After more than 10 weeks of closure due to Covid-19, Jameel Art Centre is set to reopen its doors to the public on Wednesday, June 3.
As it restarts operations, the contemporary art institution, located along Al Jaddaf Waterfront in Dubai's Bur Dubai area, has introduced new guidelines for the public to ensure social distancing. While admission remains free, visitors must book a two-hour slot online in advance so the centre can monitor capacity.
As with other public places in the UAE, visitors must undergo temperature checks at the entrance and wear face masks. Each gallery has been designated a certain capacity, and security staff will ensure that this is maintained.
Despite its physical space being shuttered on March 16 due to government regulations, the centre had been quick to move a number of its activities online, including educational resources for children and a virtual version of its Jaddaf Aloud cultural event, which featured artist workshops and experimental films.
Nevertheless, the closure has affected the centre’s programming schedule, which has now been recalibrated. “Our entire calendar has shifted through 2020 to 2023,” says Antonia Carver, director of Art Jameel.
Jameel Arts Centre has extended two of its current exhibitions, which were slated to end in August. The major survey exhibition on renowned artist Michael Rakowitz, showcasing large-installations that reflect on material culture in the region, will now run until November. Lubna Chowdhary’s ceramic sculptures in the installation titled Metropolis will remain until October.
Carver notes that extending Rakowitz’s show meant holding negotiations with 30 different museums and collectors. “A museum exhibition calendar… is so complex – shows are often years in the planning and dates forensically worked out with the artist and all the various multiple partners involved. We were lucky in being the last venue for Michael Rakowitz’s major survey show and in working with an enthusiastic, dedicated artist who is so excited to share his work with the UAE and regional public,” she says.
Across the world, the pandemic has exposed grave inequalities and the fragility of support systems within industries, arts and culture being one of them. Globally, artists and art professionals, including galleries, are facing loss of income and financial uncertainty.
In April, Jameel Arts Centre stepped in to help artists, particularly those whose projects have been disrupted due to the pandemic. For its micro-funding initiative, Art Jameel Research and Practice Platform, the centre has set aside Dh550,000 worth of grants to give to artists, writers and curators in the Middle East. The platform is accepting applications for its third and final cycle until Sunday, June 7.
“Very quickly into this crisis, artists and curators came to us from the UAE and around the region, and explained their predicament. We decided we should act fast and repurpose existing budgets into [our] rapid-response programme,” explains Carver.
“This has been a moment of real reckoning for the regional arts scene, and has thrown into sharp relief the precarity of culture, in general,” she says, adding talk of reinvention within these systems may be too early – cultural institutions and practitioners are presently in “survival mode”.
The centre has not been immune to these monetary challenges either. “Like museums globally, we are dealing with a loss of income from our enterprises, including our shop and third-party events, while we’ve been closed, plus budget cuts. We are learning to cope with this, and hoping for better times ahead,” she says.
On Wednesday, June 10, Jameel Arts Centre will present new interations of their Artist’s Rooms series, with works by Larissa Sansour, Taysir Batniji and Lawrence Abu Hamdan.
The venue will be open daily except Tuesdays, from 10am to 6pm. Children aged below 12 and adults over the age of 60 are not allowed to visit as per UAE regulations.
More information can be found on jameelartscentre.org
The biog
Year of birth: 1988
Place of birth: Baghdad
Education: PhD student and co-researcher at Greifswald University, Germany
Hobbies: Ping Pong, swimming, reading
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The specs: 2018 Nissan Altima
Price, base / as tested: Dh78,000 / Dh97,650
Engine: 2.5-litre in-line four-cylinder
Power: 182hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 244Nm @ 4,000rpm
Transmission: Continuously variable tranmission
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.6L / 100km
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
the pledge
I pledge to uphold the duty of tolerance
I pledge to take a first stand against hate and injustice
I pledge to respect and accept people whose abilities, beliefs and culture are different from my own
I pledge to wish for others what I wish for myself
I pledge to live in harmony with my community
I pledge to always be open to dialogue and forgiveness
I pledge to do my part to create peace for all
I pledge to exercise benevolence and choose kindness in all my dealings with my community
I pledge to always stand up for these values: Zayed's values for tolerance and human fraternity
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Xpanceo
Started: 2018
Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality
Funding: $40 million
Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)
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