Once upon a time a long, long time ago in Dubai two innovators decided that it was time to set up a market for the creative makers, designers and artists of the UAE. The qualifying criteria for participating at the markets was that the vendor was responsible for making their product by hand in the UAE. No imports would be allowed for trading or reselling, hence the name ARTE was born, an acronym for ‘Artisans of the Emirates’. The year was 2005. A meeting with other Artisans was set up and with their support the first market was held in The Crowne Plaza Hotel, on Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai. It was a great success for both the vendors and for the hotel and a new initiative had taken root! It was no longer needed to join these ‘other’ markets as part of the Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) of other business in Dubai; the markets would in future stand on their own two feet!
With a lack of car parking places available at the hotel, it was soon time to find a new venue and ARTE moved on to the Al Ghazal Mall on Al Wasl Road (Satwa end), where we had a huge car park and a fabulous indoor space. The market grew quickly from 29 vendors to close to a 100. An attractive feature of Al Ghazal Mall was the glass display cabinets situated around the mall which allowed the participating vendors to provide ‘teaser’ displays of their products throughout the week, in between the markets.
The whole concept was new to Dubai and interest to take part quickly grew among the growing population. A bigger venue was required. And with luck on our side, the husband of one of the vendors was the General Manager of Times Square Center (TSC). This brand new mall had recently opened as host to the electronics retailer SharafDG and the GM was much impressed with all that ARTE stood for. He invited ARTE to come and try out TSC as a new venue. It so happened that this was aligned with his strategy of wanting to build the mall as a community events’ destination. ARTE markets were held monthly, and ARTE was quickly torn between the dilemma of over-exposing themselves and that of wanting to meet the vendors’ wishes to maximize the commercial opportunity of having more regular markets.
It was decided that an additional venue would be the answer; a venue which offered a different customer demographic would provide additional exposure rather than over-exposing in the same location and would give the vendors another chance to generate additional sales. The wide corridors in Dubai Festival City (DFC) on the same floor as IKEA provided an ideal venue. ARTE enjoyed DFC for a few years.
In the meantime, over the years ARTE has been invited by other property owners and mall managements to hold markets on their premises, and these included Arabian Centre, Oasis Mall, WAFI, Green Community, Al Hamra Mall (RAK), Dubai Design District (D3), the Greens, all of which hosted ARTE for periods of time, until such time as the vendors felt the commercial opportunities were better elsewhere. In addition, ARTE has held pop-up themed markets, e.g. Christmas markets on the QE2 and at the Dubai British School.
ARTE listened to the needs and suggestions of the vendors and working with the talented graphic designers in our vendor group the team expanded. You can see the results of their beautiful work in the collection of ARTE art work through the years.
In 2014 ARTE was at its height of success and ARTE needed more help. We took on a team with Reinet handling the massive role of Social Media maker, Kristine taking care of the Graphic Design requirements for ARTE, Marian handling the ARTE website, Zainab helping out with all the complicated official administrative duties. Shireen and Eliyas joined to support Kumar and Stephen with the operations on the day.
For the past 5 years ARTE has settled at two main locations, Mercato Mall and TSC and holds markets every Saturday throughout the year (except for a short summer break), alternating between the two venues. We actually love to be regular without too many changes, Dubai is already so vibrant, let us add to this only in the vendor’s own subtle ways.
Today, ARTE is a thriving ecosystem of creativity made possible only with the support of everyone involved- our vendors, customers, the location managements and the team behind the scenes. But our story is still being written. We want YOU to be a part of it. Will you swing by an ARTE market and discover the magic for yourself? Together, let’s continue to support local artisans and contribute to the flourishing cultural fabric of the UAE.