Heritage is not fixed in the past but reinvented in real time

When I relocated to Abu Dhabi a decade ago, the promise of potential drew me to the undeveloped desert landscape surrounding NYU Abu Dhabi. The growing museums and the nation's commitment to arts and culture provided an opportunity to contribute to something uncharted. Now, I collaborate within an expanding cultural community. Audiences circulate among museums, festivals, concerts, and performances, and some who initially visited are now producing their own work.

New institutions emerge, and new colleagues form friendships and collaborations. The International Day of the Intangible Cultural Heritage prompts reflection on how these interactions help people draw from the past, learn from each other, and construct the culture future generations will inherit. Heritage is not static in the past.

Intangible cultural heritage evolves continuously through music, storytelling, crafts, performance, celebrations, and knowledge passed down through generations and reinvented in real-time. Communities maintain these practices through teaching and participation, adapting them as their lives change. Our role is to empower the individuals who carry these traditions forward.

For me, the arts are social infrastructure. They facilitate individuals from diverse backgrounds to gather, forming a community. A performance can initiate a conversation, introduce potential collaborators, or inspire someone to believe they too have a story worth sharing. Consistent opportunities to participate, create work, and learn from others convert cultural investment into a lasting impact on the life of a country.

Recently, I took part in a LiveX panel where Prof Adrian Lahoud from the Royal College of Art compared the opportunities New York offered earlier immigrants with what Abu Dhabi and Dubai offer today. As a New Yorker born and raised, I acknowledge a comparable energy of ambitious individuals arriving with distinct experiences and a belief they could collectively construct a life.

Abu Dhabi's cultural identity will continue to evolve from its Emirati heritage and the lives and encounters of its residents. Its neighborhoods and artistic communities will differ from New York's, and the importance of today's beginnings may only become apparent a generation from now. I ponder the words of Zaki Nusseibeh, a cultural advisor to the UAE President, shared in The New York Times during my arrival in 2014.

"We understand we cannot construct culture overnight," he stated, describing the upcoming museums. "So, we can discover our own voice. It is hoped that in 20 or 30 years, we will have our own cultural elite, so our young people won't have to travel to London or Paris to learn about art." We are already progressing towards that objective.

I have encountered individuals who first visited Abu Dhabi on school trips, enrolled as NYUAD students, encountered unfamiliar performances, participated in workshops, and have become artists whose work we present and commission. A children's matinee can spark a possibility that persists for years. Artists require opportunities to cultivate their practice and maintain a career.

The Arts Centre's Numoo professional development accelerator offers practical knowledge and builds networks across various art forms and backgrounds. Individuals connect with collaborators and generate work we couldn't have envisioned when we brought them together, sharing stories that enlighten others about life here. Hekayah | The Story, our annual celebration of the UAE's National Day, Eid Al Etihad, poses the question: how do you forge a national narrative?

Poets and musicians from diverse backgrounds are selected collaboratively by curators from the UAE's literary and performing arts communities. Through their shared stories shaped by their histories, heritages, and experiences of home, they provide the country's various voices and languages with a platform. This year, our first collaboration with Public Art Abu Dhabi extends this opportunity for shared storytelling.

In the same LiveX conversation, architect Bjarke Ingels alluded to Leonard Cohen's lyric, "There is a crack in everything / That's how the light gets in." He was referring to openings for the unforeseen in a city's development, spaces where magic can occur. Communities sustain these practices through teaching and participation, adapting them as their lives evolve.

Putting this intention into practice entails creating conditions for serendipity: affordable communities where artists can reside near one another, meet regularly, exchange ideas, and encounter collaborators unexpectedly. Urban planning can facilitate encounters even when we cannot foresee their outcomes. Some ideas may falter or alter direction; others become more intriguing through an unforeseen contribution.

A cultural scene demands space for this imperfect process, acknowledging that failure can be as significant as inspiration. Audiences also bring their perspectives. At The Arts Centre's opening concert this season, Fanfarai, a French North African brass and percussion ensemble, performed alongside New Orleans's Dirty Dozen Brass Band.

I observed people clapping to different rhythms, bringing their unique musical instincts to the performance. Yet, they shared the delight of being together, creating a new common history. Post-show, individuals share stories about friendships and experiences that have contributed to making Abu Dhabi their home. The International Day of the Intangible Cultural Heritage urges us to consider our responsibility towards the practices and knowledge communities value and transmit.

Preserving and expanding them means supporting people to practice, teach, perform, and contribute, acknowledging that what they pass on will evolve. The promise that brought me here has materialized in the work people produce and the connections they form. We can honor their contributions while leaving room for discoveries none of us could anticipate.