Cultural Initiatives and New Museums in Qatar

We are only a few months away from one of the most eagerly awaited international sporting events: the 2022 Football World Cup will take place in Qatar from 21 November. The sporting event will certainly be a major catalyst for international attention on the Emirate, and in parallel, Qatar Museums has announced a series of cultural initiatives that will precede, accompany and continue beyond the event. The cultural programme will begin in September with the opening of several important exhibitions that will continue until 2023. Among the planned highlights, October will see the inauguration of the MIA, the Doha Museum of Islamic Art. Completely remodelled and refurbished to the design of architect Ieoh Ming Pei, 1983 Pritzker Prize winner, the MIA will once again become the cultural benchmark of the centre of the capital. The museum opening itself will be accompanied by a number of exhibitions spread across eight museum venues and galleries in Doha.

The international public will be able to see the recent achievements of Qatar Museums, the cultural vibrancy of the Emirate and the future museums that will enrich it: the Art Mill Museum designed by Elemental, the Lusail Museum designed by Herzog & de Meuron and the Qatar Auto Museum by OMA.
Among the planned exhibitions: 'Baghdad: Eye’s Delight', dedicated to one of the largest cities in the Islamic world and presented at the MIA itself. The Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art will host the multimedia creations of two contemporary artists, Sophia Al-Maria and Taysir Batniji.
The rich cultural heritage of the nomads of the Central Sahara, the Arab Middle East and Central Eurasia/Mongolia will be the subject of a major exhibition at the National Museum of Qatar designed by Jean Nouvel. The 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum, which opened at the end of March 2022, will house an exhibition dedicated to football and major sports competitions.
The exhibition “Art Mill Museum 2030” will present to the public the future museum dedicated to international, modern and contemporary art, according to the vision of Catherine Grenier and the architecture designed by the ELEMENTAL architectural studio headed up by Alejandro Aravena. The project involves the conversion of a former industrial site, a mill with its silos, located on Doha's Corniche, into a place for contemporary creativity. Alongside the museum, with its prominent international collection of multidisciplinary works from 1830 to the present day, the site will also feature a creative village and garden planned by VOGT Landscape Architects led by Günther Vogt.
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(Agnese Bifulco)

Images courtesy of Qatar Museums

CAPTIONS

01 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum Exterior
02 ELEMENTAL, Art Mill Museum conceptual design: view from the south (Doha, Qatar), 2022, digital rendering. Concept images by ELEMENTAL © Qatar Museums, 2022.
03 A Sneak Peet at Qatar Auto Museum project by OMA
04 Concept design of Qatar Auto Museum project by OMA
05 1963 Ferrari, 250 Berlinetta GTO at Qatar Auto Museum project by OMA
06 1939 Pontiac, Plexiglass Deluxe Six Ghost Car at Qatar Auto Museum project by OMA
07 1949 Delahaye, 175 S Roadster at Qatar Auto Museum project by OMA

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