Dubai Street Night Art: A Year On
Over a year ago the dusty streets of Al Quoz in Dubai were closed off for one night to host the first event of its kind called Street Night Art.
The event saw 50 artists working live throughout the evening complemented by a range of live music, drums, and ad hoc performances on an open mic stage. Street Night Art Dubai was arranged by an initiative called All Quoz – Beautification Project. Driven by the motivation to brighten up the ugly streets, filling them with colour, art and beauty, co-founder of All Quoz Project, Maria Urrutia, was behind the event.
The intention was to lift the community spirit and bring art out of gallery walls and into the streets of Al Quoz. Working with a team of volunteers, Urrutia started contacting artists and musicians to volunteer for the event as well as landlords and authorities for the permission to paint the walls and close the streets for the event. Organising the event was a struggle but in the end, Dubai Street Night Art came alive.
A year after the event we contacted Urrutia to hear about the positive effects of the beatification project on the community in Al Quoz. According to Maria, the most positive effect of the Street Night Art, so far, has been more art and cultural events being brought out to the streets and parks as opposed to being kept inside the malls and galleries of Dubai. Moreover, it seems that the Street Night Art has opened a big door of possibilities for street artists as well. Art is becoming public, which was one of the main goals for the project.
Although Al Quoz is an area that Dubai is not keen on displaying, it is growing, organically, with more galleries and chic restaurants opening in the area. Urrutia hopes that the government one day will see the potential of Al Quoz the way that she sees it and explains that social change requires a long process, but the most important initial step is creating awareness in large corporations and government entities. Currently, several non-profit organisations including Sameness Project and Social Bandage are working on improving the quality of life for the labourers in the area and are getting very good feedback and support.
At the end of the day, change is a long, challenging road and requires a group effort to realise. “If we want to see social changes in the future we need to combine the efforts and work together”, says Urrutia who took it on her to be among those that take the first step for such a change in Al Quoz.
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