New arts initiative in Dubai seeks to reimagine retail spaces

Khaleej Times

06-07-2025

Home Centre, the Middle East's leading home retailer, has officially launched Home Centre Collective — a region-first live performance series that reimagines its retail spaces as immersive stages for culture, creativity, and community across Saudi Arabia and UAE.
The platform reflects a growing creative energy across the GCC — particularly in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, where investment in arts, music, and cultural expression is on the rise. Home Centre Collective was born from this cultural moment, designed to be an ongoing space where authenticity, art, and community can meet and live, in-store.
'As a homegrown brand, we've always felt a responsibility to support the communities we serve and celebrate the talent within them,' Arja Taaveniku, CEO, Home Centre said.
Excerpts from an interview:
Q: What sparked the idea for Home Centre Collective?
A: The idea began with a desire to reimagine our spaces - not just as retail environments, but as cultural stages. As a homegrown brand, we've always felt a responsibility to support the communities we serve and celebrate the talent within them.
At the same time, the world is shifting - there's a growing appreciation for Middle Eastern creativity, identity, and culture. That moment of global openness inspired us to act. Home Centre Collective is our way of giving local voices a platform to be seen, heard, and celebrated.
Q: How does this change the role of retail in the region?
A: Retail is no longer just about products—it's about purpose. Consumers today expect more than convenience—they want to connect emotionally with the brands they support. Through Home Centre Collective, we're reshaping what retail means in the Middle East.
By turning our stores into spaces for expression, collaboration, and storytelling, we're showing that retail can be a platform for cultural contribution. It's about inviting creativity in, not as a gimmick, but as a genuine part of who we are as a homegrown brand leading a new cultural movement in the region.
Q: How do you hope to impact local creatives?
A: We want to empower, elevate, and amplify. For us, it's about giving creatives the space, visibility, and tools to express who they are—on their terms.
What makes this initiative powerful is the collaboration. We're not dictating the narrative—we're co-creating it with the artists. We listen to their vision, work with them to build performance environments that feel personal, and help them show up in a way that feels authentic and culturally grounded.
Q: How do you choose the artists?
A: We look for voices that are authentic, expressive, and relevant to the communities we serve. What's important to note—especially in the UAE—is that 'local' doesn't always mean Middle Eastern. We live in beautifully diverse cities where cultures cross-pollinate, and we welcome that global energy.
So, whether it's a Khaleeji musician or an Afrobeat artist based in Dubai, we want Home Centre Collective to represent the full spectrum of creativity that exists here—globally influenced, but locally grounded.
Q: Do artists help design their performance space?
A: Yes—artist collaboration is central to everything we do. The performance space is not just a backdrop—it's part of the story. We work closely with each artist to understand how they want to be seen and how their identity can be reflected visually.
Even though the setup has to be practical from a retail and production perspective, we tailor every element—from styling to atmosphere—to feel personal and expressive. It's about creating an environment that's as much theirs as it is ours.
Q: How does this tie into interior design as self-expression?
A: Interior design has always been about identity. At Home Centre, we believe your home is the most personal space you can create—it's where self-expression truly lives.
What we're doing with Collective is an extension of that idea. These spaces may be temporary installations, but they're designed to reflect the creative soul of each artist—just like a home reflects the person who lives in it. And through those designs, we invite our customers to see how creativity and home are deeply connected.
Q: Are there plans to expand beyond the UAE and KSA?
A: Yes - our ambition is to grow Home Centre Collective into a leading creative platform across the Middle East. There's incredible creative energy in the region, and we see a real opportunity to celebrate and elevate that through authentic, locally-rooted storytelling.
As the region continues to shape global conversations around design, culture, and identity, we believe the voices and talent we champion here can naturally resonate beyond our borders - sharing a Middle Eastern point of view with the world.