Dr Rita Risser (United Arab Emirates University, IASH Fellow): Civility, Art and Emancipation on the Arab Peninsula.

Event date: 
Wednesday 3 August to Thursday 4 August
Location: 
The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, 2 Hope Park Square

Dr Rita Risser (United Arab Emirates University, IASH Fellow): Civility, Art and Emancipation on the Arab Peninsula.

The rise of a spectacular international art world on the Arab Peninsula is especially conspicuous in the state of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Far less conspicuous is the rise of a civil or grassroots art world. I question whether an authoritarian but nevertheless paternal and beneficent government is sufficient to support the rise of a civil art world on the Arab Peninsula. I have my doubts. Though, I note the unexpected ways in which a civil art world is nevertheless cautiously emerging on the Peninsula.