Art gets smart

What are you doing in terms of education at your facility or initiative?

Trelford: At Art Dubai, we've realised what an important component education is in the arts industry here. We set up the Global Art Forum (GAF), which is a three-day forum where speakers from around the world debate the arts industry in the Middle East.

We also have regular education programmes throughout the year, run an internship programme with local universities and run a charitable programme for children called Start. We run a summer school at The Jam Jar in Dubai and also have a base in Oman and Jordan for workshops.

Thompson: Our education department at SMD is probably the busiest department because we've gone from having nothing to a having dedicated team; we had tour guides at the museum for 10 years but no actual education department.

Last year we built an indoor excavation for children, so they can learn the principles of archaeology thorough actually excavating, digging up pots and recording them, so that's very successful. And then we've got family workshops every weekend at a different museum in Sharjah and we have gallery talks twice a month for adults.

All the schools have a workshop programme so they come here during school hours with teachers. It's really active and it's really exciting because before SMD was set up school buses would come to the museum but the children weren't engaged and having fun.

I think our education drive is making it easier for people to experience a museum and it's going in the right direction; we have return visitors who are telling their friends so word of mouth is good.

Weber: At The Third Line, we see our role as providing educational opportunities and the chance to talk and connect with emerging artists. It's important to offer events, like film screenings, not only because you're able to do that very important educational aspect, but because there is no art house cinema in Dubai, so people who are interested in cinema and then hear about a film we are showing will also be introduced to The Third Line as a gallery.

How else can the industry encourage more people to get involved in the arts?

Collins: I'm wondering about this word ‘fun'; we've all been terribly serious. That's the essence of a lot that we're talking about. This is the leisure industry; we've got to make people relaxed and happy. Art galleries are not just for serious intellectuals.

Al-Shroogi: No matter what we say, the art gallery can still be a bit of an intimidating place - walking in can be difficult for some people - so we try as much as possible to be as friendly as we can and non-intimidating to our visitors.

Epaud: If you want Dubai to be one of the top centres for art in the MENA region you should see more art in the streets.

In Jeddah, there are 680 sculptures from some of the top artists and of course the local and regional ones. We need to look at how to make art more present throughout the city.

Al Tabari: A great idea would be once a month or once every two weeks to send out an email shot and get people to come to the DIFC. We'd have some catering, maybe a musician, and all the galleries would be open as normal but this would be a way of encouraging people to come. We could also have some artists that display their work outside.

Another thing that is good is for galleries to bring in moving exhibitions.

Thompson: The Tate Gallery is bringing an exhibition to Sharjah next year; that's getting a lot of exposure.

Bashar: We've had people coming in and saying ‘I'm going to have lunch in front of my painting, is that ok?' They come in with their lunchboxes, it's not their painting, they haven't bought it, but they'll have lunch in front of their favourite painting and that's fine.

Trelford: That could possibly be the beginning of lunchtime lectures in art galleries and museums.

How can the arts sector best help artists in the region?

Collins: With the fact that so many galleries are now setting up in one place, there will be a temptation by artists to test the market in different sources. At the moment there is a very good clear definition of the galleries that exist and who they work with and I would hate to see that destroyed. We've got to become a self-governing industry.

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