Art gallery · Medina
Galerie d’Art Frédéric Damgaard
The Frédéric Damgaard gallery on avenue Oqba Ibn Nafiaa is Essaouira’s first art gallery according to the MAP news agency, opened in the 1980s for the town’s self-taught painters. Its website has not shown the gallery since late 2021, and nobody publishes its hours or prices. Check it is open before you cross the medina.
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Why this address matters
Frédéric Damgaard, a Danish art historian, opened the gallery in the 1980s. He showed painters from the town who had never been to art school. A MAP news agency report, carried on 29 October 2009 by the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad, describes it as Essaouira’s first art gallery. The Art Newspaper (10 December 2021) credits Damgaard with bringing Mohamed Tabal, Saïd Ouarzaz and the brothers Youssef and Hamou Aït Tazarin to notice.
Our view: if the door is open, stop here before you buy a canvas in the souks. Work chosen by a gallery helps you tell one hand and one workshop from another before you talk prices.
What is on the walls, and how long it takes
The gallery is given over to Essaouira’s painters and sculptors. It stands on avenue Oqba Ibn Nafiaa, the avenue that leads to the clock tower, 3 to 6 minutes’ walk from the Institut français by our calculation. This is a gallery that sells, not a museum with a set route. No entry price is published, since the gallery no longer has a website.
Our view: allow under an hour, and come with questions. The prices of the works are published nowhere, so ask as you walk in rather than on your way out.
Open or shut: check before you walk over
The gallery publishes no opening hours, and no longer has a website to do it. The hours copied from one directory to the next are signed by nobody, so we do not repeat them.
Galeriedamgaard.com still showed the gallery on 28 October 2021, in an Internet Archive capture. In January 2024 the domain served an unrelated commercial site, and in July 2025 an expired-domain page. On 17 October 2026 the registrar’s page says the domain has expired. Directory listings still point at that address, and those links lead nowhere.
No official source says who runs the gallery today. We found no account and no phone number published by the gallery itself.
Our advice: walk past as you cross the medina. If the door is open, go in and ask for the week’s hours. Treat the visit as an option rather than a fixture.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Damgaard gallery still open?
No official source confirms it as of 17 October 2026, and the gallery’s website has not shown it since late 2021. Walk past before you build a morning around it.
What are the Damgaard gallery opening hours?
The gallery does not publish them, and no longer has a website. The hours copied around directories are signed by nobody, so walk past and ask at the door.
How much does it cost to visit the Damgaard gallery?
No entry price is published, since the gallery no longer has a website. Prices for the works are not published anywhere either, so ask when you arrive.
Where is the Damgaard gallery in Essaouira?
On avenue Oqba Ibn Nafiaa in the medina, the avenue that leads to the clock tower. Allow 3 to 6 minutes on foot from the Institut français.
Who are the Essaouira school painters?
Self-taught artists from the town, whom critics also call the “Singuliers”. The Art Newspaper (10 December 2021) names Mohamed Tabal, Saïd Ouarzaz and the Aït Tazarin brothers among those Frédéric Damgaard brought to notice.
How long do you need at the Damgaard gallery?
Under an hour is enough, since this is a gallery that sells rather than a museum with a set route. Fit it into a walk through the medina instead of making it the point of the morning.