The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi) has appointed Valerie Hillings as director of the forthcoming Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (GAD), set to open on December 11.

Hillings’s appointment builds on years of involvement with the GAD project, which was first announced in 2006. From 2009 to 2018, Hillings was curator and associate director of curatorial affairs at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York. In the role, she spearheaded the planning of GAD, working closely with DCT Abu Dhabi on the museum’s preopening programming, public projects, publications, and acquisition strategy focusing on South, North, and West Asian art from the 1960s onward. In 2018, she became director of the North Carolina Museum of Art in the US, leading the expansion of its permanent collection. 

In a statement, Hillings said: “I am honored to return to Abu Dhabi to complete the once-in-a-lifetime journey of founding and opening Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.”

Upon opening, the Frank Gehry-designed museum will become the largest in the Guggenheim network, which comprises its New York flagship, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain. 

GAD will be located on the emirate’s Saadiyat Island, which houses the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the Zayed National Museum, teamLab Phenomena Abu Dhabi, and Manarat Al Saadiyat, among others. The district will also host the inaugural Frieze Abu Dhabi in November, while the Dar al Funoon Abu Dhabi, currently under construction, is scheduled for completion in 2030.

Yuqian Fan is an editorial assistant at ArtAsiaPacific.