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Art Dubai Unveils Extensive 2023 Program

The expanded 2023 program features an ambitious and multi-strand conference
The expanded 2023 program features an ambitious and multi-strand conference
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Art Dubai Unveils Extensive 2023 Program

The expanded 2023 program features an ambitious and multi-strand conference
The expanded 2023 program features an ambitious and multi-strand conference

Art Dubai has announced details of the program and partnerships for its 16th edition.

The expanded 2023 program features an ambitious and multi-strand conference, talks and education program, reinforcing Dubai’s emergence as a hub for art and culture and a significant contributor to global conversations about contemporary art.

The 2023 edition of Art Dubai will be held at Madinat Jumeirah from March 3 to 5, with previews on 1 and 2 March 2023.

Held under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, Art Dubai’s expanded 2023 program, developed in collaboration with local and international cultural partners, reaffirms the premier art fair’s role as the meeting point for the Global South’s creative industries and communities.

Highlights of the 2023 program include site-specific commissions and premieres by renowned international artists, presented in partnership with the region’s leading institutions.

The expanded program continues Art Dubai’s long-standing commitment to thought leadership and supporting the development of Dubai’s cultural infrastructure.

The Artist Commissions for 2023 are themed around food, community, celebration and hope, with artists selected from participating Art Dubai galleries and South Asia’s leading institutions.

Julius Baer has renewed its association with Art Dubai as its lead partner for another five years until 2027. The Swiss wealth management group will premiere a newly commissioned artwork by Refik Anadol, the new media artist and pioneer in the aesthetics of machine intelligence.

The commission will debut in Dubai as a part of Julius Baer’s new initiative, NEXT, which will encourage the interdisciplinary exploration of megatrends across the arts, science and technology.

Also debuting at the fair will be UAE First Immersion, a presentation of new artworks produced following the November 2022 visit to the UAE by some leading names in digital art.

The exhibit will be part of the expanded second edition of Art Dubai Digital, which will feature collaborations with various organizations pioneering new institutional models, including Lian Foundation and 6529’s Open Metaverse project.

Celebrating its 10th edition, Campus Art Dubai, Art Dubai’s flagship professional development initiative, will expand to incorporate placements with local partners, including Alserkal Avenue and Jameel Arts Centre in Dubai and 421, an Abu Dhabi-based emerging artists platform. With 421, the fair will present a new group exhibition curated by UAE-based artist and researcher Dania Al Tamimi.

The 16th edition of Art Dubai’s celebrated transdisciplinary conference Global Art Forum, commissioned by Shumon Basar, will explore the theme “Predicting the Present” and consider the central question: if it’s the end of history and the end of the future, what happens next?
The fair’s 2023 conference program will expand to include the first Dubai edition of Christie’s Art+Tech summit.

The summit brings together regional and global leaders, innovators, artists, and visionaries to foster meaningful dialogues on the intersection of Art and Technology.

The sixth iteration of the summit—and the first in the region—will survey tech trends, hear from artists incorporating tech in their practices, and explore current and future challenges and opportunities.

Highlighting the role played by collectors and philanthropists in developing the region’s cultural infrastructure, Art Dubai 2023 will include a series of high-level Collector and Modern Talks, presented in partnership with Dubai Collection, the first institutional art collection in the city and for the city.

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Heartbroken Brits Abandon Pets as Living Costs Bite

Rising numbers of pets are being left at the Mayhew shelter in London as owners no longer able to afford their care take the heartbreaking decision to try to re-home them. Ben STANSALL / AFP
Rising numbers of pets are being left at the Mayhew shelter in London as owners no longer able to afford their care take the heartbreaking decision to try to re-home them. Ben STANSALL / AFP
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Heartbroken Brits Abandon Pets as Living Costs Bite

Rising numbers of pets are being left at the Mayhew shelter in London as owners no longer able to afford their care take the heartbreaking decision to try to re-home them. Ben STANSALL / AFP
Rising numbers of pets are being left at the Mayhew shelter in London as owners no longer able to afford their care take the heartbreaking decision to try to re-home them. Ben STANSALL / AFP

Staff at a London animal shelter have seen more than their fair share of abandoned pets over the years, from kittens in boxes to budgies dropped outside in the dead of night.
But lately there has been a surge in the numbers as people make the heartbreaking decision to give up their animal companions, no longer able to afford to care for their pets.

Struggling animal owners are feeling "a lot of heartache... and also shame and frustration that they're having to make these decisions," said Elvira Meucci-Lyons, the boss of the Mayhew shelter in Kensal Green, west London.

"They come to us because they feel they have no choice," she said.

"Behind every animal we take in there's a human story."

The small center has taken in more than 130 animals this year alone. It is part of a wider rise across the UK, where tens of thousands of pets have been abandoned since the Covid-19 pandemic and the onset of a cost-of-living crisis.

In the first few months of this year, more than 5,700 abandonments have been reported to the RSPCA, the world's oldest animal welfare organization -- a 32 percent rise on the same period in 2024.

Last year saw around 22,500 cases reported in total, up more than seven percent on 2023.
The challenge of affording animal care poses a heart-wrenching problem for many in Britain, a nation of dog and cat lovers where half the adult population -- more than 26 million people -- has a pet, according to the RSPCA.

And it has hit the country's poorest especially hard. Staff at Mayhew said some owners were having to choose between feeding themselves or their pets.

Several pets at the center -- including dogs Brownie, a one-year-old toy poodle, and Astro, a pocket American bully -- were brought in because their owners lost their homes due to financial troubles.

Stories like these are "the most upsetting", Meucci-Lyons said, because in hard times pet owners "need their lovely animals more than ever and the dog or cat doesn't want to do without their owner."

Rising vet bills
Mayhew staff said more pets were also arriving at the center in Kensal Green in poor health, often because their owners cannot afford veterinary bills.

Felix's case is typical. The muscular nine-year-old tomcat was playing with a length of string. But he arrived with tooth problems, with his owners bringing him to the shelter and saying they couldn't afford to keep him.
"We're seeing quite a lot more needing dental work nowadays," said Mayhew spokeswoman Olivia Patt.

The pandemic saw a spike in pet ownership under government lockdowns, and a subsequent wave of people then giving up their animals as normal lifestyles resumed.

Some people are returning lockdown pets, several years on. But RSPCA spokesman David Bowles told AFP that living costs, which soared during the pandemic, have become a major factor driving abandonments.

"We are now five years on from the first lockdown under Covid. The RSPCA believes the cost-of-living crisis is really impacting people's ability to pay for vet treatment in particular," he said.

UK inflation soared above 11 percent in October 2022, the highest level in more than four decades, and while it has slowed in the last few years, people are still feeling the squeeze.

Prices for many items including pet food have gone up by around 25 percent.
At Mayhew, staff have been doing all they can, from providing struggling owners with pet food and animal care packages, to offering free preventative treatments.

But the pressure has pushed the shelter's bubbly staff to their limits.

"We are run off our feet, we can't keep up with the demand," said Meucci-Lyons.

Even though the staff are comforted by knowing they make a difference, "every day it is heartbreaking -- we go to bed at night thinking about the dogs and cats we can't help," she said.