Creating space

Philippa Kennedy

• Last Updated: August 22. 2009 4:49PM UAE / August 22. 2009 12:49PM GMT

"One of the difficulties facing all artists is finding good-quality affordable studio space. I want to turn Art Hub into somewhere that artists will be proud to work." Delores Johnson

Young artists, writers, poets and musicians expect to struggle a little in their early years. In fact, the romantic notion of starving in a garret has defined the living arrangements of artistic communities all over the world since the 19th century.

Creative young people tend to gravitate towards the poorer areas of cities simply because the rents are cheaper. Now Abu Dhabi is to get its own bohemian-style artistic community thanks to the dreams of a young half-German half--Spanish artist who has made the city her home.

Tini Meyer is only 26 years old but her dream of creating what she calls her Art Hub, a low-rent living and working environment for artists along the lines of similar communities in Cairo and Beirut, is about to become a reality. “The theme will be Live, Create, Exhibit,” she says.

“I have been lucky enough to find a business sponsor who totally -understands the concept of what I am trying to create. Originally I was just looking for a big space and decided to go to Mussafeh and look for a warehouse. My vision was to turn it into an artists’ studio and rent out studio rooms.

“Now, because my sponsor is convinced it is a great idea, he has decided to build a new warehouse for the project. Building has already started and Art Hub should be up and running early next year.”

The industrial area of Mussafah, with its dusty acres of factories and labour accommodation, may not seem the ideal location but Meyer firmly believes that once people know about it they will come.

When she arrived in Abu Dhabi Meyer started working from her apartment but soon realised that she needed a proper studio where she could showcase her work and hit upon the idea of a warehouse that would give her the required space. She discovered an old paint factory right in the heart of the industrial area and persuaded the owner, Ahmed Alyafei, to give her a corner of it to turn into a studio. This is where she is currently working.

Alyafei, the chairman of the Osan Group, convinced that Art Hub would be a huge attraction decided to build an entirely new warehouse to accommodate it. “I always believe in big concepts. A collective or one-stop shop for everything is always a good solution. Abu Dhabi is heading for a new era with all the new museums like the Louvre and the Guggenheim and this will require secondary -facilities as artists begin to come here and want to stay for some time. We are already working on major plans for this development which will be revealed at a later stage,” he says.

Says Meyer: “The rents in Abu Dhabi are so high that if I were to take big enough office space downtown, for example, it would cost me about Dh300,000. The rents are much more affordable in Mussafah and the site of the new warehouse is in a nice area where there are trees.”

Art Hub will be a purpose-built two-storey building with artists living and working upstairs in individual studios of about 80 square metres, each equipped with its own small kitchenette and bathroom. A large communal space downstairs will be used as a lounge and cafeteria but also for cinema evenings, -poetry readings or music sessions. It can also be rented out for art lessons or to “hobby” artists who only need studio time for short periods.

Meyer wants to recreate in Abu Dhabi something similar to the Beirut Art Center or the Townhouse Gallery in Cairo – a hub for all arts that attracts sculptors, calligraphers, musicians and writers and painters.

“One of the difficulties facing all artists is finding good-quality affordable studio space. I want to turn Art Hub into somewhere that artists will be proud to work. We are trying to create a platform for artists. There are a lot of hobby artists who take their art very seriously, but there are also serious artists trying to make a living.”

She also envisages adding a small non-profit gallery where art students and emerging artists can show their work without having to pay a fee, plus a shop selling art supplies.

“You wouldn’t believe how difficult it is to find good arts and crafts shops that sell the things an artist needs,” she says. “For example they are always running out of gesso or primer and perhaps sell only one brand of acrylic paint. In one shop the acrylic paint I found had come all the way from Germany some time ago, so it probably wasn’t any use anyway.”

Meyer’s boundless enthusiasm for her Art Hub vision is backed up by a business degree from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, where she also discovered a natural ability for networking and communicating. It was, she says, something that she would never have learnt if she had studied art formally instead of business. “I learnt about communication, presentations, making contacts and taking advantage of opportunities that come along. I also started working on my website. In fact, I got more support from my business classmates than I would have if I had been studying art full-time,” she says.

Meyer believes that her international background and upbringing makes her the ideal person to create a -vibrant artistic community such as Art Hub. Her mother is Spanish and from the Philippines, and her father is a German financier who worked for a European investment fund. Meyer grew up in Trier, near Luxembourg, then in the Philippines, where she attended the International School in Manila. She speaks fluent Tagalog, German, Spanish and English, and she can read and write Arabic.

At the International School she was encouraged by “a very bohemian British art teacher who was very cool and always encouraged me to be creative.”

She chose Vancouver for her university years because of the course offered at Simon Fraser University. She was still a student there three years ago when she first visited Abu Dhabi. She was chosen to represent her university as a delegate to the 2007 Education Without Borders conference held at Emirates -Palace under the patronage of Sheikh Nahyan Mubarak Al Nahyan, the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research.

The conference is held every two years when 1,000 high-achieving students spend four days listening to international speakers, taking part in workshops and debates and meeting leading figures from business, education, technology and government from all over the world to seek innovative solutions to global challenges.

“It was absolutely marvellous, just about the most exciting event I have ever been to. It was very inclusive and people from all walks of life -attended. Half of the students had no knowledge of Abu Dhabi before they came here, but when they saw what it was like, they were in awe of the place,” she says.

That year one of the keynote speakers was the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize-winner Professor Muhammad -Yunus and the gala dinner was held in a spectacular desert setting where guests were serenaded by the celebrated tenor Placido Domingo. It is no wonder, perhaps, that the young Meyer, then just 22 years old, was impressed.

She was commissioned by the university to produce a piece of art for the event, which she presented to Sheikh Nahyan. The painting, called Majlis, is a textured abstract using the colours of the desert. “I also used the colours of the UAE flag, black represented the oil, gold is what they have done with it.” -Meyer says that although she majored in business management, she always intended to become a professional artist. “I never studied business as a back-up. It was always a foundation and it taught me how to think critically and take advantage of any -opportunity.

“I already had a professional gallery representing me in Vancouver when I came to Abu Dhabi. My professors in the business faculty were so supportive. They gave me a lot of slack and I was late for every deadline, but they always gave me extra time.”

When she was studying and working in Vancouver, she met Larry Beasley, a former co-director of planning at the City of Vancouver who has been a special adviser on city planning to the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council. “I was doing a research paper about public art and Larry was one of the people who implemented the public art programme. He was enamoured by Abu Dhabi and told me all about the city’s cultural vision and the plans for the Cultural District on Saadiyat Island.

“Another person that I spoke to was the director of the business faculty, William Holmes, who was the former dean of the Higher Colleges of Technology in Abu Dhabi. He would tell us about life in the UAE. It seemed to me that it was the place to be. It sounded very interesting and very exciting.”

Meyer toyed with the idea of moving to Spain, where she spent six months in 2005 as part of her studies. “I lived in Salamanca in a glorious bohemian artistic community. After I got my degree I did consider moving to Madrid. I was so in love with Spain but I felt the right momentum wasn’t there. I kept thinking of Abu Dhabi. In the end I just decided to move here.”

Then the break-up of a five-year relationship cemented her decision. It was a brave move, especially as she was beginning to make a name for herself in Vancouver where, shortly before her graduation and helped by one of her former classmates who -became a property developer, she was commissioned to produce her first piece of public art.

“In Vancouver there is a law that one per cent of the total construction budget has to go to public art. I submitted a proposal to the developer who was building a townhouse project. My project was for the entrance compound. I painted three large concrete vases and called it Miora. It’s a play on destiny and fate and the development was named after it.”

Another of her works was bought by the Aquilini Investment Group, owners of the Vancouver Canucks hockey team.

With professional gallery representation she was beginning to sell her work, although it was a struggle for a while and she relied heavily on her parents for support.

“I spent everything I had on art supplies. When you are young a lot of the galleries don’t take you seriously. Everything was a struggle. I remember trying to transport a three-metre canvas across town by foot with just my mother helping me.”

Since moving to Abu Dhabi Meyer has received several commissions. One piece of work comprising three canvases of one metre by two metres sold for Dh26,000. She is now experimenting with conceptual art, including working with such unusual and diverse materials as fish eyes and liposuction fat.

She explains: “The concept is that someone is always watching. I was at a market and just saw the fish eyes and I’m now working on how to preserve them. With the liposuction fat, the concept is gluttony. All of us eat and drink too much and it is disgusting. I’m working out the number of calories it would take to produce that amount of fat and how many people could have been fed with that amount of energy.“I want my paintings to have a message. I don’t want to be the kind of artist who gets asked to paint something to match somebody’s living room.”

Meyer is also engrossed in the -design and construction of Art Hub, not to mention its business plan and marketing strategy. Initially she will be the centre’s creative director.

“At the moment the artistic community is very small. It is very hard for young artists to sell their work. I feel that you either have to be well established or be part of the emerging artistic community. I don’t think the project is going to make me rich or famous, but it is important to me to contribute to the artistic community here in a way that I wouldn’t be able to anywhere else.”

• For more information about Tini Meyer, visit www.tinimeyer.com