This week’s editorial musings
from magpie’s nest
The quote Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late Benjamin Franklin
Dubai gets a museum too The big news in Dubai this week was the announcement of DUMA, the Dubai Museum of Art. So far there’s a tweet from Sheikh Mohammed, a starchitect – Tadao Ando, who has a good track record for cultural buildings like this – and some renders. We know it will be on a new man-made island in Dubai Creek, it will have five stories with galleries on two of those, and it will have “training programmes”. Which leaves a whole lot unsaid: like, there’s no start date, no target opening date, no idea of floorspace, no budget (though it will be developed by the Al-Futtaim Group, so presumably paid for by them at least in part) and of course no word on collection or curatorial policy – though it might be significant that it’s not a museum of modern art (DMOMA? MOMAD?). The exact location is a bit vague, too, though it would seem to be somewhere around Festival City. Still, the renders are pretty – thought he structure itself looks a bit inelegant to us, something of a surprise since Tadao Ando’s studio has usually majored on cool minimalism …
More light Manar Abu Dhabi, the city’s public light art exhibition, looks like it’s growing into a mini arts festival – the just-released details of 23 site-specific light sculptures, projections, and installations (by 15 artists and collectives from 10 countries) includes expansion to Al Ain plus a really interesting programme of talks, workshops, and performances. Not enormous (yet), but the eight talks include ‘The Future of Art Without AI: Is It Possible?’, performances feature the very hip Bedouin Burger and Haepaary plus Tarek Yamani, and there are lectures by participating artists for uni students plus hands-on workshops for the rest of us. There’s a raft of ‘partner programmes’ too. So, an incipient festival vibe. Manar Abu Dhabi runs 1 Nov to 4 Jan (Al Ain) and 15 Nov to 4 Jan (Abu Dhabi). Lots of info here …
Art is good for you Researchers at King’s College London measured the monitored heart rates, skin temperature, and hormone levels of 50 people aged 18 to 40 as they viewed paintings by Manet, Van Gogh, and Gauguin. Half saw the originals, half saw reproductions. Those looking at original artworks showed a 22% drop in the stress hormone cortisol, compared to only 8& among those seeing copies. All in all, its seems viewing actual art simultaneously engages the immune, endocrine, and nervous systems, promoting both physical and emotional wellbeing. Hooray!
More museum Al Ain Museum, the country’s first, has reopened following extensive (and really quite sensitive) redevelopment by Dabbagh Architects. It’s bigger, better and well worth a visit. Standard tickets are AED 47.25 …
Fight fires fast You really want the people who got the Guinness World Record for the fastest time to climb the stairs of Burj Khalifa while wearing full firefighter gear to be firefighters. Let’s hear it for Majid Al Ali, Abdulla AL Shamsi and Ahmad Al Jasmi from Dubai Civil Defence, who made the total of 160 floors in 52 mins 30.6 secs …
Who’s buying art Some key takeaways from the newly published Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2025, another of Dr Clare McAndrew’s number-crunching analyses – 1. HNWIs are still keen on art, allocating 20% of their wealth to it 2. boomers collect paintings, Gen Zs want digital art and film and video art, millennials spend on prints, photography, and works on paper 3. women outspent their male peers by 46% on average. More fun facts here …
Alt.Dubai Is there an indie music scene in Dubai? Sure, but maybe it lacks a focal point. Alterna.tiv on 15 Nov is looking to provide one – a roomful of art done differently, another for DJs, a stage for indie/alt bands, and a general ‘lets-build-a-community vibe. Worth checking out: details here …
Don’t miss Dubai Design Week fills d3 with free exhibits, shows, and more alongside the pay-to-enter Downtown Design and Editions. Always buzzy: 4-9 Nov. And if you have kids, check out the Poetry in Action shows at the Cultural Foundation this weekend: a completely brilliant introduction to poetry …
Last chance to see Monif Ajaj‘s elegantly detailed colour at Fann à Porter: Abdelkader Benchamma‘s cosmologies at Gallery Isabelle: Afra Al Dhaheri‘s structural musings at Sharjah Art Foundation …
Book ahead Roberto Bolle and some friends dance at Dubai Opera on 6 Nov: Cirque du Liban brings acrobatics plus aquatics to Abu Dhabi from 13 Nov: Björn Again does Dubai on 21 Nov …
Useful app of the week Monocle 2.0 lets you blur all the stuff on your Mac screen apart from the window you’re working in to help you focus. It’s clean, simple, a bit customisable, and effective. There’s a seven-day free trial then a one-off $9 …
Something for the weekend Maze Garden lets you draw your own maze, add obstacles, navigate around it in 3D, and share it with others for them to solve. Try it here …
Things we didn’t know no.94 There is no difference between a hurricane, a cyclone and a typhoon; they just happen in different places – hurricanes in the North Atlantic and the Northeast Pacific, cyclones in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean, typhoons in the Northwest Pacific …
Earworm of the week Mandy, Indiana : Pinking Shears
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