This week’s editorial musings
from magpie’s nest
The quote: We hardly ever realise that we can cut anything out of our lives, anytime, in the blink of an eye | Carlos Castaneda …
Update Five weeks and counting, and maybe a second week of rain too … Remote learning for schools and colleges has been extended across the UAE until 17 April as attacks continue … But NYUAD has closed its Saadiyat campus until further notice after Iran warned last weekend that US universities with outposts in the Gulf were “legitimate targets” in retaliation for strikes on Iranian universities. Classes will continue remotely … Biggest fuel price rises we can remember, as UAE follows most of the rest of the world – from 1 April Super 98 is AED 3.39 per litre, up from AED 2.59; diesel is AED 4.69, was a bargain AED 2.72 …Dubai businesses are getting a AED 1bn support package, to be rolled out from 1 April for the next six months – deferred government fees, extended customs grace periods, streamlined residency pathways, liquidity relief for hospitality … Experience gifting outfit Ithara reports 95% of businesses on its platform remain operational and “continue to adapt” …
Flight control Flightradar24’s Gulf Airline Recovery Index measures the relative recovery of select Gulf airlines – Air Arabia, Emirates, Etihad, FlyDubai, Qatar Airways – in terms of how they’re getting to their prewar average number of daily flights. And for more immediate travel, flight-tracking app Flighty has a free online dashboard showing delays and disruptions at airports around the world …
Postponement watch The Bluewaters Art Festival – transforms the island into “a 360-degree open-air gallery” – has been postponed from April to November … World Art Dubai has rescheduled to 19–22 November at a new venue – the Dubai Exhibition Centre, Expo City (rather than DWTC). Conveniently this “aligns the show with more favourable travel and market conditions” and supports “its strategic evolution into a larger festival-style art experience” … Abu Dhabi Choral Group’s production of The SpongeBob Musical, scheduled for June 4-7, has been postponed with no new date yet …
Selective renting betterhomes says rental listings have increased by 23% and tenant enquiries are down 16%, with the market entering “a more selective phase … signalling a shift in market dynamics” (aka the war?). On the other hand a duplex penthouse on the 87th and 88th floors of the Burj Khalifa has been leased for AED 12m pa, the highest ever annual apartment rental recorded in the UAE. “In times of volatility, capital does not retreat, it becomes more selective” said the lucky letter …
Orange peel Organisers said 8m people turned out for the No Kings protests in the States last weekend …
Distaff side The Association of Women in the Arts(“the only global network dedicated to championing women across the full arts and cultural ecosystem”) is launching a Honours List celebrating “leaders who have shaped today’s arts landscape and those steering the future” during the Venice Biennale vernissage. Now that’s going to be an interesting list – and the Nominating Committee of “connectors and mobilisers from across the cultural world” (sorry about the quotes, but a PR person wrote this) includes the likes of Sarah Harrelson from Cultured, Kimberly Drew, Gillian McVey and Melissa Gronlund (once of these parts)…
Bizlist Cinema Akil has been compiling what it admits is an imperfect (but still growing) list of 1,000+ homegrown businesses “simply to share the love”. This is an uncurated self-nominated collection, and it’s a not especially clever dataset on a Google Sheet, but it does make for interesting reading – there are so many similar businesses, plus there are some really niche offers. Check it out here; and you can add your own business here …
Cultural education Abu Dhabi’s cultural sites are rolling out dedicated programmes linking their collections to the school curriculum, which sounds like a terrific idea especially if Louvre Abu Dhabi’s Museum Curriculum Portal is indicative: it maps more than 148 artworks and artefacts across core subjects with direct alignment to national and international curricula. There are also free training sessions for teachers (register here, or email learn@louvreabudhabi.ae) …
Museum winners (and some losers) The Louvre Abu Dhabi comes midway in The Art Newspaper’s listing of the 100 most popular museums in 2025. We looked at numbers (with a caveat on Louvre AD’s) and our report is here …
Job ops 1 Aisha Alabbar is looking for an experienced Gallery Director. Prerequisites: leadership qualities, deep understanding of the art market, a passion for connecting with artists, collectors, and institutions. Email a résumé to info@aishaalabbar.art …
Job ops 2 Art Jameel has a raft of job opportunities at Hayy Jameel – Assistant Curator, Learning Manager, Content Creator, Librarian and more. Start ASAP for all of them. They’ll probably go to Saudis, but here’s the application link …
Music ops MiZa Radio (“Built for sound. Open to the community”) is inviting DJs, producers, singers and musicians to pitch a session – DJ set, prerecorded-plus-live instrument, or entirely live.
Here’s the application link; deadline is 17 April … And MusicNation is looking for new interpretations of the UAE National Anthem; selected submissions will be merged into a single, professionally produced track as “a collective tribute that celebrates the UAE through music, unity, and expression”. Submit an MP3 here before 3 April – “stay true to the anthem but make it yours”. Must be in F major, 88bpm, AI-generated submissions will be rejected …
Prof dev op Numoo, The NYUAD Arts Center’s professional development programme for performing artists, is open for applications for the 2026 edition – three intensive full day weekend sessions over the summer plus continuous independent work. Selected artists also get AED 10000 on completion. Apply by 12 April. Info here …
Ceramic op Contemporary Makers is a Guggenheim Abu Dhabi programme for young people aged 18-25 featuring mentorship, collaboration, and hands-on learning en route to becoming a maker – ceramicsthis time, other crafts to follow. No prior experience needed, “just passion, curiosity, and commitment”. There are sessions every Thursday, 5–7pm at MAKE Abu Dhabi from 13 April through 4 June. Apply here …
Save AED 210 Stay in any of 171 participating hotels in Abu Dhabi for a couple of nights or more and you’ll free entrance to Louvre Abu Dhabi, Zayed National Museum, and Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi. You’ll have to be quick though – the offer ends 5 April …
Useful app of the week Not as app as such, just a magic bagful of clever tips ‘n’ tricks that will let you
use Google like a pro: many of them will bypass Google’s attempts to serve you ads and AI ‘summaries’. Or to put it another way: “Google is constantly interpreting you. It swaps in synonyms, personalises results based on your history, and decides what you probably meant rather than returning what you typed. Most of the time that interpretation is invisible. These tools are how you override it” …
Something for the weekend Pindrop is a geography game – place a pin on the map where you think the clue relates to. Sometimes easy (capital cities in Europe), sometimes tough (Argentinian waterfalls). Try it here …
Things we didn’t know no.94 Frank Sinatra lived 30,105 days (b. 12 Dec 1915, d. 15 May 15 1998). There are 40,214,302 miles of road in the world (says Wikipedia). So to have travelled “each and every highway” as claimed in the song ‘My Way’ he would need to have maintained an average speed throughout his entire life of 55.68 mph. Thanks to 1inhalfabillion and b3ta newsletter for this valuable info …
Earworm of the week Ladytron : I believe in you
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