Dubai is doubling down on its ambitions to become a global culture hub with the announcement of a new museum dedicated to digital art.
The planned Museum of Digital Art (MODA) signals intensifying competition across the Gulf to dominate the fast-growing field of tech-driven culture. The institution arrives as neighbors including Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi pour resources into digital and new media initiatives, as well as major museums, transforming the Gulf into one of the world’s most aggressively expanding centers for art and innovation.
MODA is part of Dubai’s monumental $27 billion transformation of its financial center into a tech hub, announced earlier this year, and will platform various art forms that rely on emerging technologies, including immersive and interactive experiences. No budget or completion date has yet been announced, but Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, chairperson of Dubai Culture, said the museum will advance the city’s “commitment to shaping a future where creativity and technology converge.”
It’s also a big add to the city’s museum scene. Despite being the Gulf’s leading art market hub for more than two decades thanks to Art Dubai, the city only announced plans for its first dedicated art museum last year—a Tadao Ando–designed institution which will help Dubai catch up with the rapidly expanding cultural infrastructure in Doha and Abu Dhabi.
In her statement, Sheikha Latifa touted MODA as “the first institution of its kind in the region” for its focus on digital art. However, in 2024, neighboring Saudi Arabia launched its own impressive new media institute, Diriyah Art Futures, with the exhibition “Art Must Be Artificial: Perspectives of A.I. in the Visual Arts.”
A woman visits teamLab Phenomena, an immersive artwork experience museum, in Saadiyat Cultural District in Abu Dhabi on May 8, 2025. Photo: Giuseppe Cacace / AFP via Getty Images.
The United Arab Emirates has been investing in digital culture more broadly for several years. Dubai already hosts the futuristic Museum of the Future alongside initiatives like the Dubai A.I. Campus and its annual A.I. and Web3 Festival, while capital city Abu Dhabi unveiled teamLab Phenomena last year, a permanent 183,000-square-foot immersive complex by the Japanese digital art collective teamLab.
News of Dubai’s ambitious new platform for digital art was announced over the weekend, as a “special edition” of Art Dubai came to a close. Delayed and substantially pared down due to instability in the region during the U.S.-Israel war in Iran, the fair nonetheless proved the resilience of its local art market. It has also served as a key platform for digital art since the launch of its dedicated section Art Dubai Digital in 2022.
MODA will be designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, a firm based in Chicago. Smith also designed Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, currently the tallest building in the world.