The inaugural Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial kicked off November 15. The event runs through April 30, 2025. Sponsored by the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, it features public art throughout Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. The biennale’s theme, “Public Matter,” aims to explore the “evolving concept of public space in Abu Dhabi through the lens of … environment, community, urbanity, and indigeneity.” It engages the community and promotes inclusivity, such as by designing exhibits with walkability in mind. The event showcases art installations and performances by more than 70 UAE-based and international artists, and the organizers say it “is a tribute to the importance of public art, a valuable resource that should be available to everyone.” While new installations will be added throughout the five-month program, the current installations can be viewed through eight main routes around Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, centered around key public spaces, such as the Corniche, bus station, and parks. A member of the event’s curatorial team, Alia Lootah, told The National that some of the works of art may become permanent fixtures in the city, though she noted the selections will depend partially on how the public interacts with each of them.

Public Art

Abu Dhabi as a canvas allows artists to create diverse works, especially those that invite public participation, a departure from how observers traditionally view art mainly in a museum. For example, the multifaceted work “Homesickness,” by Farah Al Qasimi, on the Corniche features five giant oysters, each with a luminous pearl. The installation is more than what it appears, however, with each pearl concealing an embedded speaker that plays tracks from the song “Tob, Tob Ya Bahar,” which was traditionally sung by the wives of pearl divers praying for their husbands’ safe return. Describing her inspiration, Al Qasimi wrote: “I wanted to make a choir of singing pearls for the Corniche (the place where I first discovered public art), and one that reflected the luminous building materials of downtown Abu Dhabi.”

Meanwhile, Pawel Althamer celebrates Abu Dhabi’s beloved population of stray cats through his unconventional work “Tentarium.” The work is a tent shaped as a cat, complete with eyes, ears, and a tail. The tent is guarded by a bronze sculpture of an anthropomorphic cat, Ari. Althamer invites visitors inside to draw and paint on its interior, and, as such, the work will look and feel drastically different by the close of the biennial in April.

An Eye Toward Accessibility

The biennial is a welcome addition to the city with the noteworthy focus on improving accessibility to art, where there has been much room to grow. One key barrier to access is the location of museums and galleries. The major arts institutions, including the Louvre Abu Dhabi and, slated to open in 2025, the Guggenheim, are located on Saadiyat Island, home to the Cultural District of Abu Dhabi. Saadiyat also hosts The Art Gallery at New York University Abu Dhabi and Manarat al Saadiyat, an arts and cultural center that is also one of the only places in the city to attend ceramics, photography, and painting workshops. The district’s first private institution, the Bassam Freiha Art Foundation, opened in May. Saadiyat is also home to the Abrahamic Family House, with the Zayed National Museum and Natural History Museum set to open in 2025.

The artificial Saadiyat Island is geographically separate from the city center, where the majority of the population resides. Most residents of the city center are migrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and other countries. These residents, on the whole, have drastically lower incomes than residents of the luxury Saadiyat Island, or recently developed Reem Island, and rely on public transportation. There are only three bus routes to Saadiyat, and paying the bus fare on top of museum ticket fees is prohibitive for many residents. Additionally, walking to Saadiyat is impossible because the highway that connects the island to the main city lacks sidewalks. Therefore, for most residents in the city, Abu Dhabi’s cultural institutions are largely inaccessible.

However, recent initiatives have meaningfully improved public access to the arts. The Rizq Art Initiative, which opened in September, is an independent cultural institution dedicated to facilitating artistic exchange, developing creative practice, and disseminating arts and culture from the Global South. The initiative was created and is “run by artists, researchers, and creative practitioners from trans-disciplinary fields.” In addition to exhibitions, the initiative offers presentations, residencies, short-term fellowships, and teaching-learning modules designed to address the “specific needs and strengths of the artistic community in the Global South while tackling the challenges they face.” Speaking to Design Middle East, the initiative’s executive director, Shafeena Yusuff Ali, asserted that “the richness of art from the Global South deserves a global stage, and RAI is committed to providing just that in the heart of Abu Dhabi.” The gallery is both free and physically accessible by foot or bike from the city center. Further, its focus on art from the Global South makes its exhibits and programming particularly relevant to the city center’s residents, many of whom are from the Global South.

Additionally, in 2020, the Abu Dhabi government commissioned artists to paint murals in public spaces across Abu Dhabi. While the stated objective was to increase Abu Dhabi’s appeal to international tourists, many of the murals are in the heart of Abu Dhabi city, which is not particularly frequented by tourists. Also, the 2024 Abu Dhabi International Book Fair provided a free pass to the Louvre Abu Dhabi with each ticket to the fair.

Local Art Scene 

Alongside both private and government-sponsored initiatives, local artists have been working at the grassroots level to improve access to the arts, especially music. “The music space in Abu Dhabi exists but perhaps not as openly and visibly as in the neighboring emirate of Dubai,” said Safeya Al Balooshi, a sound artist who experiments with found sound via participatory performance and installation. Her work has been presented or performed at Expo 2020 Dubai, Louvre Abu Dhabi, Alserkal Avenue, the Ircam Forum, the London Design Biennale, Festival X, the Sharjah Art Foundation, and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

According to Al Balooshi, the music scene is pretty accessible to most people, but she said, “I think the hard part is knowing where things happen, due to Instagram being a big way to know, and perhaps some events may not be accessible if alcohol is present.” However, she emphasized that open-mic events are “welcome to newcomers in the scene who want to try out the stage.” Al Balooshi expressed optimism about the future of the music scene in the city: “There is a focus shift on having local artists, as in those based in the UAE, not exclusively Emirati, being recognized outside of the country or even the region, as opposed to before where the primary goal was mostly to bring in internationally renowned artists.”

Prioritizing Arts Accessibility 

Alongside recent independent institutions like Rizq Arts Initiative and growing grassroot arts and music scenes, the ongoing Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial underscores Abu Dhabi’s increasing prioritization of arts accessibility for the city’s residents. While barriers to accessibility remain, notably the physical and financial inaccessibility of major cultural institutions, the increasing investment into public art shows a commitment by the government to close these gaps and expand access to the city’s cultural offerings.