This week’s editorial musings
from magpie’s nest
The quote: Literature has the same impact as a match lit in the middle of a field in the middle of the night. The match illuminates relatively little, but it enables us to see how much darkness surrounds it William Faulkner …
Symphonic The UAE National Orchestra has officially begun rehearsals in Abu Dhabi, with 70 full-time musicians and 30 part-time choir members selected from over 3,200 applicants. The official word is that the ensemble represents “a blend of Emirati talent and world-class performers from across the globe, embodying the UAE’s spirit of openness and collaboration”. The plan is for an inaugural season that will see performances in all seven Emirates, though there’s no word yet about where, when or indeed what – though we are promised “a sound that is both contemporary and deeply rooted in heritage”. There have been attempts to form a UAE NSO in the past, but this one is properly funded and features full-time musicians. Its repertoire will be interesting, and so will the sound that conductor Amine Kouider (formerly of the International Philharmonic Orchestra – Paris and the Algeria National Symphony Orchestra) comes up with …
Happy birthday LouvreAD Louvre Abu Dhabi is celebrating its eighth anniversary with exclusive after-hours access (to 1am) for all the galleries, the excellent Mamluks exhibition, Art Here 2025, the Children’s Museum and the VR experiences. There’s also a free outdoor screening of Night at the Museum on the Auditorium Plaza at 7pm, but that was all booked up when we checked …
Cumulative Qatar Another plank in Qatar’s ongoing bid to become a major art centre for the region: to go with Art Basel Qatar (Feb 2026) and the country’s first permanent pavilion at the Venice Biennale (May, and in the classy Giardini too), a quadrennial called Rubaiyat Qatar launches in November 2026 with 58 artists. Its four curators are of course art world heavyweights: Mark Rappolt from ArtReview magazine; Tom Eccles, executive director of the Bard College Center for Curatorial Studies in upstate New York; Ruba Katrib, chief curator at MoMA PS1 in New York; and Shabbir Husain Mustafa, a curator at the National Gallery of Singapore. Rubaiyat Qatar provides a non-commercial counterpoint to Art Basel Qatar and avoid direct competition with the Sharjah Biennial; still, it seems a less than confident move to go for intervals of four rather than two years …
Design opps closing soon Two for regional designers: applications to Tashkeel’s reputedly excellent Tanween Design Programme (a year of professional development for a UAE-based designer culminating in exposure and possible sales at Downtown Design 2026) closes 16 Nov. And the AlUla Design Award (SAR 30,000 plus a distribution deal for two winners, one in Fashion and the other in Product Design – no geographical restriction on entrants) closes 21 Nov …
AI in UAE People in the UAE and Singapore are the most enthusiastic users of AI, with 59.4% and 58.6% respectively of the working-age population using Al at least once a month according to research from Microsoft. That reflects the countries’ long-term investment in digital connectivity and skills, but basically AI is most popular in wealthy nations – though there are some surprising power users (Spain, France) and laggards (Saudi Arabia, USA) …
Fossil’s back, baby Two years ago ADNOC head Sultan Al-Jaber led a climate summit that secured a commitment from nearly every country there to “transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems”. A couple of days ago at ADIPEC, the world’s biggest energy conference, he said that “the long-term outlook shows demand growth for every form of energy” and that oil demand will stay at or above its current level until well after 2040. Hmm …
Smart Abu Dhabi Art Abu Dhabi Art continues to reinforce its community credentials, which hopefully won’t be lost when it moves to Frieze branding next year: ADMAF and Studio Salasil will handle this year’s Community Projects exhibition, Emirati artist and robotics engineer Ahmed Al Attar leads the 2025 Art+Tech programme (working with students to develop a kinetic installation) and the Pavilion Prize returns, with Sara Alsehhi and Sarvani Pagadala announced as the winners of this edition of the design-a-pavilion initiative. Abu Dhabi Art runs 19-23 Nov. More here …
Hello gallery Dom Art Projects is a new commercial arts centre opening in Al Khayat Avenue at the end of the month – an exhibition space “dedicated to presenting museum-grade exhibitions and installations by emerging and mid-career artists”, three studios for artist residencies, a year-round educational programme with artist-led workshops, guided tours, and talks, and what is claimed to be Dubai’s first dedicated art and culture bookshop (there are plans for publishing, too). Must be worth checking out its opening weekend 27-29 Nov, with an installation by Michiko Tsuda installation and a “science art object” by ::vtol:: …
Incidentally, there’s a current open call in partnership with Bayt AlMamzar for emerging UAE-based artists to apply for one of those residency studios – two studios available for two months each, apply here by 20 Nov for a 25 Nov start …
Doing DDW Dubai Design Week opened yesterday and looks mighty impressive – it’s claimed to feature more than 1,000 designers, architects and creative practitioners from more than 50 countries, for a start, We’d like to highlight the less well-known, particularly those in the UAE Designer Exhibition, which this year focuses on mentorship opportunities as well as visibility for emerging UAE-based designers; and Tashkeel’s Tanweer cohort – nine young designers who went through a year-long development programme for themselves and their products, the fruits of which feature in Downtown Design. Our man particularly liked Sarah Al Dulaimi‘s wall-mounted light made from layered chiffon offcuts; Nasser Alghawi‘s chandelier of date stones in resin; and Tasneem Al Nabhani’s palmfrond-board console and mirror set …
Last chance to see Shumon Basar’s terrific survey of two decades of The Third Line, featuring every artist currently represented by the gallery: Elias Izoli‘s circus-as-metaphor reflections on Syria: Bernhard Buhmann‘s dangerously enticing look at decline …
Useful app of the week Move over, Adobe: Affinity Studio is a redesign of the Affinity suite that is (a) much, much better than it was (b) literally does just about everything that Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign can do (c) does it in a single package (d) looks terrific (e) runs on Windows or Mac and (f) costs absolutely nothing. Yep, it’s completely free, and they say it always will be (there’s a cost if you use the pro AI integrations with Canva – the Canva folk bought Affinity last year). Compare that with the chunky monthly subscription that Adobe charges (and many Adobe package prices are going up before the end of the year). Prepare to be blown away once you’ve downloaded Affinity Studio here …
Something for the weekend Baguette Sprint is a new Google Arts & Culture game in which you gather baking ingredients in amiable French settings while avoiding local hazards. Each level is followed by a gratifyingly inane fact about France or baguettes, too. Try it here …
Things we didn’t know no.94 A jiffy really is quite quick: it’s the time it takes light to travel one centimetre in a vacuum, approximately 33.3564 picoseconds …
Earworm of the week The Hellp : Doppler
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