Rebecca Anne Proctor is the former Editor-in-Chief of Harper’s Bazaar Art and Harper’s Bazaar
Interiors, a position she held from July 2014 until November 2019. Her
writing has been published in Artnet News, Frieze, The New
York Times Style Magazine; Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East, BBC Worldwide, Galerie, Vogue Arabia, The National, Architectural Digest, Arab News,
Al-Monitor, The Defense Post, The Forward, The Jewish Insider and The Business of Fashion. She has also written texts
for several books and catalogues on Middle Eastern art and culture.
Her forthcoming book Art in Saudi Arabia: A New Creativity Economy? that she co-authored with Ali Al-Senussi will be published by Lund Humphries in
Spring 2023.
Rebecca obtained her M. Litt from Christie’s London/University of Glasgow in Modern and
Contemporary Art History after completing a thesis on Afro-Cuban Religious Influences on Post-Revolutionary Cuban Art:
Redefining National Identity. She then
worked at Gagosian Gallery before moving to Paris to pursue a double Master’s
Degree in Middle Eastern Studies and Conflict Resolution from the American
University of Paris, and a Master’s in Sociologie des Conflits (Sociology of
Conflicts) from the L’Institut Catholique.
In Paris she wrote two dissertations The Necessity for Jihad: Origin and
Evolution of the Concept of Jihad from the time of Muhammad to the Present and Conflict Resolution and Children's
Art. The latter was based on field research conducted with refugees and
orphans in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley in 2008.
In 2009 Rebecca moved to Abu Dhabi to work for an art
gallery and pursue her interest in journalism, which soon became her full-time
occupation. She has lived in the United Arab Emirates ever since, reporting from around the
Middle East, South Asia and Africa, including from Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia,
Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Bahrain, Jordan, India, Bangladesh,
Nepal, Ghana, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Togo, Madagascar and Papua New Guinea.
She is a highly in-demand speaker and moderator on cultural and current affairs pertaining to the Middle East and Africa. Her work is motivated by the belief that art and culture are a means to foster cross-cultural dialogue and socio-economic change, particularly in regions and countries burdened by the effects of conflict and destitution.
Rebecca is also a former professional ballerina. She
obtained her Advanced II diploma from the Royal Academy of Ballet (RAD). She continues to dance and also teaches pilates, certified by Balanced Body in the United States.
Rebecca is fluent in written and spoken Italian and French.
She has a conversational command of Portuguese and speaks and writes rudimentary Arabic which she continues to study.
