{"id":724608,"date":"2026-08-02T15:49:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T15:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/724608\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T15:49:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T15:49:27","slug":"long-contested-guggenheim-abu-dhabi-gets-opening-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/724608\/","title":{"rendered":"Long-Contested Guggenheim Abu Dhabi Gets Opening Date"},"content":{"rendered":"

News<\/a><\/p>\n

Activists have called on artists to boycott the new museum, citing inhumane treatment of workers. <\/p>\n


\n \"Anna
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

\"Long-Contested
\n Exterior of the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (all images courtesy Guggenheim Abu Dhabi)<\/p>\n

After 20 years of delays, allegations, and recalibrations, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation will open the doors to its Frank Gehry-designed Abu Dhabi outpost on December 11. <\/p>\n

The 30-gallery museum will join seven other cultural institutions on Saadiyat Island, including the Zayed National Museum and Berklee Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n

“The museum\u2019s art collection is uniquely local and global, centred in the region but with works from all continents,” Guggenheim Director and CEO Mari\u00ebt Westermann said in a statement. She expressed that the museum will showcase the “experimental character of art since 1960,” including abstractions, storytelling, painting, and moving images. <\/p>\n

In the past 16 years, the art activism group Gulf Labor Coalition\u00a0(GLC) has been calling attention to abuse allegations of migrant workers<\/a> and violations of local and international labor laws<\/a> linked to the new museum. In 2015, an offshoot of the group called Gulf Ultra Luxury Faction (G.U.L.F.) staged a\u00a0May Day occupation<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0the Guggenheim Museum in New York and a May 8 occupation<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice during the Venice Biennale. <\/p>\n

\"\"On May Day 2015, members of the Gulf Ultra Luxury Faction (G.U.L.F.) unveiled a large parachute in the Guggenheim Museum rotunda with the words \u201cMeet Workers Demands Now\u201d (photo Benjamin Sutton\/Hyperallergic)<\/p>\n

“None of the initial reasons for this action have been adequately\u00a0resolved over the years, despite Gulf Labor’s strident efforts, and the art world’s generally sympathetic response,” GLC Co-Founder Andrew Ross told Hyperallergic after this week’s announcement about the December opening.<\/p>\n

The Guggenheim Museum and Foundation has not yet responded to Hyperallergic’s request for comment. <\/p>\n

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Registered readers of Hyperallergic get access to a limited number of free articles every month, and the Hyperallergic Daily newsletter.<\/p>\n

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