THE EMIRATES
Benedetta Ghione, Executive Director, Art Dubai
Art Dubai is considered a prominent art fair of the Middle East, shining a light on modern masters and contemporary voices from the MENA region and the Global South. At the helm of this annual event is Benedetta Ghione, an Italian expert of art business and art history, who has been with the Art Dubai group for a decade. Here, Ghione shares a light-hearted museum story from her youth and what she believes make museums magical and important.
“A museum interaction that sticks out in my mind was visiting the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, when it was still quite new,” she says. “I must have been very young, but the moment is clear in my mind. I remember standing in front of Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe, thinking it was magical. I was clearly taken by it as I leaned in to touch it, my mother nearly fainted! Museums are where we encounter beauty and the unexpected, and where we are invited to question and be curious. As markers of place and history, these institutions matter because of how they preserve human stories and artistic expression within these culturally rich settings. They are spaces of important art historical research, cultural memory, and public engagement—even when that includes a bit of harmless childhood mischief.”
Manal Ataya, Advisor to Sharjah Museums Authority
This year marks a major professional milestone for Manal Ataya, a culture specialist from the UAE, who will celebrate 20 years of working in the museum sector. Ataya has dedicated her focus to the historical emirate of Sharjah, where she was the Director General of the Sharjah Museums Authority, comprising 16 museums that delve into a variety of subjects, from Islamic art to marine life.
“Museums have always been places of wonder and creative awakening for me, and they continue to remind me of the beauty of curiosity and the healing power that art and culture can play throughout lives,” she shares. “My first museum visit was to the Natural History Museum in London in the late 1980s, where I saw the awe-inspiring ‘Dinosaurs Live!’ interactive exhibition with my mum. That thrilling experience sparked a lifelong fascination with dinosaurs—perfectly timed with the growing cultural excitement that would soon include the movie franchise of Jurassic Park. It ignited a curiosity and passion for discovery that I’ve never lost.”
Manal Ataya, Advisor to Sharjah Museums Authority
This year marks a major professional milestone for Manal Ataya, a culture specialist from the UAE, who will celebrate 20 years of working in the museum sector. Ataya has dedicated her focus to the historical emirate of Sharjah, where she was the Director General of the Sharjah Museums Authority, comprising 16 museums that delve into a variety of subjects, from Islamic art to marine life.
“Museums have always been places of wonder and creative awakening for me, and they continue to remind me of the beauty of curiosity and the healing power that art and culture can play throughout lives,” she shares. “My first museum visit was to the Natural History Museum in London in the late 1980s, where I saw the awe-inspiring ‘Dinosaurs Live!’ interactive exhibition with my mum. That thrilling experience sparked a lifelong fascination with dinosaurs—perfectly timed with the growing cultural excitement that would soon include the movie franchise of Jurassic Park. It ignited a curiosity and passion for discovery that I’ve never lost.”
Myrna Ayad, Cultural Strategist and Editor, Dubai
A native of Lebanon, Myrna Ayad has resided in the UAE since the 1980s. A respected and independent figure of Dubai's culture scene, Ayad was an editor at Canvas Magazine, as well as the director of the city's home fair, Art Dubai. She has also published sophisticated book titles for Assouline and Rizzoli, and has contributed articles about art from the Arab world for The New York Times, Artnet, The Art Newspaper, among other publications. From an early age, she was exposed to culture, from attending musicals to exploring heritage sites, as a result of traveling with her parents. But, the first museum that truly impacted her came a bit later in adulthood, and it all began in Doha.
“The museum that truly shook me was Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art,” she says. “By then, I was already a few years into my career as a writer and editor focused on visual art from the Arab world and Iran—learning on the job, fuelled by a deep passion for the field. Mathaf was astounding. It was inspiring, provocative, and transformative. Beyond the brilliance of its holdings was the revelation of how rich and layered the region’s artistic history truly is. More powerful still was the understanding that there exists an alternative history—one that lives beyond the textbooks. And that’s why museums are important.”
Reem Fadda
Director of Culture Programming
Department of Culture and Tourism, Abu Dhabi
Armed with an impressive resumé, the curator and art historian Reem Fadda, who is of Palestinian origin, has always been on the go with exciting projects in the region and abroad. Planning exhibitions and biennales, Fadda has been professionally associated with significant art organisations, such as Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, the Palestinian Museum, the Venice Biennale, and most recently Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial.
