ABU DHABI // The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi's collection of contemporary art will include work from Emirati artists alongside masterpieces from the museum's global collections, museum officials revealed for the first time yesterday.
A site-specific collection will be developed for the Saadiyat Island location, which will be the New York-based Guggenheim's largest facility when it is completed in 2014. In addition to acquisitions made by the Guggenheim in cooperation with the Government, the museum will feature art on loan from the Guggenheim Foundation as well as large-scale commissions from both established and emerging artists.
The museum's Middle Eastern collection will also include work from UAE artists created from the 1970s to the present day, according to Nancy Spector, the deputy director and chief curator of the Guggenheim Foundation.
Focus groups made up of international artists, scholars, and curators met for the first time in Abu Dhabi this week to discuss the strategic development of the museum's curatorial and educational programming.
Ms Spector said the two days of dialogue centred on ways to develop "collections, exhibitions, educational programmes and public outreach with the view of making an unprecedented institution of the 21st century in the Middle East". Her comments came yesterday during a panel discussion on the vision and future programmes of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi held at Manarat al Saadiyat.
"We have addressed how we can create a museum that is at once global and transnational while still deeply rooted in Middle Eastern, and specifically Emirati, culture," Ms Spector said.
The Guggenheim and the Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC), the island's master developer, are committed to staffing the museum with Emiratis. Additionally, a committee of local advisers will be set up to guide the museum's vision "in the realm of engagement, audience and education", said Suzanne Cotter, the curator of exhibitions for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi transnational curatorial programming will focus on art and visual culture from 1965 to the present. A strong focus on art from the Middle East will complement a commitment to exploring identity derived from local traditions.
Experts who spoke at the panel discussion called on the Guggenheim to "look at the big picture" and ensure the art on display will showcase the best of all international artists, especially under-represented Islamic artists.
"I see a great future for the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, provided the Guggenheim gets out of its shell … and interacts with Arab artists rather than just look at its collection as something to join the past and the present," said Wijdan al Hashemi, a Jordanian art historian, artist and curator at the panel discussion.
"This fraternisation between western art and Arab art will benefit all."
The 130,000-square-metre space, designed by Frank Gehry, will include permanent collection and special exhibitions galleries, a centre for art and technology, a centre for contemporary Arab, Islamic, and Middle Eastern culture, an education facility, a research centre, and a state-of-the-art conservation laboratory.
