Why Abu Dhabi Is the Most Exciting Art City Right Now—And What to See

Five bronze towers soar 400 feet above Saadiyat Island, the ever-expanding cultural district just off the coast of Abu Dhabi. The structures—which recall the wings of a falcon, a highly prized symbol in the United Arab Emirates—are the architectural signature of the Zayed National Museum, which opened in December. Two weeks before, another vast institution, the Natural History Museum, debuted. They will be followed later this year by the most ambitious of all—the late Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. 

The trio of buildings represents a major leap forward in the country’s $12 billion play to become a cultural capital to rival New York, Paris, and London. Spearheading the effort is Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, the chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi. He says the Guggenheim, which will be 12 times the size of its New York counterpart, is “going to be a lot more than a museum. It’s really a civic space that brings people together.” 

In addition to a collection of contemporary art from the 1960s to today, there will be music and dance performances staged in the shade of the museum’s cone-shaped towers. The focus will be on artists from the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Australia “who have not been given the light they deserve, whether it’s because of their geographical location or their gender,” Mubarak says. Works by these artists will be displayed alongside pieces by well-known Western names, such as Basquiat, Pollock, and Rothko. “That’s what’s going to make it distinctly different from anywhere else.”

There is plenty more to discover in Saadiyat, where the 295-room Jumeirah Saadiyat Island, which overlooks the Gulf, makes for a sumptuous home base. The Zayed­—a sprawling, 900,000-square-foot space designed by British architecture firm Foster + Partners—dominates the skyline. Named for the U.A.E.’s founding father, Zayed ibn Sultan Al Nahyan, it tells the nation’s story from antiquity to today. Across six permanent galleries—which appear to float above the lobby in concrete spheres—are 1,500 artifacts spanning 300,000 years of human history. The first thing you’ll see is a reconstruction of a Bronze Age boat used by ancient traders; further inside is the 8,000-year-old Abu Dhabi Pearl.

Leading to and from the Zayed is the Al Masar Garden, planted with desert shrubs and the region’s iconic ghaf tree. Walk along it toward the Gulf and you’ll come to the 377,000-square-foot Natural History Museum, a cascade of geometric white blocks and lush greenery designed by Dutch architecture studio Mecanoo. In contrast to some of the city’s more formal institutions, it’s ideal for families. On display are extinct species like a four-tusked elephant, whose fossils were discovered nearby, and a 67 million-year-old skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex. There are also boulder-size chunks of moon rocks and meteorites that crash-landed on Earth that children can touch and smell.

A short stroll away is the Louvre Abu Dhabi, which kicked off the area’s development as a global arts center when it opened in 2017. Its collection encompasses global treasures, such as Iranian illustrated folios from the 16th century, Egyptian funerary statues, and works by modern European masters including Picasso and Renoir.

Saadiyat’s art scene will reach new heights in November, when the London-based Frieze takes over the annual Abu Dhabi Art Fair, which will be rebranded as Frieze Abu Dhabi.

In addition to the long-awaited Guggenheim, Mubarak has also hinted that “another amazing asset will be announced soon.” Word in the souk is, it’s a concert hall.

A version of this story first appeared in the March 2026 issue of Travel + Leisure under the headline “Taking Flight.”