COURTESY THE ARTIST AND GYPSUM GALLERY, CAIRO
As part of its ongoing effort to diversify its modern and contemporary holdings, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Art Jameel will launch a new partnership. The Saudi Arabia–based nonprofit announced the news ahead of the winter 2018 opening of its new space, the Jameel Arts Centre Dubai.
The partnership will allow the Met to acquire more modern and contemporary work by Middle Eastern artists—an area of art history that has been of interest to many museums in Europe and the United States of late. Art Jameel recently helped the museum acquire work by Egyptian artist Maha Maamoun.
The Jameel Arts Centre Dubai will be one of the first nonprofit contemporary art institutions in the United Arab Emirates. It will occupy some 107,640 square feet, and will be designed by the British firm Serie Architects. The Dia Art Foundation’s director, Jessica Morgan, and curator and writer Murtaza Vali are currently overseeing the arts center’s curatorial council.
In a statement, Art Jameel’s president, Fady Mohammed Jameel, said that the partnership with the Met and the inauguration of the Jameel Arts Centre Dubai “[strengthens] our programs in Saudi Arabia, across the Arab World and internationally.”