Culture & Education | Thursday 30 May, 2019 4:35 am |

Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture) concluded its participationin the coveted We Are Museums 2019edition, anannual international meeting of museum practitioners, entrepreneurs, and artists, held at Muzeum Śląskie in Katowice, Poland, from 27thto 29thMay 2019. This year’s edition, based on three program pillars namely MuseumHood, Museum for Good, and Entrepreneurial Museums, aimed at promoting museums as places of inclusive growth and sustainable development, and analysing their social and environmental impacts. 

The participation camein line with efforts of Dubai Culture to position the emirate as a global hub of creative industries and promote it as a capital of cultural tourism. It also reflected Authority’s mandate to collaborate with local, regional, and global entities in order to further strengthen the cultural scene and support its elements, especially museums, which are custodians of the rich history and heritage of the UAE. 

 

Additionally, it illustrated the efforts of Dubai Culture to support the cultural activities organised by the UAE Embassy in Poland. The Authority partookin this event along with Alserkal Avenue, depicting the public-private partnerships that are fostered across the UAE for developing the creative economy of the country. 

 

Talking about the participation, H.E. Hala Badri, Director General at Dubai Culture, said, “We Are Museums was an important opportunity for Dubai Culture to promote the cultural and arts landscape of the Emirate among the international museum community. The significant event also allowed us to leverage the prospect of cross-cultural collaborations and facilitated networking at a global level.It served as a platform for us to share ourcultural offerings and our museums that promote our heritage and preserve it for the coming generations to connect with our roots.” 

 

At the event, Dubai Culture was represented by Muna Al Gurg, Acting Director of the Museums Department, who participated in a panel discussion titled ‘Museumhood– Permeable museums and new democratic ecosystems’.  As part of this session Al Gurg also gave a presentation named Al Shindagha Museum: Revitalising a Historical Neighborhood.

“I shared insights on the collaborative revitalisation of Dubai’s historical neighbourhoods on the creek, and how this revival leveraged opportunities to crowdsource and archive historic content from local communities, which has been made available for future generations at the museum,” said Al Gurg. 

She added, “The topic highlighted the importance of accessibility, experimentation, and infrastructure in enabling human-scale connections in the busy neighbourhoodof Al Shindagha, and explored how these connections shaped the cultural landscape of the Emirate.”

Diane Dubray, Founder, We Are Museums, said, “Dubai can be perceived in different ways, but it is its power as a community binder that fascinates me most today. Alserkal Avenue has been able to go beyond borders to transcend boundaries and become a major artistic, cultural, and educational platform by creating this highly-diverse district. Recently, the opening of the Al Shindagha Museum, which is part of the Dubai Historical District rejuvenation project, once again demonstrated Dubai's ability to foster rich human connections through historical neighbourhoods creating bonds between generations by collecting historical artefacts and oral histories.”

 

On behalf of Alserkal Avenue, its Director, Vilma Jukurte touched upon the topic of changing definition of cultural districts, their evolution, and their place within the sociocultural structures and beyond, based on an internal inquiry.

The session sawLauren Parker, Head of Creative Partnerships (Smithfield), Museum of London (United Kingdom), Laura Hollingshaus, Junior Curator, Historical Museum Frankfurt (Germany), Katya Sandomirskaja, Project manager, Museum of Movements (Sweden), and Nikolaj Moeller,Content Associate, Museum for the United Nations (Denmark) as panellists. The conversation was moderated byAlicja Knast, Director of the Muzeum Śląskie. The three-dayconference saw prominentpeople from the museums industry who gathered to explore the future of Museums and portray museums as vectors for social bonding.

Dubai Culture aims to enhance Dubai’s cultural scene and draw attention to the UAE’s rich heritage. The Authority’s mandate is to build bridges of constructive dialogue between different civilisations and cultures to enhance Dubai's position as a creative and sustainable global city for culture, heritage, arts, and literature, with the aim to empower these sectors by developing creative and innovative projects and initiatives locally, regionally, and globally.