Published: 5 November 2026
Long before the dome of Louvre Abu Dhabi rose over the water, part of its collection had already been seen on Saadiyat Island, in the galleries of a low building at the edge of the Cultural District. Manarat Al Saadiyat opened in 2009, years ahead of the museums around it, and for much of the following decade it served as their preview, showing works acquired for institutions whose buildings were still on the drawing board.
That role has since changed. The museums now have homes of their own, and Manarat has become the place where the capital’s art fair is held, where photographers meet and where children and adults come to learn ceramics and printmaking. In November 2026 it hosts the first edition of Frieze Abu Dhabi.
A Preview of the Museums
The early programme ranged widely. Splendours of Mesopotamia, in 2011, brought the civilisations of Sumer, Assyria and Babylon to Abu Dhabi, and Treasures of the World’s Cultures followed in 2012 with more than 250 objects from the British Museum. Emirati artists had their place from the start. Emirati Expressions, in 2011, showed the work of ten photographers from the UAE alongside commissions by Stephen Shore, JR and Tarek Al Ghoussein, and later editions continued to support new work by Emirati artists across several media.
The exhibitions that mattered most, in hindsight, were the ones that introduced the museums to come. Birth of a Museum, organised with Agence France-Muséums and opened in April 2013, showed works acquired for Louvre Abu Dhabi more than four years before the museum itself opened in November 2017. In 2014 the future Zayed National Museum presented A History of the World in 100 Objects with the British Museum, and later that year Seeing Through Light drew on the collection of Guggenheim Abu Dhabi to explore light as both subject and material in modern and contemporary art. Many visitors met these collections at Manarat before anywhere else.
The Building and Its Studios
Inside are three galleries for temporary exhibitions, a 250-seat auditorium, a smaller theatre of 100 seats, an outdoor terrace and a café and brasserie, and the centre hosts film screenings, performances and talks through the year as well as exhibitions.
The Art Studio, established in 2010, has grown into one of its busiest parts. Its workshops cover printmaking, figure drawing and ceramics, among other disciplines, for children and adults alike, and the programme runs from introductory sessions to longer courses, including help for younger artists preparing portfolios for further study. Ceramics in particular rewards repeated visits, since preparing the clay, forming a piece and firing it are separate stages that take time to learn.
Photography at Manarat
Photography has become a second strength. The Photography Studio provides shooting facilities, a digital laboratory and workshop space, and Al Qomra, a fortnightly gathering for photographers, gives practitioners at every level a place to show work, share technique and take part in workshops. The Spectrum residency, whose first cohort exhibited at Manarat in 2023, offers mentorship and the chance to produce and show new work.
Recent exhibitions have looked close to home. Doors of Al Sha’biya, organised with AbuDhabi Streets in autumn 2026, photographed the doorways of the Sha’biya neighbourhoods built in the 1970s, when new housing was changing the face of the capital, and MONOCHROMA 2 – Black & White brought together ceramic works made and fired in the UAE.
The Art Fair at Manarat
For collectors, Manarat is best known as the home of the capital’s art fair. Abu Dhabi Art was founded in 2009, and its seventeenth edition, held at Manarat in November 2025, brought together some 140 galleries from more than 35 countries, with a notable focus on Nigerian art. A month earlier, the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi and Frieze had announced that the fair would become Frieze Abu Dhabi from 2026.
The first edition runs at Manarat from 19 to 22 November 2026, with a preview on the opening day. According to Frieze, it brings together more than 80 galleries from 37 countries and regions. Alongside the main Galleries section are Focus, for younger international galleries, Global Futures, for solo presentations by artists engaging with the UAE and its region, and Frieze Masters Abu Dhabi, which looks at the exchange of objects, people and ideas across the Indian Ocean.
The Lebanese artist Dala Nasser, the first winner of the Frieze Abu Dhabi Artist Award, will fill the atrium with Qubbat Duris, named after a 13th-century monument in the Bekaa Valley, a timber structure hung with textile paintings made with charcoal rubbings, ash, raw clay and terracotta. Elsewhere, At Another Meeting Point pairs the Emirati artists Mohammed Kazem and Alia Zaal, in an exhibition curated by Dirwaza Curatorial Lab, founded by Munira Al Sayegh. The fair also reaches beyond Manarat, with Frieze Sculpture Abu Dhabi, presented by Aldar, installed at Mamsha Beach from 16 November to 16 December and including work by Zeinab Alhashemi and Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim.
A Season for Collectors
The fair opens a busy few weeks on the island. Sotheby’s returns to Saadiyat for the second Abu Dhabi Collectors’ Week, from 4 to 10 December 2026, with public exhibitions at the Saadiyat Grove Experience Centre and, on 10 December, Breaking Ground, its first international fine art auction in Abu Dhabi. Among the artists represented are the Emirati pioneer Hassan Sharif and Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, whose work also appears in Frieze Sculpture, while Nujoom Al-Ghanem and Nasser Al-Yousif make their auction debuts. Collectors’ Week is considered to be a cultural cornerstone in the UAE, and the overlap with Frieze gives collectors good reason to spend several days on the island.
Manarat Within the Cultural District
Saadiyat has changed a great deal since Manarat opened. Louvre Abu Dhabi opened in 2017, Zayed National Museum and the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi followed in 2025, and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, designed by Frank Gehry, is due to open on 11 December 2026. Manarat’s part in that group is distinct. Its exhibitions change often, and its studios and screenings bring people back between visits to the larger museums.
For those who live on the island, in Mamsha Al Saadiyat and the villas and residences nearby, that programme is part of everyday life rather than an occasional outing, and Abu Dhabi Sotheby’s International Realty’s guide to Saadiyat Island’s attractions and activities covers the island more widely.
Visiting Manarat Al Saadiyat
Manarat Al Saadiyat stands in the Saadiyat Cultural District, a short drive from central Abu Dhabi and within easy reach of Louvre Abu Dhabi. According to its website, it is open daily from 10am to 8pm, although exhibitions, workshops and events may keep different hours, and guided exhibition tours, studio sessions and public programmes can be arranged through its calendar. The café and brasserie, with the outdoor terrace, make it easy to stay for longer.
The galleries have changed their contents many times since 2009, and the collections once previewed here now hang in museums elsewhere on the island. In the studios, meanwhile, students and photographers are at work on pieces that may one day find their own place on the walls.
