Launched in April, Al Quoz Creative Zone is set to be a new hub for creative businesses, located in the industrial Dubai neighbourhood of Al Quoz.
Dubai Culture has announced that creative practitioners working in Al Quoz can now apply for the long-term cultural visa as part of the Al Quoz Creative Zone initiative.
Applications are open to those in fields of the arts, including visual and performing arts, design, heritage, history, literature, cognitive studies, crafts and other creative industries.
Those interested in pursuing the cultural visa can submit a creative profile that demonstrates their distinct artistic production, spanning five years or longer in their field, as well as any awards or professional recognition they may have received on Dubai Culture’s website.
Applicants must also detail their contributions to the community, be it through creative endeavours or forms of voluntary work.
This new plan is one of the outputs of the Al Quoz Creative Zone committee’s development project chaired by Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed, who is overseeing the implementation of the project and working to achieve its strategic objectives of supporting the creative community and creative industries in the emirate, providing them with a pioneering environment and a comprehensive system that will develop the creative sector.
The committee includes Mattar Al Tayer, Director-General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the Roads and Transport Authority and the Vice-Chairman of the Committee; Dawoud Al Hajri, Director-General of Dubai Municipality; Sami Al Qamzi, Director-General of Dubai Economy; Hala Badri, Director-General of Dubai Culture; Helal Saeed Almarri, Director-General of the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism); and Hesham Abdullah Al Qassim, CEO of Wasl Asset Management Group.
The 10-year visa is open to those who are employed full-time or part-time, as well as freelancers and self-employed individuals. Applicants must have a minimum annual income of Dh120,000 ($32669.06) – which breaks down to around Dh10,000 ($2,722.56) per month – to be eligible.
The long-term cultural visa was first approved in 2019 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, as a way to retain and attract talent in the emirate’s cultural sector.
Launched in April, Al Quoz Creative Zone is set to be a new hub for creative businesses, located in the industrial Dubai neighbourhood of Al Quoz.
The initiative will include membership programmes intended to give entrepreneurs special benefits, including fee exemptions, reduced rents and logistics support for their businesses.
Dubai Culture has yet to specify a location for the zone, as well as a timeline for when the programmes will begin.
As of March 2021, Dubai Culture has received more than 260 cultural visa applications, about half of which had met the criteria. A total of 1,000 visas are expected to be given in this phase of Dubai Culture’s overall cultural visa programme.
