Qatar museum director sees International Cultural Summit in Hong Kong as a chance to learn from the city and tell the world what Doha is doing

The Gulf state of Qatar has built a design district and is creating a cultural district, and Shaika Nasser Al-Nassr is keen to learn from Hong Kong’s arts hub
The director of Qatar’s Museum of Islamic Art, she sees summit of 1,000 arts and culture movers and shakers as a chance to raise awareness of Doha’s progress

Art

Erika Na

Published: 12:45pm, 19 Mar 2024

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With 6,000 kilometres separating Hong Kong and the Qatari capital, Doha, it may seem at first glance that the cities have nothing much in common. On closer examination, however, both have built cultural districts to stake a claim to being a regional hub of arts and culture.

“We have already developed a Design District in an historic area of downtown Doha,” says Shaika Nasser Al-Nassr, director of the Museum of Islamic Art Doha.

“The entire neighbourhood, Msheireb, has been transformed into a highly sustainable, mixed-use development that merges contemporary ideas and functions with traditional design principles.”

The government will be adding more cultural districts and museums in Doha in the future, she adds.

Shaika Nasser Al-Nassr, the director of the Museum of Islamic Art Doha in Qatar. Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of Islamic Art.

Al-Nassr will be among the global movers and shakers from the spheres of arts and culture attending the March 24-26 International Cultural Summit that is being held in Hong Kong for the first time as part of “Art March” in the city.

The event, which will be held in the West Kowloon Cultural District, will bring together more than 1,000 representatives from international arts institutions to discuss matters of concern to creative industries.

The Seljuq Stucco Panel displayed at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha. Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of Islamic Art.

For Al-Nassr, the summit is of particular interest both to her institution and Qatar as a whole, and she looks forward to sharing and exchanging ideas with her contemporaries about how cultural districts can contribute to a city’s social and economic ecosystems.

“The summit is a wonderful opportunity for me to raise awareness of what we’re doing in Doha,” she says, “with all its benefits, and to learn more about the experience of other cities, including Hong Kong.”

Opened in 2008, the Museum of Islamic Art was the first institution to open as part of a creative push by Qatar Museums, a government entity founded in 2005 to manage major museums, heritage sites, festivals and public art installations in the country on the shores of the Persian Gulf.

The museum, with its modernistic, white exterior and towering interior atrium adorned with circular staircases, was designed by Chinese architect I.M. Pei, whose past projects include the Louvre Pyramid in Paris and Hong Kong’s Bank of China Tower.

Built on an artificial island, the Museum of Islamic Art enjoys international partnerships with institutions including with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Yuz Museum in Shanghai.

The museum has one of the most comprehensive collections of Islamic art in the world, and currently holds more than 11,000 objects, which span three continents and 13 centuries, according to Al-Nassr.

“We also have a library with 21,000 books about Islamic art, making it one of the largest research collections in the region,” she adds.

The “blue monkey” (Iran, Kashan, 6th century) at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha. Photo: Courtesy of the Museum of Islamic Art.

The Museum of Islamic Art is “in many ways, the flagship of all the museums”, she says. More museums are expected to be opened in Qatar in the future, including Dadu, Children’s Museum of Qatar; the Qatar Auto Museum; Art Mill Museum; and the Lusail Museum.

“The future Art Mill Museum will present modern and contemporary art from all regions of the globe on an equal basis,” Al-Nassr adds.

“We are also creating a new Cultural District along Doha’s Corniche [an extensive waterfront promenade] that will give people easy access to the Museum of Islamic Art, and the National Museum of Qatar,” she says.

Such a vibrant arts scene, Al-Nassr says, will present many opportunities for collaboration between Qatar and Hong Kong in the future.

“While Qatar Museums is committed to nurturing artistic talent within our own country, we are also committed to building partnerships internationally to support artists and audiences throughout the world,” she says.

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