Cultural Diplomacy in Times of War: Is the Gulf’s Role as an Arts Destination Under Threat?

Escalating geopolitical volatility in the region has cast doubt on the fate of the highly anticipated inaugural edition of Art Basel Qatar.

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Sep 14, 2025 - 00:15

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Cultural Diplomacy in Times of War: Is the Gulf’s Role as an Arts Destination Under Threat?

A woman in a black abaya walks past the striking desert-roseâinspired architecture of the National Museum of Qatar, its layered geometric forms rising above an older traditional building.

Gulf countries are accelerating efforts to promote intercultural exchange, with art increasingly deployed as the preferred tool of diplomacy and regional rebranding. The Saudi Visual Arts Commission (VAC), for example, recently brought back its Art & Ideas (Dialogues in Contemporary Art) series for another season, kicking off with two public dialogues in Seoul during Seoul Art Week.

The first panel, on September 5, gathered leading voices from Saudi Arabia and Korea to discuss how those cities are positioning themselves as visionary cultural capitals, placing creative and cultural economies at the forefront to draw global attention and champion plurality, experimentation, and connection. In a statement, VAC CEO Dina Amin described the initiative as a platform designed to open new channels of discovery, curiosity and creativity: “We are committed to connecting the visual arts professionals of the Kingdom to their peers around the world as part of our mission to promote dialogue and build a sustainable arts community.”

During Paris Art Week, Art & Ideas heads to Asia NOW, where a panel titled “My East is Your West” will convene prominent curators to examine intersections of Western and East Asian art and the rise of new models such as Art Week Riyadh. The program will culminate in a new performance by Saudi artist Ahaad Alamoudi, Ghosts of Today and Tomorrow, a sound-and-light activation exploring memory, tradition and futurity. From there, the series heads to Riyadh with a symposium mapping the intellectual landscape of the region’s visual arts through six panels on Saudi art history, technology, contemporary thought, education and grassroots innovation.

But there’s no denying these and other programs promoting cross-cultural exchange are unfolding against a backdrop of escalating geopolitical volatility. On Monday, September 9, an Israeli airstrike on Doha threatened Qatar’s claimed neutrality and safety and, with it, the fate of the highly anticipated inaugural edition of Art Basel Qatar, scheduled for February 2026.

Qatar has long presented itself as a neutral broker in the region, hosting negotiations and dialogues between political rivals since the start of the war in Gaza. But the strike on the Leqtaifiya residential compound—which ostensibly targeted senior Hamas leadership—killed five, including the son and an aide of Palestinian politician Khalil al-Hayya, even as ceasefire talks continued.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Turkey and other governments in the region denounced the attack as a breach of international law and a direct threat to regional stability. UN Secretary-General António Guterres called it a “flagrant violation” of Qatari sovereignty, while reports surfaced that Israel had given the White House very short notice and that U.S. forces had privately warned Doha of potential strikes.

Notably, some of Qatar’s most prominent cultural institutions—operated under the Qatar Museums umbrella and set to host the upcoming art week—are in the immediate vicinity of the destruction.

Kenneth Schachter's (soon deleted) post shoiwing bombing in Doha.

The attack sparked a great deal of debate in the art world: Is it safe—or even fair—to host an international art fair in such a context? Artist, critic and provocateur Kenny Schachter, in a now-deleted Instagram post, labeled Art Basel Qatar the art world’s newest hotbed. The post, accompanied by a meme-style image of the airstrike with “Art Basel” written over the smoking ruins, was gone just a few hours later after triggering sharp replies, including New York gallery Lomex quipping that it was just the fair’s young galleries section.

When Observer reached out to the Art Basel team to ask how the organization intends to proceed, they said they are closely monitoring developments in Doha and remain in regular contact with their local partners. For now, Art Basel insists it is fully committed to mounting the inaugural edition of the Qatar fair in February 2026.

Of course, this was not the first sign of potential trouble. In June, just days after announcing its Doha edition, news of Art Basel’s planned entrée into the region was overshadowed by Iran’s missile strike on the U.S. Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar—a strike intercepted through timely intelligence. There was nothing to stop the attack this time. In the span of just 72 hours, Israel carried out six separate attacks across Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Tunisia, Qatar and Yemen—an escalation that raises profound concerns about regional safety and casts serious doubt on the feasibility of staging a marquee global art event in such a volatile context.