This week’s editorial musings
from magpie’s nest
The quote: When we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls. What is to happen next will take place within the four walls of the story. And this is possible because the story’s voice makes everything its own | John Berger …
Sharjah modernism Sharjah is joining the UAE and Abu Dhabi in setting up a mechanism to log and protect its modern architectural heritage. It’s early days yet, but a committee is being established with leadership by Sharjah Art Foundation and goals including preservation, increased awareness and promotion of cultural tourism; importantly, the committee will also work on listing, researching and documenting modern heritage buildings …
Round numbers In a sign that Abu Dhabi is preparing confidently for the post-war return of tourists, the $1.7bn Sphere Abu Dhabi project has broken ground at a site between Yas Mall and SeaWorld. Like the Las Vegas original, the venue will seat up to 20,000 when it opens in 2029. “Abu Dhabi is open, ambitious, and unwavering in its direction said Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of DCT Abu Dhabi” …
Inloco contracts After three years, Inloco is shutting down its gallery and exhibition operations to become an art consultancy and public art agency. A statement: “The essence of urban art lies in its temporality. As a project inspired by street practices, we approach this interrupted temporality with humility and care – accepting that what once appeared in the street may no longer exist there today”. The three years have seen some good exhibitions (we especially liked Karim Jabbari’s last year), the Inloco Talks urban art symposia, and large-scale ‘art interventions’ in the Mleiha Desert and Al Satwa …
Kirstys collected Is your name Kirsty? Or Kirstie, or Kirsten, or some other variation of it? After being diagnosed with a brain tumour in November 2024, 12 year-old Kirsty Waugh is on a mission to make a map of all the other Kirstys in the world. There’s only a handful in the UAE; so if you’d like to add yourself to the map, here’s where to go …
First SMEs for Ma’an Majid Al Futtaim’s Ma’an initiative to bring UAE-based creative SMEs from the studio to the shop floor – specifically to Majid Al Futtaim’s mostly premium retail environments – has named the first 27 recipients. We didn’t spot many design-led minibrands on the list, which is heavy on coffee and food popups, but “further announcements are expected as Ma’an continues to expand its support for UAE-based creatives across the region” …
Conservation credit Zayed National Museum has opened submissions to a part-time Associate Conservator Diploma course. Delivered with Britain’s West Dean College (a great choice) and supported by Mubadala Foundation, the course – at the Museum and online, plus with a four-week placement: 80 days in total – promises an intensive introduction to heritage conservation. Applicants must be at least 18 and hold an honours degree or equivalent. Deadline for applications is 15 June; apply here …
Write on The art ecosystem needs more than art: and one the trickiest extras is the development of articulate and acute art writing. A big hand then for Sharjah Art Foundation and a new initiative called The Hook: writers are invited to comment on an artwork currently on view at one of the Foundation’s venues – “contributors are encouraged to approach the work through personal experience, cultural references, the broader context of the exhibition, or other associations”. There’s an open call for pitches: contact editor@sharjahart.org with a short paragraph on a work you’d like to respond to and why. Selected writers will receive editorial feedback (plus an unspecified fee) and final texts will be published on #SAFOnline …
Ten-minute successes It’s finals weekend for the two short-play festivals running in Dubai – X Fest at The Junction (7.30pm on 22, 23, 24 May: tickets reportedly selling fast) and Short+Sweet at New Covent Garden (Gala Final on 23 May – six shortlisted plays repeated at 3.30 and 7.30pm, with winner announcements in the evening show) …
Job opp 1 MAKE Abu Dhabi is looking for a “motivated and detail-oriented” Project Manager to lead the delivery of its capability building and enabling initiatives at its workshop/lab/studio complex in Mina Zayed. Needs a Bachelor’s degree and min three years‘ experience in project or programme management …
Job opps 2 Sharjah Art Foundation (which seems to be filling the newsletter this week) currently has half a dozen jobs on offer, from top-level positions like Head of Performance to Assistant Curator …
Free space As part of the Creative Sector Resilience Portfolio we referenced a couple of weeks ago, Dubai Culture is offering free, multi-purpose workspaces to creatives, small businesses, and art/design students. There’s no info about where and for how long; apply before 30 May …
Best ever novels? The Guardian polled its people to create a list of the 100 Best Novels of All Time. Fascinating stuff, and a great reading list. No.3 was Ulysses, No.2 was Beloved, and No.1 is sure to divide the room …
AI 101 A software engineer called Rob Ennals wanted his 11-year-old son to understand how modern AI works, but couldn’t find a tutorial that was sufficiently rigorous and accurate without being either too childish or simply impenetrable. The result is Learn AI Layer by Layer, a free online book with try-it-yourself sections in every chapter (so far half of the 27 chapters are online); it’s a clear, hands-on explanation of what happens inside an LLM, and you don’t have to be 11 to get it.
As a quick-reference accompaniment, AI Glossary is a free, additive, open-source glossary of AI terms and concepts, written for journalists but in plain language so the rest of us can understand it too …
On the other hand Standard Chartered is planning to cut over 7,000 jobs over the next four years as it scales up its use of AI agents. “It’s not cost cutting” said the bank’s chief executive: “It’s replacing in some cases lower-value human capital with the financial capital and the investment capital we’re putting in” …
Foundry talks Coinciding with its five-year anniversary, Foundry Downtown is launching a YouTube channel exploring “the ideas, people, and cultural shifts shaping today’s evolving art and culture ecosystem … through dialogues with artists, curators, thinkers, gallerists, and cultural practitioners”. Much of it will focus on Foundry and its shows, but we’re also promised coverage of “the broader transformations redefining contemporary creative practice and cultural production today”. The first is a lengthy and interesting how-what-why conversation between Anna Seaman and Foundry’s main man Giuseppe Moscatello about the genesis of the gallery …
Useful app of the week Delphitools is one of the best collections of small, low-effort and completely free tools that we’ve come across – for online artists, graphics folk, social media posters, and others. There’ll be something for anyone here. Find it here …
Something for the weekend With Cracked you have to find the five words by rotating the five dials. When all five columns spell valid words, the safe cracks open (supposedly – we have yet to reach that nirvana). Try it here …
Things we didn’t know no.94 ne in 10 Icelanders will publish a book during their lifetime. More than a thousand books are published there each year, and the average Icelander reads more than two per month …
Earworm of the week Dhafer Youssef : Street of Minarets
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