Abstract

How has COVID-19 affected the global art market? This virus interrupted 2020 in unforeseen ways globally, including the cancellation of the most important art events of the year. Through a close chronological study of the Emirati art scene’s response, both in commercial and noncommercial venues, this essay explains how, and why, the UAE’s art scene was able to react quickly and perhaps more effectively than that of other nations, and what that means for its future. Based on fieldwork and press articles, this article posits that the Emirati art scene evolved from being virtually non-existent to a thriving contemporary art hub in a matter of decades because it has always had to adapt to challenges such as nonexistent art infrastructure or the 2008 financial crisis. By studying the UAE, we find examples of exhibitions that quickly moved from being in situ to online, a rare instance of galleries and art auction house collaborating, government and institutional structures stepping up to support artists and galleries, and the renaissance of Art Dubai taking place in person in 2021 after being abruptly cancelled in 2020. This knowledge provides insight into how the global art market is changing to face the consequences of COVID-19.

Highlights

  • COVID-19 interrupted nearly every industry internationally in 2020, and in some places still does

  • Based on fieldwork and press articles, this article posits that the Emirati art scene evolved from being virtually non-existent to a thriving contemporary art hub in a matter of decades because it has always had to adapt to challenges such as nonexistent art infrastructure or the 2008 financial crisis

  • By studying the United Arab Emirates (UAE), we find examples of exhibitions that quickly moved from being in situ to online, a rare instance of galleries and art auction house collaborating, government and institutional structures stepping up to support artists and galleries, and the renaissance of Art Dubai taking place in person in 2021 after being abruptly cancelled in 2020

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Summary

Introduction

COVID-19 interrupted nearly every industry internationally in 2020, and in some places still does. In 2018, Antonia Carver, Director of the Dubai-based Jameel Art Centre and former director of Art Dubai, wrote an opinion piece on ‘What Most of the World Still Does not Understand About the UAE Art Scene’, in which she discussed the importance of adaptation and reinvention: The challenges we faced were often matters of infrastructure—how to build an audience in an emphatically diverse country of many languages, where many residents were unfamiliar with the district’s galleries popped up in; how to establish nonprofits when the relevant government codes didn’t yet exist; how to support young artists who were between residency visas These challenges may have prompted invaluable creative collaborations, but frustratingly, many still exist. Many of the strategies employed by the different players in the art scene, in both the private and public spheres, were not unique in the world; what was unique, was how early on these approaches were implemented, and that, being a smaller market, in a country with a smaller population, most actors adapted promptly and consistently throughout the different phases of the pandemic

Chronology of the Pandemic in the UAE
Adaptations
Unprecedented Collaborations
Inclusion of the Virtual Realm: A New Normal?
The Return to the Physical
Findings
Conclusions
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