Art Jameel announces residency for arts writers and researchers

How many of us have blamed a lack of time for our failure to produce that defining piece of research or writing? With this in mind, Art Jameel, an organisation that supports the arts across the Middle East, is offering a threemonth residency to an arts writer – a critic, historian or curator, perhaps. They will be given the time and space, as well as access to Art Jameel’s archives and extensive network of arts organisations across the UAE, to develop their research and produce a body of work. Applicants for this residency, called Art Jameel Commissions: Arts Writing and Research, must submit a proposal by November 30. The winner, who will be announced in March next year, will take up their place at the Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai in 2019, with the expectation that the work should be completed by the end of 2020. The pieces will then be available to the public at the Jameel Library. Proposals on all subjects are welcomed, but preference will be given to those which tackle the themes of Jameel Art Centre’s current programme: confluence; museology; and the GCC. The panel of judges that will decide the winner includes curator Omar Berrada and the writers Negar Azimi and Nida Ghouse. This is the second instalment of the Art Jameel Commissions series. The first, which focused on sculpture, was awarded to Kuwait artists Alia Farid and Aseel Al Yaqoub, whose finished work, Contrary Life: A Botanical Light Garden Devoted to Trees, will be unveiled at the opening of Dubai’s Jameel Arts Centre. Applications for the third and final commission, for drawing and painting, will open next year. For more information, visit www.artjameel.org.