Sharjah Art Foundation
Radial Histories: Art and Exchange in Sharjah, 1960s-1980s
How did a fine arts scene first emerge in Sharjah? What connected artists in the UAE to cultural movements in the Gulf, the wider Arab world and beyond? And how can we rethink about modernism in the region before the rise of today’s global contemporary art scene, of which the UAE is a major hub? To find out, tune in to Radial Histories, a six-part audio miniseries that brings to light untold stories about visual art in Sharjah and the wider UAE from the 1960s to the early 1990s, just before the inception of the Sharjah Biennial in 1993. Taking Sharjah as its point of departure, the series features interviews with leading artists, curators, critics and institution-builders, as well as archival sound and historical analysis. Following movements inward and outward, the six chapters map the flow of people and ideas across expanding geographies and trace the shifts in political currents from the local to the international. Radial Histories offers a new way of listening to the past—one that deepens our understanding of the present.
2026 Sharjah Art Foundation
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