SCB is ‘Here For Good’. A brand’s promise to improve communities. And they walk the talk:

In 2017, they instituted the Fair Pay Charter, pledging to pay men and women equally. They support the UN Women Empowerment Principles. In 2019, they were recognized on the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index for the fourth year. Currently, 46% of their global personnel are women, including 13 CEOs. Locally, SCB UAE has 4 women in senior management, including their first Emirati CEO.

Beyond supporting female empowerment initiatives across the bank, they wanted to raise awareness for gender pay equality. One alarming fact surfaced: A study led by the University of Oxford - Saïd Business School emerged, highlighting that works by women artists sell for 47.6% less than those by men.

The press reported it. Then the world moved on. SCB felt that this was not good enough. Something needed to be done. Action, not words.

Art Gap. If women are going to be paid 47.6% less, they will paint 47.6% less.

SCB brought together a collective of 19 Emirati and expat women artists from 11 nationalities to add their voices to the global gender parity conversation. They showcased their best art pieces, but this time, incomplete. They painted 47.6% less of their canvas, matching the exact percentage of their pay gap. The blank space on the canvas highlighted what the world would miss if it didn’t treat women and men equally. The sum of 19 incomplete paintings created a powerful visual statement that showed, in the most universal way, the gender pay inequality in the art world.

The Art Gap movement was started by bold women artists, creatively leveraging scientific research to bring about change.

There were more than 175K mentions of the hashtag #PayGap on twitter alone in the past three years. Many global centres of knowledge acknowledge the disparity of gender pay in the world across different industries. Google #fempowerment and enjoy a myriad of smartly crafted CSR initiatives and communication campaigns around gender pay equality.

Talk has resulted in more talk. But attitudes need to change. We chose to do this through awareness.

Our audience wasn’t limited by borders. Our target was a mindset. While everyone talks, the best way to stand out is visually. Who better than artists to bring this disparity to life?

Trusting ‘seeing is believing’, the strategy boiled down to making people see, literally, the art pay gap and the injustice it perpetuates.

World Art Dubai is the Middle East’s largest affordable art fair (3-6 April 2019), with 18,000 visitors at the very popular Dubai World Trade Centre. The choice to make Art Gap part of a bigger exhibition was strategic - to drive footfall, reach the art industry at its core and let the media spread our message.

One woman inspires another. That’s why we chose the artist Batool Jafri, winner of Emirates Woman of the Year 2018 in the ‘Art & Culture’ category, as the curator for Art Gap.

To address a global issue, we gathered a diverse team of 19 artists, Emiratis and expats from 11 different nationalities. Each did her own interpretation of the 47.6% gap, highlighting the disparity through powerfully incomplete paintings. Prices averaged 600-1400USD to keep the art within reach. Artists kept all proceeds as this was a non-profit initiative, but not a charity.

+10,000 visitors attended, including dignitaries like Director-General of the Dubai Department of Information, Deputy CEO of the Securities & Commodities Authority, senior representatives from UN Women, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and UK Trade Commission.

+7,500 pledges for equal pay during the event.

20,000USD for the 19 artworks, although sales wasn’t an objective.

USD 1.4million in earned media, including BBC Arabic, Thomson Reuters, VICE Arabia, Design TAXI, Toronto Sun Times, Thrive Global, Branding News, Zee TV, Al Hurra TV, China Arab TV, Gulf News, and other regional & international media.

+20million social media impressions.

Regional influencers, with more than 4.4million followers, spread the word – on their own initiative.

Art Gap is now a movement, with exhibitions planned in key markets, showing incomplete paintings with a percentage relevant to each country’s pay gap: South Korea 34.6%; India 29%; Pakistan 48.4%; Kenya 65%, Indonesia 40.6%.