The Arts Club to open next year in Dubai

London’s The Arts Club, one of the most famous private members clubs in the world, is to open its first overseas venue in Dubai next year. To be situated within the new ICD Brookfield development in the city’s DIFC area, it will occupy 40,000 sq ft of indoor floor space across five levels, with an additional 23,000 sq ft outdoors and members will be able to enjoy a rooftop terrace, three restaurants and bars, a cigar club, art exhibition spaces and a business centre.

Founded in 1863, The Arts Club was established to provide a haven for those people who had professional or amateur relationships with the Arts, Literature or Sciences and it has remained in its current 18th Century Mayfair townhouse since 1896.

Its members have included novelist Charles Dickens, artist James McNeill Whistler, composer Paolo Tosti and many luminaries from film, architecture, science, theatre, fashion and media. Current board members include Gwyneth Paltrow and famed photographer and filmmaker, Aton Corbijn.

The Arts Club, where annual membership costs in the region of Dh10,000, continues to be a hub for creative and entrepreneurial patrons to come together to meet, exchange ideas, dine and participate in the varied events, and the Dubai version is said to be continuing in the same vein when it opens.

“There is a strong appetite in Dubai for world-class hospitality,” said principal shareholder, Gulu Waney, “as well as an innovative arts and events programme, and ICD Brookfield Place is the ideal hub for The Arts Club to be situated within”.

The National