives such as Dubai Collection and Dubai Public Art have further deepened this impact, translating private cultural interest into public-facing infrastructure and pushing the fair’s influence beyond its annual edition. Art Dubai’s independence has been central to this evolution, allowing it to experiment, take risks and build long-term relationships across government, business and the cultural sector, without being driven by short-term cycles.