The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi has announced that Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (GAD) will open in Saadiyat Island’s Culture District on December 11. First announced in 2006, the long-delayed museum will open amid continued regional turmoil. 

Designed by the late Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate Frank Gehry, GAD will be the largest in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation’s network of institutions, which comprises venues in New York, Venice, and Bilbao. The forthcoming museum will feature 23,000 square meters of outdoor exhibition space and 11,600 square meters of interior galleries, spread across 30 rooms connected by a central atrium. 

The museum’s collection, assembled since 2009, focuses on South, North, and West Asian modern and contemporary art from the 1960s onward, spanning painting, sculpture, installation, photography, moving image, and new media.

Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, said the museum will be a “key element of Saadiyat Cultural District,” creating “transformative new opportunities for learning, creativity, and cultural exchange, inspiring future generations to explore their own potential.”

With Frieze Abu Dhabi set to open this November, GAD will arrive in a cultural landscape shaped by rapid expansion over the last three decades. Saadiyat Cultural District is home to the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the Zayed National Museum, teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi, and Manarat Al Saadiyat, among others. The Dar al Funoon Abu Dhabi, also designed by Gehry, is under construction. 

GAD joins this cluster against a backdrop of ongoing geopolitical tensions in the region. Construction began in 2011, but the project was delayed several times amid controversy over labor conditions at the site.

Sabrina Hau is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.