Arts Centre – magpie

Joy to the world: The Arts Center’s new season

4 September 2026

Bill Bragin is back from Edinburgh. He saw 45 shows there in two weeks (he says he’s slowing down – a few years ago he was managing 8 or 9 per day). It’s partly pleasure, partly work; on his visit [… more]

Abu Dhabi to get its performing arts centre

30 June 2026

Some official information has been announced for the long-rumoured performing arts centre for Saadiyat Island. Designed by the late Frank Gehry (and nothing like his Guggenheim, now nearing completion on another part of the island), Dar al Funoon – literally, [… more]

Eleven years and counting: so what’s new with The Arts Center?

17 September 2025

“As we go into our second decade,” says Bill Bragin, Executive Artistic Director of The Arts Center since its inception, “what I’m really trying to think about is how we progress. It can be too easy to repeat the formula, [… more]

Five lessons from ten years: Bill Bragin reflects

16 January 2025

As we celebrate our first decade at The NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Center I’m proud that our journey has helped to spark a transformation of the way performing arts are experienced in the UAE. Here are five ways that we [… more]

Past, present and progress: the new Arts Center season

4 September 2024

The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi has announced its tenth season, featuring more than 30 artists and a total of 55 performances. It’s the kind of eclectic and genuinely impressive mix that we’ve come to expect from Bill Bragin [… more]

The Arts Center at NYUAD: open to members

17 July 2024

The Arts Center at NYUAD has introduced an annual membership programme, which gives advance booking and discount deals on a year’s performances. Given the quality of the Arts Center’s programming and the inevitably frequent sellouts, this looks like a pretty [… more]

The arts centre and the scent of love

31 January 2024

What’s an arts centre for? Arguably there are three key functions: to deliver artistic work that its audience might not otherwise experience, to test the boundaries of the art form by fostering new thinking, and to promote excellence – maybe [… more]

By the book: performance arts come to Saadiyat

13 September 2023

So what were you doing seven years ago? Bill Bragin was opening the pilot season of his arts centre at NYU Abu Dhabi. It probably was the only multi-disciplinary arts and performance space in the country at the time, and [… more]

Talking conversations: the new Arts Center season at NYUAD

30 August 2023

It’s become something of an end-of-summer tradition that magpie interviews Bill Bragin, Executive Director of The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi. As a significant player in the UAE’s art scene, he usually has pertinent observations and insights. But the [… more]

No more Warehouse in Warehouse421

23 November 2022

Abu Dhabi’s Warehouse421 has a new name (farewell Warehouse421, hello 421) and a new brand identity. Originally it aimed to provide “a dynamic space that could be home to exhibitions and events that our community sorely needed at the time”; [… more]