Building the First Digital Museum Dedicated to Khaleeji Art
The Beginnings
On International Museum Day in 2020, the Khaleeji Art Museum, the first digital museum dedicated to exhibiting art from the Arab Gulf States, officially opened its virtual doors to visitors worldwide. Its opening coincided with the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which traditional art institutions were forced to close their exhibitions to in-person visitors until public health mandates would allow them to re-open safely. Both regionally and globally, these disruptions revealed how many major art institutions were unprepared to operate in a world where collective physical presence was unattainable. Though digital transformations had begun years earlier for a number of these institutions, digital or virtual experiences did not generally transcend their supplemental role as nascent strategies for mainstream engagement. Exhibitions and artistic engagements that were specifically designed for virtual spaces were few and far in between. To fill this gap, and to cater to audiences who were growing restless in an increasingly stationary world at the time, we decided that establishing a digital museum, which holds online and virtual exhibitions, galleries, and events, was an innovative way forward.
In addition, and perhaps more crucially, establishing a museum with a strong digital presence was aligned with our mission to bring people from various cultural backgrounds together through art, which could be achieved at a more exponential rate by using digital means. Since the launch of the Khaleeji Art Museum more than two years ago, this mission has consistently informed our operations, programming, and offerings to the wider public.
Curating the Museum
Art from the Arab Gulf States, and by Khaleeji artists specifically, continues to be underrepresented globally, particularly within major art institutions and exhibitions outside the region. Our goal for the Khaleeji Art Museum is to place the people of the region, their talents, impressions, and insights, at the forefront of global curatorial debates. We want to empower regional artists to represent themselves, and all that entails, by themselves.
For this reason, when we were establishing the museum, we wanted to illustrate our authenticity with a demonstrable commitment to empowering artists and art lovers within the Arab world. Although our digital model allowed us to hire people from around the world, we wanted our team members to be individuals who are from, or based in, the region. We adopted a similar approach when it came to the curators we worked with, and the artists whose work we exhibited in our museum. By creating a platform for exhibiting their work, and engaging with the work of other Khaleeji or Gulf-based artists, we aimed to level the international art scene through an easily accessible and inclusive space.
Another priority was to ensure that the women of the region were adequately represented. Even though creative sectors made significant progress in inclusion and diversity in the past years, women still face limitations in representation at international galleries, museums, and auction houses. A recent report found that among 18 major U.S. art museums, 87% of the collections are by male artists.1 Similarly, research also indicates that 96% of artworks sold at international auctions are by male artists.2 The evident underrepresentation of women in the art world means that half of global society’s stories remain untold. With this in mind, we made the representation of both male and female artists, where possible, a primary consideration while building the Khaleeji Art Museum, and continue to do so for the exhibitions we organize and curate. When addressing a group exhibition’s theme, for example, we present the perspectives and experiences of male and female Khaleeji and Gulf-based artists. We believe this allows the art experiences we organize to be more authentic and representative.
Our inaugural exhibition, which opened in the spring of 2020, was a digital exhibition titled Khaleejis in the Time of Corona. Through our curatorial choices, we were intentional in illustrating the museum’s commitment to shining light on male and female regional talent in our exhibition catalog. The exhibition showcased Khaleeji artists’ experiences with, and creative responses to, the pandemic. On account of its virtual format, the collection was able to transition seamlessly between more traditional art mediums, such as acrylic painting, and digital mediums, including photography, mixed media, and digital art. Among the artworks exhibited was a series of photographs by Saudi artist Thamer Abdullah, titled “Graduating During COVID-19.” The photographs featured the artist himself, in a traditional Saudi bisht, as well as disposable gloves and a face mask, posing atop a makeshift commencement stage.3 Another artwork by Emirati artist Hamda Al Khaja, titled “The Commitment of Our Community,” depicted a key dangling next to a keyhole, through which the unusually empty highways of Dubai were visible.4
The exhibition, in which over ten regional male and female artists participated, was visited more than 10,000 times in its first month, demonstrating the global interest in the works of artists of the region. Encouraged by this support, we followed Khaleejis in the Time of Corona with a number of digital group and solo exhibitions, some of which were paired with dedicated virtual experiences. Throughout the most secluded days of the pandemic, the Khaleeji Art Museum remained committed to contributing to the regional art scene, and to offering opportunities for meaningful creative virtual engagements.
Taking the Conversation Forward
As the world slowly opened up and life returned to a semblance of normalcy, we increasingly thought about how we could reach more people and foster further cross-cultural dialogues. For this purpose, we collaborated with Dubai Festival City in February 2021 to showcase the work of regional artists by holding regular art shows on the world’s largest permanent outdoor projection. Through this collaboration, we held a total of ten shows so far, which garnered over 250,000 impressions. Each show revolved around a specific theme, including Arab womanhood and Khaleeji culture. Exhibited artworks were both by established and rising artists and photographers from the region, including Fatma Lootah, Haitham Al Farsi, Sheikha Lulwa Al-Khalifa, Her Highness Sayyida Meyyan Shihab Al Said, Ishaq Madan, Tagreed Albagshi, and Ahmed Al-Refaie.
Then, in March 2022, the Khaleeji Art Museum participated in the annual Sikka Art and Design Festival. We displayed the works of five Gulf artists and an artist collective in the Khaleeji House, a traditional residence in Dubai’s historic Al Fahidi neighborhood, which was repurposed as an exhibition space as part of the festival. Curated by Emirati curator Sumayyah Alsuwaidi, the festival marked our first physical exhibition as the Khaleeji Art Museum. Titled Before Take Off, it was visited by thousands of residents and tourists, and catered to those with a taste for interactive activities and pop-up experiences.
Additionally, in April 2022, we launched the Museum in the Sky, a unique experience currently available on the in-flight entertainment systems of the two major carriers in the region, Emirates Airlines and Etihad Airways. The initiative allows passengers onboard – approximately 19 million people in the past year on Emirates,5 and 3.5 million on Etihad,6 respectively – to explore and experience Khaleeji art. In the first installment of the series, four UAE-based and Emirati artists, eL Seed, Nujoom Al-Ghanem, Hussain Almoosawi, and Maitha Abdalla, recounted their artistic beginnings and shared their most memorable artworks in their own galleries in the sky. For those unable to travel, we also created corresponding digital galleries on our permanent museum platform, so that all virtual visitors could enjoy a similar experience.
More recently, in June 2022, we completed the digitization of over 200 of artist Alia Al Farsi’s life’s works. With a career spanning decades, Al Farsi is one of Oman’s most accomplished and important contemporary artists, who has helped shape the country’s art scene like few others have before her. Her works, which skillfully depict Omani culture and society, and particularly as they relate to Omani women, are currently available through a permanent digital gallery in our museum. The opening of the permanent digital gallery was marked by a launch event that took place in Alia Gallery in Muscat, where guests could see some of her paintings in real life, as well. Soon after this event, we also made a significant portion of His Excellency Zaki Nusseibeh’s vast collection of Arab and international art, which includes one-of-a-kind pieces by Baya Meheiddine, Tarek Al-Ghoussein, Farah Al Qasimi, and Sliman Mansour, available in a digital format for the first time through our museum. We will continue to digitize and make the work of regional collectors and artists available for the world to see.
With many institutions, including the Khaleeji Art Museum, witnessing the power of digital and virtual art tourism, it will be hard to imagine a future for museums where a digital component is absent. Just as we look for ways to complement physical, virtual, and digital experiences, more museums, including those within our region, are encouraged to embrace a similar approach, and create physical exhibitions that encompass digital, virtual, or augmented reality options for visitors.
In a region like ours, which has historically been plagued by mischaracterizations, cultural diplomacy is vital in shifting perspectives and altering preconceived notions through authentic and representative insights. Thinking beyond traditional models and striving to reach people wherever they may be, including in the sky, is crucial for advancing effective cross-cultural dialogue between our region and the international art scene.
Our Future
A few years ago, no one could have anticipated the pace of the digital transformation that has taken place over the last two years alone. Building a digital museum was something we could not have predicted, and a question we are often asked is whether we would establish a permanent physical space for the museum in the near future. We do believe that physical experiences complement digital and virtual experiences greatly, and moving forward, you cannot have one without the other. On-the-ground pop-up museum experiences allow us to introduce and present art from the region to different audiences through inventive programming that bridges both art and technology.
Whether or not we eventually establish a physical museum, maintaining our current approach, and continuing to build on it, is essential to our goal of enabling authentic intercultural connections between our region and the rest of the world.
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The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the author, and do not represent Fiker Institute.
