Abu Dhabi has decided that the performing arts deserve a permanent home. Dar Al Funoon. The House of the Arts.
That this home will be the late Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry’s final vision will grab many headlines, no doubt – and rightly so, given the emotional legacy it carries. Yet the real news for all of those who – like me – love Abu Dhabi and are active participants in its cultural life, is not the addition of a spectacular landmark to its skyline, but what this home means.
To choose to embrace the living arts in such a decisive way is the mark of a leadership that treats culture not as a luxury or an ornament, but as the beating heart of a nation’s life. With this world-class performing arts centre that will open in 2030 near Saadiyat Cultural District, one feels that Abu Dhabi is spreading its wings, entering a new chapter of its cultural journey.
Through its highly curated constellation of museums, the emirate has built one of the great cultural addresses of our time, where our roots as a nation in the Zayed National Museum meet the universal scope of the Louvre, and where heritage from the past enters into dialogue with the contemporary art of the soon-to-be-opened Guggenheim and the futuristic teamLab. Dar Al Funoon belongs to this family, yet it marks a turn.
With stages different in size, atmosphere and function ranging from a grand hall to an open-air amphitheatre, and from a studio theatre to an intimate room for jazz, it is the full spectrum of performing arts that is made possible not for a season or an event, but the year round. The museums offer us all the depth of what humanity has created and is creating.
Dar Al Funoon will give us something different: art that lives and offers its audience a performance that can never be quite the same twice. A great city is measured not only by the masterpieces it gathers but by the encounters and the inspiration it makes possible. These are the stories that will live in the magnificent design that will rise from the blessed ground of Abu Dhabi over the next four years.
And the beauty of it all is that every spectator will carry a story of their own. Indeed, the very nature of a performing arts centre is to be a place where memory is not conserved but where memories are made. The fleeting nature of the living arts is where part of their value lies – in addition, of course, to the talent of the artists and the strength of their performances.
Dar Al Funoon will give Abu Dhabi a place where culture is continually made. It will generate a constant hum of creativity that will feed the hearts, the lives and the imaginations of generations of residents and visitors of the capital.
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Zayed National Museum offers a portrait of life across the Emirates. Seen here, a leather and copper mihzam belt, which was typically worn by those who guarded their neighbourhoods. All photos: Victor Besa / The National -
Crescent-shaped necklace, from 1950s Ajman, shows the ways in which precious stones were used in jewellery -
Artefacts aside, the museum's permanent collections also feature statues of families and tribes practising their crafts and traditions -
Copy of Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi's Kitab Suwar al-Kawakib Al-Thabita (The Book of Fixed Stars), from 1341 -
Book of the Plans of all the Fortresses, Cities and Towns of the State of the East Indies, by Antonio de Mariz Carneiro, 1639, is one of the first examples of a mapped area of the UAE -
The rababa, an instrument made with animal skin, wood, nylon string and metal studs, was donated to the museum by UAE resident Mohamed Ahmed Alkendi Almarar -
A kamal, left, a navigational tool made with wood and string, and an astrolabe, were both instruments used by seafarers -
Umm Kulthum's pearl necklace, gifted to her by UAE Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, is on display at the museum -
The museum is peppered with quotes by Sheikh Zayed that reinforce the call for heritage preservation
An ambition of this scale is sure to attract widespread international attention – and, along with this interest, some of the world’s finest companies, orchestras and operas. Yet this is not where the most exciting promise lies. Dar Al Funoon will be of a place of its own: Abu Dhabi. And its voice will rise from here.
The world’s most legendary stages became universal not by attempting to cater to international expectations but because they were institutions unmistakably of a place, offering their own take on repertory pieces or new creations. The Bolshoi is what it is because it is uniquely Russian. The world embraces l’Opera National de Paris because it is fully itself, of its own culture.
The promise of Dar Al Funoon is not only to welcome the world’s excellence but also to offer to the world Abu Dhabi’s excellence, by developing an artistic voice and an ability to articulate what is uniquely itself. And it will travel because it is profoundly from here, Abu Dhabi, the UAE, the Arab world.
As we celebrate the Year of Family in the UAE, perhaps we should look at Dar Al Funoon from this perspective. Once open, this performing arts centre will become a home that will house an ever-evolving family of artists.
This matters because artists need more than just a stage. They need a place to belong. I have worked with young artists from the Emirates and the region for the past three decades. Watching them suddenly realise they have not an audience but their audience is the most beautiful thing to witness. It gives them wings. Belonging gives them the confidence to find their own voice, rather than wander around, borrowing the voices of others.
For Emirati and Arab talent, Dar Al Funoon will change everything. As this permanent home develops its partnerships, its residencies, and enters into co-productions following its own tastes and explorations, this House of the Arts will act as a lighthouse guiding all Emirati and Arab artists to it, reassuring them, and telling them and the world: “We are Abu Dhabi. Art matters here. This is your home.”
Only a true cultural capital can extend such an invitation.
