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The announcement of the Culture Village as a future hub of cultural activity has found massive support among art patrons and gallery owners in Dubai.
Established and well-oiled galleries — who could be pardoned for being anxious — dismiss suggestions of competition instantly, purely on the basis of scale.
"Individual galleries are far too small and independent to come anywhere near the enormity and ambition of a project such as Culture Village," says Claudia Cellini, co-owner of The Third Line Gallery in Al Quoz. "Galleries would be quite silly to even perceive it as a threat."
Cellini, who recently curated an exhibition at the Culture Village booking centre located in the Dubai Properties sales centre, calls it a "most-welcome first step" towards the maturing of Dubai's art movement.
In a sense, Cellini's exhibition titled Flashback/Forward, which featured a number of Middle Eastern artists is comparable to the efforts of the Culture Village.
The catalogue describes Flashback/Forward, which concluded recently, as showing the process of building the conviction that art indeed matters and that it has been a slow, recent, but steady process in Dubai, particularly so at an institutional level.
"The exhibition put forward this idea of a timeline and it wasn't trying to summarise the art history of the region or its cultural traditions. It was trying to use a simplistic construction to help the viewer interpret the journey on his own instead of as isolated visual instances," she says.
As a project, it intends to be an international destination that mixes Old World heritage with modern ambience and no, the concentration of art or culture in one site of the city, says Cellini, is not a bad thing.
Sprouting from within
Jyoti Dhar, a manager of the Bagash Art Gallery in Bur Dubai, agrees. "As I understand it, Culture Village is going to have educational institutes and increase the interactivity levels between talent and teachers, which is simply fantastic. For any art movement to really develop and flourish, it's very important to get going from within and this project seems to begin that outward growth."
The city's growth in terms of infrastructure, the development of newer districts and the incoming population that is part of a younger demography are all signs that there is space for more players.
"I still hear young people complain that there's not enough to do," says 25-year old Abdullah, a graphics designer by day and a photographer when free.
"Concentrating cultural activities into one corner doesn't mean that the others will be forced to enter the same space. In Europe, you have these old citadels that have been converted into commercial spaces with galleries, souvenir stores, shops and restaurants. I think it's quite fair to say that there's enough of the pie for everyone," he says, adding with a laugh that "I'm two steps away from booking some space to exhibit my work because no one else will."
Cellini and Dhar are non-committal as gallery representatives on whether they would consider shifting.
However, they don't rule it out either.
"People take a day now to get anywhere. I don't think that if the market demanded a shift from our end, we would resist, although I don't see why we couldn't open another branch also," Cellini says.
"Another gallery, maybe, but for now we're quite happy within our space here," Dhar adds. Initiatives such as Culture Village, Cellini says, is a huge step in the right direction.
"It's sending out the right message in terms of developing an art market," she says. With a Christie's presence and the Gulf Art Fair debuting next month, Dubai's commitment to promotion of culture has won all round admiration.
Tax concessions
With the infrastructural development in place, it is now hoped by those in the art business that other changes will come about with equal ease.
For instance, there is a 5 per cent duty on all artwork imported. Cellini says it's not fair to blame anyone or thing, but hopes the tax itself will be looked into.
"As a gallery owner, I have to pay 5 per cent on the value of the piece even before I have made a sale," she says.
Dhar confirms that authorities were looking into it, but could not comment on its status. "It is I'm told a decision that needs to be taken by a number of authorities and not just a singular entity so chances are it won't be an overnight change," she says.
Cellini clarifies that it's a GCC-wide tax on all goods coming in and chances are that when the UAE joins the World Trade Organisation, it could be reassessed or reviewed.
"There are a lot of paradigms that can be looked into. For instance, around 1908, there was an influx of Europeans into the United States. Now there was a certain lawyer and art collector, who lobbied really hard to do away with tax imports on art imports and he managed to get a law in place that allowed a tax waiver on objects that were less than 100 years old," she says.
While not outrightly recommending any country's structure with reference to art, Cellini elaborates on Singapore's experience, as she had lived there for seven years.
"The government there had a series of eight-year plans that were specific to art. It's kind of similar to Culture Village. The government also provided grants to stimulate the development of art and it wasn't just cash, but reductions on rents or helping out with printing costs."
However, despite the strategic positioning and a bid to nurture a healthy art environment, Singapore has in recently lost out to Hong Kong as a major art centre.
"All the big sales now happen in Hong Kong. Both Christie's and Sotheby's had set-ups in Singapore, but a couple of years ago, Christie's stopped sales in Singapore, though they still have an office," she says.
Another difficulty faced by galleries is the absence of an art insurer in Dubai.
"At the moment we do it out of London, which again, is quite expensive," Cellini says.
Culture Village is the best step to welcome new players and help them establish themselves. Change or progression can be organic or it could take place through projects such as Culture Village. What we're hoping will happen — and I'm confident it will — is that future steps will be towards ensuring the survival of these businesses," she says.
Culture Village
Launched in 2006, Culture Village is a 40 million sq ft master development, strategically located on the Dubai Creek.
Estimated in value at Dh50 billion, Culture Village will offer a unique cultural and tourist-friendly environment, attracting art and culture lovers from around the world.
Culture Village will add diversity to the cultural and art scene in the UAE and the region.
It will project Dubai as a place of culture and refinement.
The Village hopes to host international cultural performances alongside activities rooted in local heritage, highlighting the differences and similarities between the two.
Source: Dubai Properties
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