The domestic art scenes of the Gulf Cooperation Council membership— comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—have been growing by billion-dollar leaps and bounds recently. To the global art world, the two generations defined as Millennials and Gen Z, who came of age alongside rapid urbanization, count as untapped potential. This is the niche of Nadine Khoury, a Dubai-based collector, curator, and art adviser whose art advisory firm, Nasij, turns eager Khaleeji professionals into seasoned collectors after her own style: passionate, patient, and appreciative of art as the best record of humanity. Born in Cypress and educated in the West, Khoury—a millennial herself—in 2023 founded the Young Collectors Circle, an enterprise that offers opportunities for followers to connect with regional art on its own terms. Past events have included studio visits, suppers with established collectors, and group outings to exhibition openings in and around Dubai. To learn more about the Young Collectors Circle and the future of collecting in the Gulf, ARTnews talked with Khoury about programming, partnerships, and her hopeful place in a booming cultural landscape.
ARTnews: How did the Young Collectors Circle begin?
Nadine Khoury: It started with my friends and groups I was surrounded by: young professionals working in different fields. They didn’t really know art beyond that I worked with it and wanted to get them involved. Since then, it’s grown through word-of-mouth and networking. I post a lot of content on social media—short, simple, and capable of capturing the sort of attention span people have these days. People come to events and say they learned about the Young Collectors Circle on Instagram.
Are there any institutions in the Gulf region that inspired the YCC?
There was nothing in the market for young collectors and a younger audience to learn more about art. Recently that’s changed with 1833 Club and The Art Circle. Those are on a membership basis, though—mine isn’t. Mine is like a free-for-all. I’ve been considering a tiered membership for the Young Collectors Circle, but I haven’t launched that. I’m hesitant because I feel like I’ve made this safe space.
How did your personal journey lead to the YCC?
[From 2015 to 2017] I worked at Green Art Gallery in Dubai. After a couple years, I realized I was seeing the same collectors coming in to purchase art. I took a step back and realized it was because people my age were not educated in the importance of collecting or the cultural significance of it. Being in the UAE, you get to know young people from all sorts of backgrounds who could collect and have a high potential for being involved in art.
How did you conceive the programming for the Young Collectors Circle?
From the start, I wanted to break down the barrier of art being a luxury. I’ve heard people say they’re scared to come to an event because they don’t know anything about art. I structured programming that involved touring an artist’s studio or speaking with a gallerist. The first iteration was with Tabari Artspace in Dubai, which had a show by the Lebanese artist Chafa Ghaddar. She gave a tour of the exhibition and led a discussion on her growth as an artist. We also delved into how each emirate feeds the art market of the UAE. We spoke about Sharjah; Abu Dhabi as the sort of international space; and Dubai being mainly commercial galleries and some artist studios. It was great but also [made for] a learning curve: It became a lecture, but I wanted people to get to meet each other, to be more friendly.
How did you foster that friendly environment?
I limited the attendance to 15 people. I didn’t want people to just make an art buddy to go to events with but [instead] to break down the barriers between collector, artist, and gallerist. For a later circle, I collaborated with a supper club and had an event in an old family home that two brothers turned into a gallery and artist studio, a place near Sharjah called Bayt AlMamzar. In between each course, we would go to the studio. The questions were really open—people were curious. Someone from that circle messaged me a couple months later and sent me pictures of artworks he purchased because he had been so inspired. Focusing on education steers young collectors away from the idea that art is only found in galleries. In another iteration, I wanted to broaden their perspectives with Atassi Foundation, a [nonprofit] in Dubai focused on Syrian art. They had an exhibition at a space called the Foundry, so we went and they explained to the circle what a foundation does. That was new to a lot of people, because the artwork was not for sale. The questions asked were intriguing.
What sorts of questions came up?
A lot pertained to how the foundation grows its collection. Or the structure of the foundation itself: Who does the research? Where do they learn about art? The flow of information starts broadening collectors’ perspectives. This past spring, during Ramadan, I did a series where we grabbed Karak chai, which is a local tradition, and visited artist studios. The fact that you can visit artist studios—or that we have them— isn’t promoted here.
You take the YCC to meet more established collectors, too.
We do that quite frequently. I collaborate with a local supper club and a collector who has a large collection in Dubai called the Yes Collection [by the Al Sidaoui family]. They have two villas that are connected by a garden. We have the supper club, and I put an ice breaker on every person’s seat, about how to live with art in your home. There’s a sort of stigma around that that I think involves the fine line between interior design and art. That’s another barrier I’m trying to break down.
What are your thoughts on the first Art Basel Qatar planned for next year?
I have a love-hate relationship with the idea of Art Basel Qatar. I would prefer to see younger, locally grown satellite fairs emerge in the region. It would be nicer to see new fairs that support younger galleries that show early-career artists whose artworks are more affordable for younger collectors. I feel like Art Basel is going to reach just one certain segment. At the same time, I don’t think we should completely hate on this growth, because it is still growth within the Gulf art market and the broader Middle Eastern market.
There is a pretty long tradition of young people from the Arab world going to study in the West, and many of them staying there. But these days, for instance, in Saudi, many are returning, to work in a growing art world.
As someone who got here 10 years ago and saw how small the art scene was, I think it’s a great thing. The opportunities were so limited then. Now there are young people who have just come back from London or the United States and are asking, “Where can we go?” For so many years we Arab arts professionals stayed in the West. I hope that institutions, whether it’s the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi or Art Basel Qatar or the galleries in Dubai, will give opportunities to young Arab professionals who have great potential for growth.
Are there any other Gulf art scenes you’d like to cultivate, and help connect to the Western art world?
Bahrain—100 percent. I have a special connection to it, partly because I lived there and also because of the conversation I have with people there now. There’s a great guy named Bader AlSaad who consults on arts and culture and curates pop-up exhibitions. We constantly talk about the lack of funding of arts and culture in Bahrain, when there are so many great artists. There has been investment, but unfortunately it’s not on the level of Saudi or the UAE. Bahrain has been put on the back burner, even though it’s this island in the middle of the great potential we’ve been speaking of.
At a recent exhibition on Gulf modernism at the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, the curators stressed that, without loans from private collectors, the show wouldn’t have been possible. How do you talk to young collectors about the prospect of loaning to institutions?
I worked on an exhibition in Bahrain in collaboration with Alserkal Avenue, the Palestinian Museum, and Barjeel Art Foundation. I asked local collectors to loan artworks, and, for a talk I led, that was one of the main points I focused on. When you’re collecting art, you’re collecting part of history. If you take your collection out of your home, it becomes part of a greater conversation. Older collectors know that, but younger collectors— and I don’t mean younger in just age—need to learn how their collection can become part of an exhibition like that one at NYU.
Are the collectors you work with receptive to that conversation?
It’s been a great reception, though a little odd at first—like, “How can you let go of a piece to go somewhere else?” But let’s say you purchase an artwork from a region of political instability, where you know you’re saving the piece from being destroyed. The purchase allows the artist’s identity and their history to remain with us. Their story can travel the world through exhibitions and museums, ensuring that it is still alive. It’s a beautiful message
