The Institute for emerging ArtI established The Institute for Emerging Art in 2020 to support early career artists develop their practice in the UAE, The Institute was a not-for-profit organisation, fully funded privately, in order to facilitate new ways to engage with contemporary art.
Our aim was to increase access to funding, residency, and exhibition opportunities and expanding audiences for all forms of making in the visual arts. The Institute drew on partnerships across various institutions to deliver a series of programmes that aim to enhance practical and historical knowledge and strengthen ties within the sector. We collaborated with leading artists, funders, curators, and other cultural workers to bring together knowledge, methods, experiences, and dialogues which help artists thrive. Together our incredible team, The Institute was able to make such a great impact on the eco-system, in the four years it was in operation.
421: Artist Toolkit: Strategies for Applying to Open Calls
421
15-17 December 2023
This course addresses the challenges artists and creative practitioners face when applying for open calls, grants, and other career opportunities. The Institute’s former Director, introduces strategies on how to find and apply for the right opportunities for your career, and best practices when it comes to application writing. The course includes contributions by industry professionals who will share insights into how application committees make decisions when deliberating on a grant or open-call panel. The sessions will also touch on common application requirements, misconceptions, and effective approaches to a successful application.
Jameel Arts Centre: Creative Careers Days
In Conversation: "So, you are not the curator?”
09 October 2023
The Institute for Emerging Art and Alisa Fung, Director of Sales at Aisha Alabbar Gallery, shared their experiences of working within the art gallery sector. Their discussion focussed on the disparate functions and roles required to facilitate the smooth running of a global commercial contemporary art gallery. Our speakers focussed on accounting, law, database management, graphic design, artist liaison, marketing and sales.
Jameel Arts Centre: Creative Careers Days
Instagram for Artists: Maximise Your Impact
08 October 2023
The Institute for Emerging Art hosted a career skills seminar which focussed on how artists can maximise their use of Instagram to further their professional profiles. The seminar taught participants to make the most of this platform and how to consolidate pubic profiles. The Institute also offered one-to-one surgeries providing bespoke assessments of each individual’s Instagram profile.
In Conversation With: Virtual discussions with established creatives
Online
26 September 2023
The Institute for Emerging Art participated in Misk Art Institute's weekly virtual talks discussing the local art scene and the complexities of entering the art market. This series is designed to help emerging artists navigate opportunities in the arts industry.
The Institute Crits
Online
18 July 2023
On July 18th, we will be giving artists a chance to present their work in a group crit led by the Institute for Emerging Art. The session will provide an opportunity to receive feedback and advice and to explore questions raised by the work.
Aisha Alabbar Gallery
Reading Group: Printmaking and Social Movements Facilitated by Ivan Knapp, Head of Programmes, The Institute
8, 15, 22 June 2023
As part of Press Print!, the reading group titled "Printmaking and Social Movements" will consider key technical, historical, and intellectual frameworks for the development of printmaking practices in contemporary art and art history. Using a thematic approach each session will be structured around terms which comprise a print vocabulary.
Aisha Alabbar Gallery
Talk: Printmaking Introduction
31 May 2023
Together with printmaker and artist Ji-Hye Kim, The Institute for Emerging Art held an introductory talk highlighting the many aspects of printmaking as an artistic practice. This talk supports the Press Print! exhibition currently on view at Aisha Alabbar Gallery.
421: Artistic Development Program
Nassir Nasallah ”Poetic of Machines”
18 May 2023
‘Poetic of Machines’ is Nasir Nasrallah’s new solo exhibition resulting from the 2023 edition of the Artistic Development Exhibition Program in collaboration with 421. Nasir presents a mythical exploration of the relationship between humans and machines. With over 30 new artworks, including intricate drawings, paintings, textiles, publications, and installations, it creates a world of mechanical creatures in an unknown space and time. The exhibition showcases detailed drawings and paintings of various robotic figures presented in groups that suggest a community of machines. Nasir explores the communication and interaction between these machines and how they can affect our daily lives, inviting us to consider the impact of machines on our relationship with them.
Critical Practice Programme
Talk: Nooks of Power
17 May 2023
Sophiya Khawaja and The Institute for Emerging Art discuss how Sophiya’s practice has changed, the journey in the Critical Practice Programme 2022, and its impact on the new body of work presented in her first solo show at Tashkeel, UAE.
Artist Talk: Ala Younis
Online
02 May 2023
Ala will discuss some of her recent projects and the way in which her work explores transnational histories and identities. Ala will also talk about some of the practical and professional challenges she has faced in her career and how they have shaped her practice.
As an artist, researcher and curator, Ala Younis has explored the formation of the modern Arab world and the potential for renewed thought and action the era continues to inspire. She is co-Head of Berlinale’s Forum Expanded, co-artistic director of Singapore Biennale 2022, and research scholar at al Mawrid Arab Center for the Study of Art in New York University Abu Dhabi. She co-founded (with Maha Maamoun) the non-profit publishing initiative Kayfa ta. Younis’ work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at VIPER, Prague (2020); Sharjah Art Foundation (2018); Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Seville (2018); and Darat al Funun, Amman (2009), among others.
Workshop: Communicating your practice with Robert Spragg Founding Director of general information
Online
11 April 2023
Robert will be drawing on his extensive experience of working with early-career artists to discuss the different ways and contexts in which artists might need to talk about their practice and articulate their research interests.
general information is a commissioning office focused on exhibitions, writing, and new developments in contemporary art. In addition, general information produces artist research with a specialist focus on emerging and undervalued artists. Prior to founding general information Robert worked with artists and on exhibitions at White Cube and Stephen Friedman. He has also worked with a number of emerging and established artists. This workshop is free; however, registration is required.
421: Artist Toolkit: Strategies for Applying to Open Calls
In-person at 421
17 - 19 March 2023
The three-day course focused on the difficulties artists and creatives face when applying for open calls, grants, and opportunities. In this course, we discuss how to write applications and find the right opportunities. Contributions from industry professionals were included in the course as they will share insights into how application committees make decisions when assessing on a grant or open call panel. The sessions covered common application requirements, misinterpretations, and different approaches to successful applications.
421: Artistic Development Program
Mahshid Rafiei “Of Mythic Proportions”
05 February 2023
‘Of Mythic Proportions’ is the first institutional solo exhibition by Mahshid Rafiei, resulting from 421’s Artistic Development Program, a partnership between The Institute for Emerging Art and 421. Rafiei's work is based on extensive research in areas such as language, conservation practices, and the relationship between heritage and nationhood. The exhibition explores the myth of origin and aesthetic processes of conservation. The works are about language and the difference between allegory, symbol and metaphor as they materialize in concrete forms. She attempts to redefine the nature of representation and offers that it can be held in the viewer's mind.
UNESCO Symposium Chair in Democracy, Global Citizenship and Transformative Education Talk: Visual Literacy as social action: Photography praxis for social change
Online
27 October 2022
This panel discussion made up of Miranda McKee, Kevin Jones, The Institute for Emerging Art, Rohit Goel reflected upon a series of dialogical, visual literacy workshops hosted by Juniper Mind in late 2020 and considered photography praxis for social change.
Jameel Arts Centre: Creative Careers Days
Talk: Artistic Practice: from school years to a professional career
24 October 2022
Former Director of The Institute for Emerging Art Jolaine Frizzell moderated a conversation with Nasser Alzayani, Moza Almatrooshi and Rand Abdul Jabbar focusing on their journeys to artistic success, focusing on how they developed their practices, through often unexpected career twists and turns.
Jameel Arts Centre: Creative Careers Days
Skills Workshop: Instagram for Artists: Maximise Your Impact!
23 October 2022
This workshop focused on how artists can maximise their impact on Instagram to further develop their career.
Tashkeel: Critical Practice Programme
Talk: So to Speak
12 October 2022
Shamma Al Amri and Former Director of The Institute for Emerging Art Jolaine Frizzell discuss how the non-Arabic speaker can access the work presented in Shamma’s exhibition as well as her journey in the Critical Practice Programme 2022 and its impact on the trajectory of her art practice.
Critical Thinking Lecture Series
Rosalind Krauss, Grids
11 October 2022
As part of The Institute’s Critical Thinking Lecture Series, Joanna Lee presented Rosalind Krauss’s essay “Grids”.
421: Artistic Development Program
Mohammed Khalid “Let Me Tell You Something”
09 October 2022
‘Let me tell you something’ is the first institutional solo exhibition by UAE-based artist Mohamed Khalid, resulting from 421’s Artistic Development Program, a partnership between The Institute for Emerging Art and 421. The exhibition examines the materiality of everyday objects and coaxes out their metaphoric potential, exploring the connectivity of the artist's subjects and their frangible correlation to human beings.
421: Artistic Development Program
Discussion: Abstraction and Politics in Visual Art
21 May 2022
Former Director of The Institute for Emerging Art Jolaine Frizzell and Jill Magi discussed abstraction in art and its political resonances during her exhibition “The Weft In Pencil”.
421: Artistic Development Program
Exhibition: Jill Magi, “The Weft In Pencil”
21 May 2022
Jill Magi’s first solo exhibition “The Weft in Pencil” is a body of work resulting from the Artistic Development Program, a partnership between The Institute for Emerging Art and 421. Magi presents works which are rooted in grid or matrix formations, the intersection of wrap and weft. The works are inspired by an encounter Magi had when she fortuitously discovered images of North African indigo textiles in a university library book.
421: Artistic Development Program
Discussion: Failure and The Artistic Process
27 February 2022
“Out of Range” opening included a talk where Ammar Al Attar and Nasser Abdullah will discuss failure as part of the artistic process, moderated by Former Director of The Institute for Emerging Art Jolaine Frizzell.
421: Artistic Development Program
Exhibition: Ammar Al Attar, “Out of Range”
27 February 2022
The first solo exhibition by Ammar Al Attar resulting from the Artistic Development Program held in partnership with 421 Al Attar presents an all new body of work in performance and video, questioning the extent to which people accept the repetitive, stagnant situation and their indifference to change speaking to this position of comfort that makes individuals like machines without a soul.
Sotheby’s Dubai
Artist Talk with Dr. Najat Makki: I Write In Color
27 October 2021
Dr. Najat Makki and Former Director of The Institute for Emerging Art Jolaine Frizzell spoke together about her practice to accompany the artist's solo exhibition 'I Write in Colour'.
Visual Literacy: Protest! Exhibiting Pain
Interactive Workshop on Zoom
2 December 2020
Exhibiting Pain is part of the 2-hour weekly sessions held from 18 November to 09 December 2020, in collaboration with Juniper Mind.
Visual Literacy: Protest! How Do Images Take Sides?
Interactive Workshop on Zoom
25 November 2020
How Do Images Take Sides? is part of the 2-hour weekly sessions held from 18 November to 09 December 2020, in collaboration with Juniper Mind.
The Visual Literacy: Protest! – The Anatomy of Protest
Interactive Workshop on Zoom
18 November 2020
The Institute for Emerging Art led 4 sessions of interactive workshops on the pedagogic interests of the many protests swirling around us 4-2-hour weekly sessions were held from 18 November to 9 December 2020, in collaboration with Kevin Jones from the Juniper Mind.
The Art Circle: Picturing the Invisible
Zoom
28 June 2020
Held in collaboration with Abu Dhabi-based The Art Circle, Picturing the Invisible features a conversation with Ammar. Abd Rabbo, Erika Larsen, and Shannon Taggart.
Art and Artists in Times of Disruption II
Zoom
21 May 2020
In this installation of 421 Conversation, our speakers tackle the topic of art and artists in times of disruption with a long-sighted view. Nadine Khalil moderate a diverse panel of players in the arts ecosystem.
Granted: Gulf Artist Grant Writing Support
Online
27 April - 31 August 2020
In recognition of the UK Artist Grant Writing Support initiative, Granted: Gulf Artist Grant Writing Support has been launched as a local network of arts professionals within the contemporary art ecosystem. This network, led by The Institute for Emerging Art with Juniper Mind, has been established in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on artists