Guggenheim Foundation, Abu Dhabi Plan Frank Gehry-designed museum

[DeepModem Mom]

Guggenheim Foundation and Abu Dhabi Plan Museum There
By CAROL VOGEL
Published: July 9, 2006

The government of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, announced yesterday that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Guggenheim Foundation to build a 300,000-square-foot museum in Abu Dhabi to be designed by Frank Gehry.

The museum, to be called the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, would house Modern and contemporary art and serve as the linchpin of a sprawling development in a new cultural district of Saadiyat (Arabic for "isle of happiness"), a 10-square-mile natural island just off Abu Dhabi.

Government officials hope that the island will become a center of vibrant activity, with residential housing, hotels, restaurants and a golf course, as well as a national museum, a classical art museum, a maritime museum, a performing arts center and a park. They predict that the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi will be completed by 2011.

As outlined, the museum would be the largest of the Guggenheim's outposts, 25 percent larger than the titanium-clad Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain, which Mr. Gehry also designed. "This is an extraordinary opportunity for the Guggenheim to become involved in the Middle East," said Thomas Krens, director of the Guggenheim Foundation. "Our challenge now is to define the next generation of Guggenheim Museums."...

***

.... just as the Guggenheim in New York oversees the running of Bilbao, its officials would manage the Abu Dhabi museum's programs and education initiatives. They would also oversee an acquisitions program financed by Abu Dhabi....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/world/middleeast/09gugg.html?hp&ex=1152417600&en=f9b244133072d6d3&ei=5094&partner=homepage