UAE’s creative entrepreneurs rising – Wamda

Salsali Private Museum at the Alserkal Avenue Galleries Night.
(Image via Alserkal)

The ever evolving Emirate of Dubai is welcoming
a budding and powerful accomplice – the creative
entrepreneur.

The Dubai Creative Clusters Authority (DCCA)
describes the creative industries as those that use intellectual
capital as their primary input. Creative entrepreneurs, then, are
those who turn their creative talents into businesses or creative
enterprises.

Launched in 2014 the Authority aims to
forge “Dubai’s
global reputation as a leader in creativity and a hub for
innovation.” Some of the communities
under its umbrella are Dubai Studio City, Media City, and Internet
City.

It also processes freelance visa applications
and hosts Dubai Design District (d3), the
region’s first master planned incubator
for design and fashion. Since its launch in 2013, over 200 business
have come on board at d3.

Attractive to outsiders

With a contract in hand, entrepreneur and world
renown DJ Charl Chaka, below, moved to Dubai in 2004. That
didn’t stop him from looking for as many
ways as possible to get involved in and establish himself in the
local scene.

“You have to hustle in the
industry,” Chaka told Wamda.
“There were very few people with an
entertainment and nightlife background. It was a challenge to find
opportunities outside your company…there
was no room for freelancers.”

Chaka eventually started contributing to
Infusion Magazine, Dubai’s longest
running music and nightlife guide. Now, he owns, and is a managing
partner of, Infusion Group, home to the same magazine along with an
events company, entertainment group and a record label.

On the other side of the Emirate, is Alserkal
Avenue. Founded in 2007 and repurposed from an old industrial
space, Alserkal pits itself as “the
region’s foremost art and cultural
neighborhood.” When it opened up the
application process for its 50 units, more than 400 businesses
responded. 

Vilma Jurkute, director of Alserkal Avenue,
believes Dubai already has the necessary creative talent with an
organically growing creative ecosystem. The challenge remains in
translating those talents into viable businesses.

“Dubai is the reason we are
here,” Jurkute said.
“There are different ways to pursue a
city’s art scene – a government
initiative, a private pursuit, etcetera. Dubai is already a
sustainable commercial market with a friendly macro-economic
system. The art scene here grew naturally.

“The status of creative
entrepreneurship is growing in terms of infrastructure, but the
opportunities Dubai offers transcend the existing
infrastructure,” she added.

Ability
to go solo

Dubai, in fact, is a blank canvas for artist and
graphic designer, said Clare
Napper, below. She left her job as head of design at global
advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi to start her own studio and
take on independent projects. But, that was her “fun dream job”.
Still seeking a creative outlet, she began documenting her life in
Dubai through her art. The result was the well received Highlife
Dubai collection – 18 artworks based on vintage poster ads of the
20th Century.

“With Highlife, I realized I could do my actual dream job,”
Napper said. “There is a lot of possibility in Dubai and there are
many gaps [to fill]. If you want to make it, just come here. Just
do something that is your absolute passion. The money will
follow.”

Napper is not the only one convinced of the
power of practicing one’s passion. For both Chaka and Jurkute,
being continually involved in what one loves regardless of
circumstance is an integral stepping stone to becoming a creative
professional, let alone an entrepreneur.

Paul Frangie, a model, chef and host of This
Dude Knows Food, grew up in Dubai, left for college, and then
returned to pursue his passion for food, television and travel.
Frangie will soon launch Hapi, a fitness and diner lifestyle
concept, on Alserkal Avenue.

“Dubai’s
always striving to be the best it can, and offers many business
opportunities,” Frangie said.
“It is accessible and in a fantastic position
geographically for creatives to serve the whole region, and the
world.”

Indeed, Dubai is an eight hour flight away to
more than 90
percent of the countries around the world with
Dubai International Airport being the
world’s
busiest in terms of international
passengers.

Spreading
the word

Dubai has already begun exporting creative
talent globally. In January 2015, the Avenue commissioned the
Safina Radio Project, a boat transformed into a recording studio on
the Venetian waterways, serving as a platform for exploration and
exchange. The first Iranian artist to hold a solo exhibition in New
York City’s Guggenheim Museum, Monir
Shahroudy Farmanfarmain, is a resident of The Third Line art
gallery at the Avenue.

The Safina Radio Project, a boat transformed into a recording
studio on the Venetian waterways. (Image via Alserkal)

“We take a risk on the risk
takers,” Jurkute said of the
Avenue’s approach to its
collective. “UAE has become the
region’s cultural capital
[and]… Dubai, a place to build the
creative economy.”

Events like the Emirates Airline Festival of
Literature, the Middle East Comic Con, Dubai Design Week, the Quoz
Arts Festival and the Dubai Comedy Festival are not only pioneer
regional gatherings, but also valid snapshots of the
Emirate’s brewing creativity.

The creative hubs of the world have
conventionally belonged to New York, London or Paris among others.
With evidently thriving creative minds, a solidifying
infrastructure, and ample possibility, will Dubai be the next New
York, London, or Paris?

“Dubai is
Dubai”, Chaka said. “It is a melting pot of cultures, of musical
tastes, of talents. Dubai is its own special place, and I feel
blessed to be part of the history and [help] give it a
history.”