Boosting Gulf’s economy leads to building more art districts, not museums | Financial Times

Boosting Gulf’s economy leads to building more art districts, not museums | Financial Times

Is the era of the mega-museum in the Arabian Gulf coming to an end? Over the last 15 years, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have spent vast amounts of money to erect headline-worthy museums such as the National Museum of Qatar and Louvre Abu Dhabi, both designed by French architect Jean Nouvel. 

Now, however, there is a growing emphasis in the region on initiatives that encourage creativity and the production of art, such as art districts. 

“It’s time to reinvent museums as active spaces of thinking as well as looking,” says Antonia Carver, director of the eponymous Arab foundation that runs the Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai and is building a multidisciplinary arts complex in the Saudi city of Jeddah. 

“These sites of knowledge production and debate are even more acutely needed and possible in the Gulf, where there is everything to play for in forming and nurturing community amid a broader geopolitical context that is so turbulent.”