Kimia Maleki – Survey of Dubai Art Galleries

In a trip to UAE in May 2015 and visiting Dubai, Abu-Dhabi and Sharjah, this project tried to explore organizational models implemented by art institutions in the area where museums, art galleries, and fairs are expanding rapidly. Interest in visiting these locations was sparked by debate in Arts Organization in Society course taught by Rachel Weiss is 2014. This research primarily sought to question and analyze the Western influence on the art scene of this region and it’s connection to colonial histories. A brief report of this journey was published in Fnews magazine titled as Dubai’s Art World, But Not For All in 2015.

Kimia Maleki is a recent graduate of the Masters of Arts Administration and Policy program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Kimia is interested in archiving, historiography and curatorial practice. She created the first comprehensive magazine of art students at the University of the Arts, Tehran while pursuing her Bachelors of Fine Arts. Following her BFA, she received an exceptional talent award to be enrolled as a graduate student in the Masters of Art Theory and Research program at the Tehran Art University where she felt compelled to move abroad to learn new theoretical methods of artistic leadership in order to help her own art community. While at SAIC she started to gather Iranian students as part of the Iranian Studies Group, she got experiences by serving as a Teacher Assistant both in the Art History and Contemporary Practices departments and a contributor for Fnews magazine. Now, Kimia is serving as Special Collections Coordinator at Stony Island Arts Bank.