S4:E8 Welcome to Saadiyat Island… HE Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak in conversation with Adrian Ellis
Guest
Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak
In conversation with
Adrian Ellis
Our host, Adrian Ellis, speaks to His Excellency Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chair, Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, on the ambitious plans to position Abu Dhabi as a major tourism and cultural destination – particularly through the Saadiyat Island Cultural District, home to Louvre Abu Dhabi and a host of other world-class cultural institutions set to open their doors in the coming years.
Date of Recording
7 May 2024
Date of Publication
1 August 2024
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HE Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak: The Saadiyat Cultural District is a lot more than just bricks and mortars. It's a lot more than just a collection of museums. It is a collection of thoughts. It's a collection of culture. It's a collection of heritage. It's a collection of history. It is all brought together in a beautiful story.
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[THEME MUSIC]
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Adrian Ellis: Hello and welcome to The Three Bells. This podcast is part of the fourth season produced by AEA for the Global Cultural Districts Network. The focus is as always, the relationship between cultural and urban life and the ways in which cultural life contributes to urban vitality, and vice versa. The series and supporting materials can be found at www.thethreebells.net, and if you like our content, please subscribe, and give us a positive review on your favourite podcast listening platform.
I'm Adrian Ellis, the chair of GCDN and the director of AEA Consulting. And I'm delighted to say that our guest today is His Excellency Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak. Mohamed has many roles in life of the United Arab Emirates. He's a member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council. He's a member of many boards, including the chair of Aldar Properties and he's the vice-chair of the Foundation Board of ALIPH, the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage and Conflict Areas.
But I'm talking to him today primarily in his role over the past, I think, eight years as chair of the Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi, DCT as it's known, and Tourism Development and Investment Authority. These are the agencies that are responsible for realising Abu Dhabi's ambitions in the cultural sphere, and Abu Dhabi as a tourist destination.
And those ambitions are formidable. One that our listeners will be very familiar with is the development of Saadiyat Island, and within Saadiyat, of the cultural district. What does it comprise? Well, in terms of cultural infrastructure I think most of our listeners are familiar with or will have visited the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the Jean Nouvel designed building which opened in 2017.
[00:02:09]
Adrian Ellis: In the pipeline, Zayed National Museum, which is under construction, I think quite advanced construction now, designed by Norman Foster. A Natural History Museum, Berklee School of Music has an annex or satellite there. TeamLab are doing an immersive experience, I believe, which is in the pipeline.
And of course, as everybody knows, and has been on the agenda I think since the inception of the district, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. So I think it's difficult not to start with Saadiyat Island. DCT and TDIC have made cultural infrastructure a central plank of your development strategy and the way you've led the way, not only in the Emirates, but in the Gulf. And I'm not, I'm not sure, as I said in earlier comments, I can think of anything of comparable ambition except perhaps West Kowloon.
So what were the strategic ambitions? For tourism, for inward investment, for soft diplomacy. And how have those ambitions evolved in what is now, I think, a quarter of a century of both planning and construction of this district? If I may, I'd love to sort of kick off there.
[00:03:15]
HE Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak: First of all, thank you for having me…
About Our Guests
His Excellency Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak is a prominent Emirati leader overseeing the growth of Abu Dhabi’s cultural, entertainment, real estate, and tourism sectors. He is a member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council. In 2016, His Excellency was appointed the Chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), where he oversees the preservation of the emirate’s heritage and history whilst inspiring its dynamic, world-leading approach to creating a recognised cultural capital, where culture is a driver of social and economic development. +
