Breaking into the Middle East, Art Basel will open a fair in Doha
Art Basel is expanding again.
Next year the Swiss-based art fair will open an edition in Doha, Qatar's capital city. 'We're starting small,' says Art Basel CEO Noah Horowitz. 'This is going to come to market in February next year in a very considered and measured way.'
The inaugural fair, Horowitz says, will include booths from about 50 galleries. This will be Art Basel's fifth global trade fair, and mark its first presence in the region. (Its existing fairs are in Hong Kong, Miami, Paris and in the original Swiss location—for which the brand is named.) At each location, an international roster of galleries meet an equally global group of collectors and art world professionals, who hobnob for several days amid openings, dinners, and parties.
The new fair is a partnership between Art Basel, Qatar Sports Investments, and QC+, an organization that describes itself as a 'strategic and creative collective.' The fair will be held in the Doha Design District in downtown Msheireb.
'As part of His Highness the Amir's National Vision 2030, Qatar has been transforming itself into a knowledge-based economy, with culture and the creative industries helping to lead the way,' wrote Sheikha Al Mayassa Bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the chairperson of Qatar Museums, in a statement.
'As Qatar Museums marks its 20th anniversary, we are pleased to welcome the Art Basel organization as our partner to further elevate Qatar's initiatives to support the creative industries of our region, offering exceptional new artistic experiences and opportunities to our talent.'
The news comes at a delicate moment for art fairs and the art market more generally. A recent Art Basel and UBS market report detailed the drop in gallery participation in art fairs in 2024, due, at least in part, to rising costs. Additionally, the report found that the art market had become more regional, making it more difficult for big art fairs that rely on global attendance.
But Horowitz says the timing is right. 'It's an extraordinary opportunity to lean in together and to open, in a really substantial way, a new path for our clients to develop relationships and support the progression of their artists' careers,' he says. It's also, he continues, a way to 'help accelerate, and further broadcast, the unbelievable investment and infrastructure that our partners locally have been making.'
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