We need to do more to foster the art scene

Ayesha Al Mazroui says we should all embrace Abu Dhabi Art 2015, which opens today.

Abu Dhabi Art will feature works such as Shin Sang-ho's Horse - Emerald Green Pedestal. (Courtesy: Shin Sang-ho and Leehwaik Gallery)

For Marcel Proust, art was the opposite of habit. The role of artists, as he saw it, was to show us the world in a fresh perspective.

By producing and exhibiting art, artists shake our routines and teach us how to appreciate the simple things in life, like the beauty of sunsets.

When we talk about the value of art, we should always start with the value it adds to our inner lives. Art plays a major part in illuminating and enriching our emotional and intellectual experiences. Sometimes being exposed to one piece of art can be all that it takes to awaken our consciousness. It provokes us to think about our surroundings.

Then there is the strong influence of arts on the development of society. The more people appreciate art, the more they are tolerant and open to positive social change. It helps foster dialogue and brings important issues to the surface. It bridges cultures and enhances our understanding of the world.

The art scene is still developing in the UAE, and specifically in Abu Dhabi, where there are only a handful of art galleries and artists still struggle to find places to exhibit their work to the public.

This is why organising and hosting events such as Abu Dhabi Art 2015, which will open today and continue until November 21 at Manarat Al Saadiyat, is so important.

For the seventh year, the art fair brings together leading artists, innovative and established galleries, art historians, curators, museum directors and collectors from across the world to discuss arts and celebrate cultural diversity.

I’ve witnessed how the event has helped to engage the local community in visual arts. The number of people interested in arts keeps growing. More schools are now taking children to the fair’s workshops and encouraging them to create their own pieces.

Social networks are also helping to promote art events and encourage people of all ages to visit galleries, explore and interpret artworks and have dialogues and discussions about them.

But much more needs to be done. As Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Cultural District is emerging as a world-class cultural destination, so the whole city has to evolve and adapt. More large-scale events, like Abu Dhabi Art, need to take place throughout the year.

The whole community needs to be on the same page with the Government’s ambitious plans to put Abu Dhabi on the world map for art and culture.

Before that can happen, we have to recognise the huge value of arts to society, especially as we’re heading towards putting more focus on science, technology, engineering and maths in our education system. Ideas about art need to go beyond the aesthetics and consider the deeper enrichment that art brings to society.

Art doesn't only provide creative inspiration but it also drives innovation in many aspects of life. Innovation, in turn, brings many economic benefits.

As the UAE develops its art scene, we need more talent to rise to the surface. After all, in addition to all the previous benefits, art helps us tell our story and provides us with a tool to document our history.

Through art we can preserve our present for the future generations of Emiratis in a way that will help them have greater understanding of our values and ways of thinking. This lies at the core of the country’s efforts to protect its national identity.

More investment to support and foster a local art culture can even help to create shared visions of our ideals, values and hopes for the future. Throughout history, art has always been a deceptively simple way to access cultures that might otherwise be forgotten.

Countries that have traditionally recognised such values saw art as something very close to the centre of a country’s purpose, and as a test of the quality of a country’s life and civilisation – even if it didn’t bring enormous economic benefits.

“Great nations,” as the leading English art critic of the Victorian era John Ruskin said, “write their autobiographies in three manuscripts: the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art.”

@AyeshaAlmazroui