Warehouse421 unveil it's strategic five-year plan on the occasion of its fifth anniversary

Abu Dhabi | Warehouse421, the home-grown arts and design center dedicated to showcasing and nurturing creative production across the region, unveils its five-year strategy on the occasion of its fifth anniversary. Designed as a strategic expansion of its programs and operations, It will further the center's ability to act as a platform for multi-disciplinary creatives within the region.

Launched in 2015, Warehouse421 championed throughout the last five years, a range of public programs, exhibitions, and educational initiatives that supported emerging creative practices, developed mechanisms for artistic exchange, and stimulated critical discourse through a series of activations, conferences, and publications.

Since its establishment, Warehouse421 positioned itself as a locale for emerging artists to learn, experiment, and exhibit. Simultaneously, its strategic location and its public programming's breadth enabled access for diverse audiences in the UAE and the greater region.

Today, as the center marks its fifth year in the UAE, it unveils a strategic framework for the next five years focusing on three core disciplines, Contemporary Visual Arts, Architecture and Design, and Film and Moving Image and how they intersect with the tangential ones, Performance, Literary Arts, Sonic Arts and Traditional Arts. These disciplines are further developed through a framework that provides the public and targeted audiences with engagement and exchange opportunities.

The framework includes; Exhibitions, General Public Program, Capability Building Programs, Educational Programs and Off-site Projects. 

Faisal Al Hasan, Head of Warehouse421 said; "We are delighted to be sharing highlights of our strategy with our creative partners and the public. Since our establishment five years ago, we strived to provide a platform for our creative community's growth while staying true to its social context. Today, and on our anniversary, we share with the public an outline of our strategy that we will roll out gradually between 2021-2025. In its essence, lies the support for the development of the local and regional emerging creative practice."

Outline of the Strategy

Exhibitions

Exhibitions are at the forefront of Warehouse421's public offerings, and many of their other

programs will continue to overlap and intersect with them. Exhibitions grant the most visibility for curatorial and visual research without compromising its depth and rigor, thus opening up doors and adding valuable experience to the exhibiting creative practitioners.

Warehouse421's exhibitions will be the main program that focuses on core disciplines and how they intersect with the tangential ones.

Exhibitions on visual arts, architecture, design, or new media can always interact meaningfully

with the performing arts, literary arts, and sonic arts, by intentionally finding interdisciplinary creatives that work across these disciplines, a practice that continues to increase in its popularity.

General Public Program

Warehouse421's public program works in tandem with its exhibitions to open up access to the culturally-curious into creative disciplines. With a stronger focus on immersive dialogue, hands-on interaction, and micro-skill-building, the programs allow the general public (children, teenagers, young adults, parents, or professionals of different fields) to engage in critical conversations and get nuanced insight into various creative processes.

The programs also offer creative practitioners the opportunity to practice knowledge-transfer, build a teaching portfolio, and engage in a broader and richer dialogue on their work and processes.

Warehouse421 offers a wide range of various programs, including but not limited to workshops, talks, film programs, and digital programs.

Capacity Building Programs

The capacity building programs are one of the most exciting new additions to Warehouse421. The programs evolved from insights identified through focus groups and studying the response to Warehouse421’s general public programs. The programs invite creative practitioners in the early-mid stage of their careers and demonstrate a commitment to their chosen creative field.

The Capacity Building Program includes Design Research Commons, Developmental Exhibitions Programs, Warehouse421 Artist Residency, and Warehouse421 Artistic Research Grant. 

• Design Research Commons

The Design Research Commons is a program that identifies a significant local and regional cadre of talent in design and architecture, but also acknowledges a lack in critical approaches and theoretical articulations of design that are accessible to the practitioners.

Some of the programs include; Dukkan421-  featuring products that reflect Warehouse421’s commitment to fostering local and regional talent. 100/100: Hundred Best Arabic Posters - one of Warehouse421’s staple programs that started as a dynamic platform to financially support visual artists, has grown towards a more profound engagement by documenting the Arab world's visual culture by selecting and highlighting the region's best Arabic posters. Furthermore, the Design Research Commons will also include other projects, collaborating with UAE design practitioners and academics, that takes a critical approach to regional design pedagogy, archiving, and practice.

Experimental Programs in Design is one of the highlights of the Design Research Commons program that follows two of Warehouse421’s central core values: experimentation and courage. The core concept of this program element is to provide Warehouse421 the opportunity to test innovative programs before considering them as part of the regular program. Selected programs will have proven to provide tremendous value, backed by extensive research and benchmarking.

• Developmental Exhibitions Programs

Warehouse421 designed Developmental Exhibitions Programs to support the creative community with their curatorial, artistic, and operational skill sets. For Warehouse421, every exhibition provides a learning opportunity and a space for growth and development.

The Curatorial Development Exhibition Program will allow emerging local and regional curators to work with expert pedagogical partners. This program aims to hone practices and build skill sets that aid future curators in developing successful exhibitions. Through an open call, emerging curators will have the opportunity to apply to a program that considers both practical and theoretical pedagogical structures that will offer the chance to understand spatial and operational decisions alongside curatorial concepts.

The Artistic Development Exhibition Program emphasizes the professional and creative development of its participating artists supported by experienced art educators, senior curators, and the Warehouse421 team. Through a structured educational model of production, the artists will work towards a polished exhibition of high caliber.

Additionally, the Operational Development Exhibition is a program that results in a benchmark exhibition at Warehouse421. This program will offer art professionals the chance to engage with various scaffolding parts essential to making an exhibition and keeping cultural institutions running, from the administration, communication, project coordination, exhibition design, program design, and education.

• Warehouse421 Artist Residency

The Residency Program supports Warehouse421's mission to contribute to the regional cultural ecosystem by fostering a multidimensional engagement of local and regional talents with the public community. The program provides emerging talents the opportunity to develop their practices within a community-context. It builds on Warehouse421's public and programmatic offerings, providing a richer experience for artists and an entry-point for the public to access the artistic process, amplifying the residency's impact and allowing it to resonate beyond the nucleus of an artist's practice and into the community's education and cultural literacy.

The Residency Program is open to practitioners in visual arts, architecture, design, and new media and film and encourages projects that intersect with performance art, literary art, and sonic art.

This year, and with the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the residency program reimagined its structure with the Homebound Residency Program that enabled practitioners to work on their practices within familiar spaces while also enjoying the offerings of a residency program: training, mentorship, and resource allocation.

• Warehouse421 Artistic Research Grant

Warehouse421's Artistic Research Grant is an annual program that supports social inquiry in creative disciplines. The program contributes to the center's mission to support rigorous and sustained artistic research and is open to local and regional emerging creative practitioners.

Creative practitioners can work through disciplines including but not limited to visual art and curations, design and technology, literary arts, culinary arts, music, theater, and performance. Warehouse421 will announce more information soon.

Education Program

At the core of all the programs championed and delivered by Warehouse421 is education. All educational programs are designed to promote and encourage access, engagement, and learning. With structured  targeting of educational audiences that are curious in cultural production and careers, Warehouse421 educational offerings encourage high school students, undergraduate and postgraduate students and early-career creative practitioners to engage with the creative disciplines.

Educational programs are developed in partnership with specialists in structural educational institutions, People of Determination specialists, in addition to regional and international partners. Warehouse421 will offer Reading Room Programs, Outreach Programs, Internship and mentorship opportunities, Student Docent Program and Community-Specific Programs.

The community-specific programs are developed in tandem with specific communities and work on a top-down approach in conversations and collaborations with specialists. For the upcoming year, Warehouse421 education program will focus on teens and People of Determination.

To learn more about Warehouse421’s current and upcoming projects, please visit www.warehouse421.ae 

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Join the conversation on the center’s social media channels, using the hashtag #warehouse421

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About Warehouse421:

Warehouse421 is a home-grown arts and design center dedicated to showcasing and nurturing creative production across the region. Working in collaboration with local, regional, and international entities. It aims to aid the development of the UAE’s creative ecosystem through learning, research, and commissions.

Committed to supporting emerging talent from the UAE, Middle East, and South Asia, Warehouse421 takes a collaborative approach to hosting and curating exhibitions, presenting and contextualizing local and regional research, and examining cultural practices in an anti-disciplinary space.

Warehouse421 hosts a range of public programs and learning opportunities that support creative practices, facilitate artistic exchange, and stimulate critical discourse.

Education is central to Warehouse421’s mission and drives our programs and collaborations. It provides a wide range of engaging learning opportunities for children, students, educators, artists, and creative professionals to develop their practices and inspire innovation.

Founded in 2015, Warehouse421 is located in Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

For all press inquiries, please contact;
Dareen Al Sarraj
dareen@rpr.ae 

© Press Release 2020