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Dubai: It has long been perceived that cultural development in the UAE has fallen by the wayside in favour of massive booms in the fields of commerce and industry.
Now it seems everywhere you look performances, galleries, exhibitions and auctions are highlighting the fact that the UAE, and Dubai in particular, is far from a cultural wasteland. Furthermore, with increasing interest in Dubai's ever expanding art scene, more people are discovering that culture in the UAE was far from dormant.
Dubai-based artists are among those who are hailing the city's recent emergence on the international art scene. Adding to the equation is a growing taste for Middle Eastern art, and Dubai has found itself at the centre of this trend.
"I have been living here for ten years, but it was only recently that I devoted myself fully to my art," said Palestinian artist Jeffar Khaldi, who has also capitalised by starting his own gallery, B21, located in a warehouse in the industrial area of Al Quoz.
"We are seeing more interest from the West in 'Middle Eastern' art, particularly because of the political spotlight on the region," Khaldi told Gulf News.
Dubai-based art curator specialising in Iranian art, Isabelle van den Eynde, agrees. "The political situation has definitely raised interest and we have benefited from that curiosity."
Jack Persekian, Artistic Director at this year's Sharjah Biennial, one of the region's most prominent art fairs, says that art is increasingly being seen as intellectual rather than decorative work in the Middle East, where he has seen a "generational shift" in the perception of art.
"We don't have a long history of visual arts in the Arab world, and we might have a long way to go, but it's in the making," he said.
With events such as the annual Sharjah Biennial, the recent DIFC Gulf Art Fair, as well as high profile auction houses coming to Dubai, the UAE is being touted as a regional centre for fine art.
With the art scene growing so rapidly, and artwork going under the hammer for millions of dirhams, art is also being seen as big business.
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