The Art Newspaper

Ex-journalist to head Art Dubai

Antonia Carver has been selected to succeed John Martin as director of emirate art fair

By Georgina Adam. From Art Basel daily edition
Published online: 15 June 2010

Antonia Carver at the 6th Annual Dubai International Film Festival last December (Photo: Life/Gareth Cattermole)

The Dubai-based specialist of contemporary Middle Eastern art Antonia Carver has been selected to succeed John Martin as director of Art Dubai.

Carver is currently director of Bidoun Projects, the curatorial wing of the eponymous magazine that focuses on Middle Eastern culture and art. She also sits on the Dubai international film festival committee and has been a correspondent for The Art Newspaper.

“There’s never been such a level of international interest in the region and its art and culture,” she said. “There is a new maturity in the market with a group of young Emirati and UAE-based collectors who are interested in how the market works and are looking at international as well as regional artists.”

A number of these collectors are attending Art Basel this year. Carver says she will be consulting with the team who run the fair, 50% of which belongs to the Dubai International Finance Centre, before unveiling any new projects, but she already knows she wants to “broaden the fair into Menasa region and also work with innovative, international galleries interested in the Middle East, to create a real regional platform for discussion about art, as well as working closely with the Sharjah Biennale.”

There is a notable precedent of journalists becoming fair directors right here at Art Basel: Marc Spiegler, co-director of the fair, was also previously a journalist, and wrote for this paper.