Alserkal Initiatives

Call for Partners and Collaborators! Returning for its 12th edition on January 25-26, 2025, Quoz Arts Fest by Alserkal celebrates contemporary culture from the Arab world. Last year, over 75 creative brands and 35,000 attendees made it a huge success. 2025 promises to be even bigger! We invite local entrepreneurs, culinary businesses, creatives, and bold homegrown concepts to join us. If your brand embodies the eclectic spirit of Quoz Arts Fest, be part of this cultural extravaganza, connect, discover, and leave your mark. Submit your application on www.quozartsfest.ae The submission deadline is 5 August 2024. You can expect a response by 31 August 2024.

✨Now Open! ✨ Your new favorite all-day dining spot is now open at Alserkal Come have a coffee, share a meal, or have it all on your own. #comidamexicana #lila #lilaMolino #homegrown #dubai #jumeriah #DXBfoodies #locallysourced #Mexican #Tacos #color #Granola #Housemade #Baked #Fresh #Fruit #AllDayBreakfast

The 10th Annual Convening of the Global Cultural Districts Network (GCDN) opened this week in Athens. Our executive director Vilma J. and Fiza Akram, director of Alserkal Advisory, and Shannon A., senior manager of community relations at Alserkal Avenue, are at the convening to support a workshop by South African artist, Io Makandal Schiess, guiding participants to engage with tactile soil materials as a process of re-membering and mending a connection to Earth - relationship building as a form of artistic activism. The workshop is an opportunity to tacitly engage in the ethos and methodology of The Global Co-commission 'A Feral Commons’, which was initiated and driven by Alserkal Advisory in partnership with GCDN to commission site-specific public art that responds to local environmental imperatives whilst documenting principles of responsible commissioning in an era of escalating climate crisis. GCDN brings together policymakers, planners and executives from diverse international contexts, all working at the intersection of culture and sustainable urban development. Over the years, it’s been especially rewarding to see other districts from the Middle East become part of GCDN. Hosted by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) with support from AEA Consulting, this year’s convening is an invitation to explore how cultural districts can become centres of social and cultural activity at the heart of public life. In a period of growing polarisation, the role of cultural districts as architects of places that uphold the values of inclusivity and openness is more important than ever. The convening’s discussions go a long way towards tackling the challenges that we collectively face by relying on expert counsel and learning from each others' experiences. Adrian Ellis Camille Chedda Andrea Dempster Chung Kingston Creative Tairone Bastien UAP | Urban Art Projects

The Alserkal Arts Foundation family is growing! We're on the lookout for a Commissions Manager to join the team. In this role, you'll have the opportunity to plan and manage the commissioning and production process for public art projects. We'd love to hear from you if you are a solutions oriented person with experience of working with artists and curators on large scale projects, coordinating and adhering to timelines, and ensuring the successful execution of art installations with patience and perseverance. Explore the job description through the link below and submit your application. https://lnkd.in/d5uvQYH9 — Visual: Timo Nasseri, Sentinels I-IV, 2023 Sahand Hesamiyan, Passage, 2022 Sarah Almehairi, dont overlook the weather (as your thoughts collect), 2023 Dima Srouji, This Is Not Your Grave, 2024

Interested in the not for profit, intellectually rich, totally committed to bringing great ideas to life side of the art world? Come work with us at Alserkal Arts Foundation.

We’re hiring! Our Alserkal Arts Foundation family is seeking a Manager to join the team. We're looking for an experienced team leader with in-depth knowledge of the art and culture world to come on board and manage our team to effectively deliver a variety of projects.   You need to have great interpersonal skills, be an amazing organizer and have a true passion for the arts. If this sounds like you then explore the job description through the link below and submit your application. https://lnkd.in/dcesEVUB

We hosted our art family from all over the world at the Navy Officers’ Club during the 60th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia. This year, the gathering was held on the occasion of ‘When Solidarity Is Not a Metaphor', in partnership with Cité internationale des arts and in collaboration with Lightbox. Our immense gratitude to all artists, contributors and the curator of the exhibition who were present on this day. Together with our partners, we created this exhibition with the intent to converge for shared contemplation and mutual exchange. We endeavoured to shape a public-facing yet intimate space in defiance of our increasingly polarised world where places of meaningful exchange are rapidly shrinking. Vilma J. Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez Benedicte Alliot

On April 19, Day 4 of 'When Solidarity is Not a Metaphor': “We bear witness to a multiplicity of ‘-cides’ everywhere—genocides, ecocides, homicides—many of them invisible—continue to unfold in various parts of the world. At this moment in time, how can we talk about anything else?” — Vilma J., Executive Director, Alserkal Initiatives, during the breakfast held for friends and extended art family, on the occasion of ‘When Solidarity Is Not a Metaphor'. Vilma Jurkute, curator of the exhibition Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez, and director of Cité internationale des arts Benedicte Alliot spoke about the conception of the exhibition as a collective attempt with artists and contributors to engage with 'solidarity' as lived practice, beyond mere theory. Later in the day, Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman held an emotionally-charged public space where visitors shared about what gave them hope and what angered them. Through debate, visitors experienced a communal initiation to resistance. In the second heart-to-heart conversation, Rehaf Al Batniji & Bani Khoshnoudi, with host Elena Sorokina, had a genuine, unscripted exchange on what deeply matters to artists as they respond to the world through their work.

On April 18, Day 3 at ‘When Solidarity Is Not a Metaphor’: “This is not a performance. There is no escape. Art does not have to be an escape. It can be a point of fuelling our praxis, our observations, and encourage us to share.” — Saul Williams, as he and Anisia Uzeyman opened an intimate space where participants exchanged poetry, readings, thoughts and experiences around individual and social injustice. Over cups of coffee, DAAR duo Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti invited passers-by to talk about Palestine. In private sessions, participants spoke to Adelita Husni-Bey as she mapped their emotional and physical pain on paper as a visual testimony. R22 Tout-Monde, an avant-garde radio that brings together sounds from around the world of the commons and art, held a live session, broadcasting selected programming from the exhibition. Audio courtesy: Saul Williams, Encrypted & Vulnerable ft. Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah.

We welcomed His Excellency Salem bin Khalid Al Qassimi, UAE Minister of Culture, to our exhibition ‘When Solidarity Is Not a Metaphor’ in Venice. He was received by Abdelmonem Bin Eisa Alserkal, Founder of Alserkal Initiatives, and Vilma J., Executive Director of Alserkal Initiatives, who presented the exhibition together with the curator, Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez. We are grateful for his visionary leadership and the ambition to create pivotal cultural projects.