Abdelmonem Bin Eisa Alserkal formalises and expands his commitment to arts and culture with the launch of non-profit foundation
Alserkal Arts Foundation will support socially engaged, multi-disciplinary practices, and facilitate cross-cultural exchange through public art commissions, residencies, research grants, and educational programmes
Dubai, 18 March, 2019 —Emirati businessman and cultural patron Abdelmonem Bin Eisa Alserkal announced today the launch of a non-profit foundation dedicated to fostering artistic development in Dubai, and to creating cross-cultural exchange between local and international artists and scholars. Alserkal Arts Foundationwill offer cultural practitioners – either based in Dubai, or whose practice critically investigates themes pertinent to the region’s artistic community – opportunities for research, scholarship, and artistic production, through its four core initiatives: public art commissions, residencies, research grants, and educational programmes.
Abdelmonem Bin Eisa Alserkal said,
“Today we cement our commitment to fostering artistic development in
the region and beyond, with the establishment of Alserkal Arts
Foundation. When I founded Alserkal, I wanted to make a meaningful
contribution to arts and culture in the UAE and in the region – one that
was befitting of the values of the Alserkal family.”
Abdelmonem Bin Eisa Alserkal has a longstanding commitment to the
arts, both as a philanthropist and as the founder of Alserkal. A
socially responsible cultural enterprise, Alserkal has cultivated a
creative economy in Dubaithrough Alserkal Avenue, its renowned cultural
district of contemporary art galleries, non-profit organisations, and
homegrown businesses, and has supported cultural production through its
initiatives. The Foundation will serve as the non-profit arm of
Alserkal, providing a new, formalised structure for the organisation’s
existing non-profit activities, such as Alserkal Residency and its
annual public art commissions, in addition to developing new initiatives
that promote discourse in Dubai.All of Alserkal Arts Foundation’s
activities will be supported by Abdelmonem Bin Eisa Alserkal and the
Alserkal family.
Vilma Jurkute, Director of Alserkal, added:
“Giving back to our homegrown artistic community was always very
important not only for us as an organisation, but for Abdelmonem and the
entire Alserkal family. In establishing Alserkal Arts Foundation, we’re
continuing to challenge convention by fostering artistic development in
Dubai and by supporting collaborative, socially engaged and
multi-disciplinary practices.”
The Foundation will offer cultural practitioners a singular
opportunity to advance their projects through its four core initiatives.
The AlserkalResidency programme was established in 2017 as a platform
for artistic experimentation and dialogue, seeking to support
multi-disciplinary practitioners as they research themes pertinent to
their respective practices. The programme is designed to be immersive,
and to engage the local interdisciplinary community through a series of
public events and conversations. The Residency directly supports the
Foundation’s broader mission, focusing on research-based and socially
engaged practices.
Alserkal Arts Foundation’s public art commissions critically and
creatively investigate themes pertinent to the region’s arts community,
and support practitioners whose projects are collaborative,
participatory, and ephemeral. Today, Rhodiola, a project by
Athens-based collective 3 137 exploring the idea of maintenance in
everyday life, opens in Warehouse 90 (formerly Nadi Al Quoz), marking
the 19thartist commission. Alserkal Arts Foundation’s
commissions take place annually each spring. Alserkal Arts Foundation’s
Educational Programmes will be delivered through colloquia, seminars and
reading groups that are open to the general public and are interactive
and participatory in nature.
Alserkal Arts Foundation’s Research Grants are designed to support
radical, innovative and contemporary research that challenges
traditional modes of practice in a variety of fields. The grants are
intended to support inter-disciplinary proposals, comparative studies,
and societal discourses that link the arts, humanities and social
sciences in the context of the MEASA (Middle East, Africa and South
Asia). Individuals and collectives that dynamically aim to disrupt
conservative boundaries between conventional disciplines are invited to
apply. Potential grant awardees can include, but are not limited to,
multidisciplinary artists, architects, writers of fiction and
non-fiction, independent publishers, documentary filmmakers and
educators, geographers, historians, economists, and social scientists.
Applicants who demonstrate a strong interest in pursuing broad,
intersectional, and experimental approaches to research in their
respective fields are preferred.Submissions for the 2020 grants will
open on 1 October 2019, and remain open until 31 January 2020. Grants
will be issued for individuals up to US $5,000, duos and collectives up
to US $10,000, and independent publishers up to US $10,000. The first
grant recipients will be announced in Fall 2020.
Further details on each of the above initiatives will be announced in the coming months.
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