Creating a scene

(CNN) -- In a gallery in Dubai this month, local Emirate collectors, passing American tourists and Egyptian expats will mingle to admire the Fez-clad, cigarette-smoking youths in the photographs of London-based but Moroccan-born artist, Hassan Hajjaj.

This cultural jumble at The Third Line - one of the city's contemporary galleries - paints an appropriate picture of a burgeoning cultural scene across the Arabian Peninsular.

Here, artists and collectors from around the world congregate in the new galleries, art fairs and auctions. International architects are busy designing branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim for Abu Dhabi. And in Qatar, I.M. Pei, the Chinese American architect of Louvre-pyramid fame, has created the Museum of Islamic Art that will open its doors early next year.

For John Martin, director of art fair, Art Dubai, the region was the next logical step for the art business. Art Dubai's second fair, due to open in the Madinat Jumeirah next March, is set to eclipse the inaugural 2007 DIFC Gulf Art Fair, as it was then known. Sales then reached around US$11 million, which tempted more than 300 galleries to apply this time around. They are now whittling this down to a final list of 70.

As Martin says, the art community is going global. "You've got a booming Chinese art market, booming markets in South East Asia, India and Pakistan, as well as in North Africa and even in Russia. And bang in the middle of this," he says, "is Dubai."

The tax-free environment also helps attract buyers and sellers, of course. "A lot of people have talked about Shanghai becoming a major center for the art business," he says. "But they have a 30 percent tax. And when you spending half a million dollars on a painting, that's a lot."

Art Dubai's emphasis is mainly on galleries from emerging markets of the Middle East, South and Central Asia and the Far East. And buyers have included institutional purchasers from the Middle East, a "huge number" of Indian collectors as well as private collectors in the Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Christie's has also been attracted to Dubai's credentials as a market for art. It launched its first auction there last May for international modern and contemporary art that accrued sales of around $8.5 million. The second sale last January racked up $22 million worth of sales. "This is growth we haven't seen in any other region as a start-up," says Jussi Pylkkanen, president of Christie's in Europe and the Middle East. He hopes the next sale will bring in $35 million.

As with Art Dubai, the majority of items on sale have been by Middle Eastern artists who are becoming increasingly sought-after, he says, particularly by buyers from Egypt, Syria, India and Pakistan.

While Dubai is lined up as a natural hub to sell art, 100 miles away, Abu Dhabi is building itself as the center to exhibit it.

As Martin says, Dubai is becoming the New York of the region, not only as the center of business but also of a frenetic and energetic art scene. Abu Dhabi, on the other hand, mirrors Washington as both the capital and home to the museums and open, green spaces.

Here, French architect, Jean Nouvel has been commissioned to create the Abu Dhabi Louvre which will, controversially for some, house some of the French gallery's vast collection. The Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, to be designed by internationally-acclaimed architect Frank Gehry, will be devoted to modern and contemporary art.

Another first for Abu Dhabi this year will be the International Fine Art and Antiques Fair due to open its doors on 21 November. This is expected to welcome not only local collectors but also expats from across the globe, says Duncan Phillips the fair's spokesperson in the UK. "They want to see the very best and finest antiques," he adds.

As Phillips says, the desire to become a cultural center is palpable in the city. "Abu Dhabi has wonderful hotels, beaches and shopping malls, but what it doesn't have are the galleries. And if it is going to pull in people from across the world to work and live here, they need to provide everything."

And as Sheik Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority told CNN, to build Abu Dhabi as a cultural hub, you need the critical mass of projects such as the Louvre and Guggenheim.

Art Dubai will be running an art forum alongside the fair next March to bring together leading collectors, curators and artists to discuss the current state of art production in the Middle East and ways to develop opportunities for its artists and curators.

A common theme likely to resound here will be around whether the region has the expertise to back its growing interest in (and funds for) art.

But Martin is adamant Dubai is already well positioned to thrive as a cultural center. To start, the art world is moving to Dubai and bringing its experience with it, he says. Art Dubai is also doing its part by running initiatives such as an intern scheme to educate local art students during the fair.

What's more, he says, success in Dubai isn't about doing things slowly, or gradually building expertise from the grass roots. Success here rides on grabbing opportunity when it presents itself. As he says: "it is people with enterprise, initiative and guts who lead the way. And Dubai has got buckets of that." E-mail to a friend

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