Editorial musings from the nest
The quote: I would like my books to say: you are right to be afraid. Be brave, anyway Katherine Rundell …
Louvre AD’s new director Congratulations to Souraya Noujaim, named as the next director of the Louvre Abu Dhabi in succession to Manuel Rabaté (who left earlier this year on good terms after around a decade in the job). Noujaim, a specialist in Islamic art history and archaeology, was most recently director of the department of Islamic art and heritage at the Louvre in Paris and chief of the French Grand Department of Islamic Art Heritage; she was LouvreAD’s inaugural scientific, curatorial, and collections director from 2018-2023, an important role in helping to establish the museum’s curatorial vision and build its collection.
Club call Karama Arts Club has a stall at Dubai Design Week’s Marketplace this year (d3, 3-8 Nov) and is looking for members who want to sell their work from it. Make your pitch via this form by 20 October.
Incidentally KAC has been quiet of late because it needs to comply with a CDA requirement that 70% of its board members are Emirati. So it’s looking for Emiratis interested in joining the board. Any suggestions? WhatsApp club manager Clare on +971 50 144 1769.
SIFF facts SIFF, the Sharjah International Film Festival for Children, has belatedly added details of films and venues to its website. It’s still pretty difficult to navigate, mainly because bookings have to be done on the Vox site and there’s an awful lot of clutter there (you don’t default to the Sharjah cinema, for instance). Still, at least the information is there somewhere … It runs 26-31 Oct.
Volunteers wanted The al Mawrid Arab Center for the Study of Art at NYUAD is looking for volunteers for its booth at Frieze Abu Dhabi (19–22 Nov), which features materials that invite visitors to explore the lives, practices, and legacies of selected Arab artists. Volunteers will welcome visitors, introduce the Center’s work, and generally support the daily operations of the booth. Applicants should have an interest in art, history, culture, and public engagement (and presumably Arab artists); the form is here.
Dubai rents falling? Property Finder reports a drop in Dubai rents for nine of the ten ‘apartment communities’ and eight of the ten ‘villa communities’ it compared between Q3 2025 and Q3 2026. Big drops in Downtown Dubai (-21.7% to AED 180,000 per year average) and Dubai Marina (-16.1% to AED 130,000); looks like JVC and Meydan are the cheapest areas for apartments at AED 71,999 (down 10%) and AED 65,000 (-13.3%) respectively. Lets on Property Finder are also growing faster than renter enquiries, “offering tenants more choice and greater scope to negotiate”.
Second life That very characteristic pavilion in the Jameel’s Jaddaf Waterfront Sculpture Park is being readied for de-installation and a new life elsewhere. Tarabot: Weaving a Living Forum, designed by Adib Dada of theOtherDada and built with sustainable materials, has been in situ for three years as a community space. Its planned second life will be underwater somewhere as a habitat for coral and marine life.
New authors opp The LitFest Launchpad gives newly published UAE-based authors a chance to speak (and promote themselves and their book) at the 2027 festival. You need to have a book published in 2026 by a proper publisher (ie not yourself) and there aren’t many slots available, so get in quick: here’s the form.
Art/design sale opps Dubai Culture is inviting applications for the fourth Art Souk, 4-5 Dec at Al Jalila Cultural Centre for Children. Art Souk will have works for sale across fine art, painting, sculpture, photography, design, calligraphy, digital art, multimedia, printmaking and ceramics; homewares and other stuff inspired by local traditional crafts may also be considered. The phrase “Christmas gifts” isn’t mentioned but must be relevant … Apply before 1 Nov with 5–10 images of your work.
ICD Brookfield Place has no qualms about describing its own seasonal souk as a Festive Market and it too is looking for makers and artisans to take part. Send an application by 29 Oct to info@icdbrookfieldplace.com.
How much AI? Unprompt sits on your Mac or iPhone and reads the local logs of Claude Code, Codex and Cursor to show your AI usage in real-world terms – as tokens, what those tokens would cost at API prices, and an estimate how many litres of water it took. This is clever and instructive; no information leaves your machine, and the results can be pretty scary …
The values of social media The percentage of respondents to a Pew study who said that social media has been a good thing for democracy in their country has dropped across the board in a dozen democracies between 2022 and 2026 – eg down from 57% to 37% in Germany, 57% to 48% in Japan, 44% to 27% in Netherlands. They’re all catching up with the States, where 64% of adults say it is bad for democracy – though American attitudes are unchanged since 2022. The UAE wasn’t included, for obvious reasons …
Kids on stage Future Stars is a competition organised by Al Jalila Cultural Centre for Children to discover young talent in performing arts – acting, singing, musical theatre, musical instruments. Open to ages 8 to 17, the competition gives participants a chance to gain some experience before an audience. Apply before 3 Nov; up 50 applicants will audition with 15 finalists performing at Sikka 2027 in January for prizes (1st AED 3,000, 2nd AED 2,000, 3rd AED 1,000). Register your future stars here.
Getty back Getty Images is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Doesn’t mean it’s going under, just that it needs some time to restructure as a private company with $500m investment from long-term backer Koch Equity Development. This follows the collapse of a $3.7bn merger with the other behemoth of the image market, Shutterstock; that was due to a regulatory roadblock in the UK about stifling competition which Getty Images saw as a dealbreaker.
Make a splash La Perle‘s spectacular show is doing special offers for small groups this season – like buy two tickets, get two free. The deal is available for both the 6.30 and 9pm shows.
Qatar quadrennial Rubaiya Qatar, the new quadrennial opening next month in Doha, has published the full list of artists participating in its first edition. There will be 120+ artists across three exhibitions and public art installations; the only UAE name we could see is Farah Al Qasimi. Rubaiya Qatar runs 21 Nov to 30 Apr.
Openings Three Abu Dhabi shows we’ll make a pre-Frieze post-Spices & Wonders space for – 100 Years of Paul Guiragossian and Alfred Basbous, both at Bassam Freiha Art Foundation; and Consolidation is Reconsolidation, a brief outing for five young UAE-based artists …
Useful app of the week Nanofile is a free online file compressor that never uploads your files and compresses just about anything – 36 formats including images, PDFs, documents, audio, code, even fonts. Nothing to sign up for, nothing stored, nothing to delete later, no watermarks, no daily limits. Check it out here.
Something for the weekend Word Ends is a simple head-to-head game in which players are presented with two letters and must think of the longest word they can that begins with the first and ends with the second. Each letter scores a point, and if you can’t think of one, you’re out. Starts gratifyingly easy, gets frustratingly hard.
Try it here.
Things we didn’t know no.94 Lethal injection is the most common execution method in the USA but also has the highest failure rate (7.2%).
Earworm of the week Boards of Canada : Prophecy at 1420mhz
Be the first to comment