Since its inception, Art Jameel has worked in partnership with a wide diversity of artists’ collectives, organisations and government bodies; these relationships are outlined in our History pages.
In May 2017, we announced a collaboration with the National Pavilion UAE – la Biennale di Venezia to support the exhibition ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors: Positions in Play’ at the 2017 Venice Biennale. Working with the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation and exhibition curator Hammad Nasar, the collaboration focussed on an intensive six-month research period in the lead-up to the exhibition. The research has not only informed the accompanying publication, but it also contributes to the Jameel Arts Centre Research Library’s focus on arts histories of the UAE and GCC.
Current partners include Jeddah Municipality, with whom we collaborated to launch Jeddah Sculpture Museum, a park that includes 20 major, restored public art works by Saudi and international artists, including Henry Moore, Joan Miro and Alexander Calder, among others.
In 2017, Art Jameel (and the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage) completed construction of the Abdul Latif Jameel Centre for Antiquities and Heritage in the historic city of Faid, in Ha’il in northern Saudi Arabia. This new museum has been designed in the style of the citadel of Faid and other desert palaces, with open courtyards and a crenelated roof, and will exhibit antiquities excavated from the nearby archaeological site of Faid. The black walls of volcanic rock have been uncovered and carefully restored by the Saudi Commission of Tourism and National Heritage, to give visitors the feeling of the citadel and houses that were once here. Watercourses and cemeteries have also been uncovered, including during the construction of the museum.
Ha’il and its surrounding area is a historically-rich region of Saudi Arabia, and includes two UNESCO World Heritage sites: the Nabataean rock-tombs at Mada’in Saleh, and the prehistoric rock-carvings at Jubbah.
In 2015, the Jameel Arts Foundation collaborated with Culturunners and the Middle East Institute to organise a programme dedicated to cultural preservation, civic awareness and the empowerment of women artisans. Our Mothers’ House, a large mural (23m x 2m) created by the women artisans of Asir, a region in Southern Saudi Arabia, was displayed at the UN Headquarters in New York, USA.
We also partnered with Culturunners to develop Our Mother’s House as a platform for the production and sales of Asiri art works and artefacts.
