Good news for art fans in the Middle East: Hotelier Middle East is reporting that Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is introducing a new art initiative across the United Arab Emirates, which will see live-in artists move into its hotels and interact with guests.
The art@fairmont, which will be rolled out this year across the UAE, will give guests an opportunity to interact with regionally-relevant artists and understand the cultural relevance of art through specially-designed lectures and workshops, local gallery tours and guest experiences.
The initiative comes in the wake of a brand survey that found 55 percent of travelers are interested in engaging with local artists one-to-one during their stay. According to the Farimont survey of travelers from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt, culture factors influenced 73 percent of respondents when deciding where to travel next.
In addition, most respondents, particularly of Arab descent, agreed that the preservation of Middle East arts and culture is important to them and that they would do what they can to support local culture. The results also showed that all respondents valued visiting heritage sites, viewing sites of architectural importance, viewing museum and participating in education activities both at home and while traveling.
The art@fairmont initiative, which Fairmont confirms will be a “long-term project” will offer a number of activities at three properties throughout the year – Fairmont Bab Al Bahr, Fairmont The Palm and Fairmont Dubai – including installing artists-in-residence, who will live on location and spend their time sharing artwork and experiences with guests.
Fairmont The Palm will host an artist-in-residence in partnership with Cuadro, a contemporary and postmodern art venue, this coming Autumn, which will host lectures and exhibitions.