Dubai Culture to partner with Dubai Properties Group for ‘Outdoor Art Project’

The Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), the Emirate’s dedicated Authority for culture, arts, and heritage, has launched ‘The Outdoor Art Project,’ an innovative cultural venture in partnership with Dubai Properties Group (DPG), a member of Dubai Holding. 

Building on the success of the project launched two years ago, the second venture will commission artworks by UAE based artists, which will later be showcased on prominent hoardings in Bay Avenue, a new retail destination at Executive Towers in Business Bay, developed by DPG. 

Aimed at promoting locally-based artists, the public art project puts emphasis on the concept of outdoor art, which has become an organic form of expression in urban cities, reflecting the communities living in the area, the environmental effects, the passage of time and the outlook of its citizens. 

Khalil Abdulwahid, Manager of Visual Arts, Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, said: “In a world where walls are considered barriers that create divisions between people, the ‘Outdoor Art Project,’ emerges as a grassroots initiative that challenges these divides, using art as the platform, for experimentation and communication, giving artists the opportunity to work and exhibit their works on a larger scale.” 

“Through the multiple project phases and cycles of reinterpretations, these hoardings will serve as the platform for a dynamic artistic statement and aim to create a constantly developing façade. Dubai Culture is delighted to partner with Dubai Properties Group, to promote original content creation in visual arts through a medium that communicates, illustrates, and engages community involvement,” he added. 

Sahar Al Ansari, Director of Real Estate Management at Dubai Properties said: “Our partnership with Dubai Culture & Arts Authority reinforces our commitment to developing and providing a visually appealing landscape at our communities whilst encouraging locally grown talent to realize their true potential. Bay Avenue, with its central location in Business Bay, is one of our newly completed retail destinations and will provide an ideal venue for this art venture.” 

The artists’ response to the ‘Outdoor Art Project’ will be based on a descriptive urban theme: “This is Dubai, the city that I lived… I lived the impact of the city’s call on identities; the identities with different belongings, where daily interactions cause a spontaneous or deliberate attachment to the city’s moral, human and architectural elements. The city in the context of identity and history, their impact on social interactions, between architectural structures and local elements. The effect that if we look at through a canvas we will be able to say: (This is Dubai, the city that I lived).” 

The ‘Outdoor Art Project’ is open to all UAE residents. Potential applicants can email [email protected] to request the artist brief and for more information on the project. Applicants must submit their artwork proposals by March 31, 2012 to [email protected]. Selected artists will have three weeks to complete their art work. The completed works will be revealed to the public and community at an unveiling event in Bay Avenue. 

The works can be in different mediums including painting, digital print, installation, mixed media and video projection, among others, on 9m x 3m displays. An eminent jury comprising members from Dubai Culture and DPG, will evaluate the submissions. 

The first ‘Outdoor Art Project’ was highlighted by the participation of eminent artists such as Her Highness Sheikha Lateefa Bint Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Maitha BinDemaithan, Saeed Mohammad Al-Madani, Alia AlMalik, Zeinab Alhashemi, Fatma Saeed Saifan, Nawal Khoory, Sumayyah Al Suwaidi, Afra Bin Dhaher and Maitha Huraiz. Their works of art were subsequently displayed in prominent locations across the city.