Friday 04 / October / 2024
Muscat: Residents and citizens from Oman will now be able to visit the National Museum of Qatar and learn more about the history of Arabia, after it opens to the public this Thursday.
Spanning a total area of 52,000 square metres – that’s more than half a million square feet – the museum will open to the public on Thursday, 28 March, 2019, and its winding 1.5 kilometre gallery aims to take visitors to the museum on a series of unique, encompassing environments, each of which tells its part of the story of Qatar, and by extension, the GCC, through a special combination of architectural space, music, poetry, oral histories, evocative aromas, archaeological and heritage objects, commissioned artworks, monumentally-scaled art films, and more.
The museum is designed by renowned French architect Jean Nouvel, who also created the Louvre Museum in Paris, and its counterpart in the Middle East, the Louvre Abu Dhabi. The design of the museum, which consists of a series of complex, interlocking discs, is based on the desert rose, a crystal cluster which is formed when grains of sand and gypsum fuse together under certain naturally-occurring conditions in the desert.
“The building I designed needed to reflect these three different stories,” said Nouvel. “The first, which covers a long period, is the story of the peninsula and its inhabitants. The second is an exploration of the coastal and desert lifestyles as well as the pearling industry, and third covers the spectacular acceleration that gave the kingdom – in just a few decades – the power and prosperity we associate with it today. Because of its economic power, Qatar has become a world leader in fields as diverse as education, communications, and energy technology.
“The desert rose, a flower-like aggregate of mineral crystals occurring only in arid coastal regions, is the first architectural structure that nature itself creates, through wind, sea spray and sand acting together over millennia. It’s surprisingly complex and poetic,” he added.
Estimated to be built at a cost of some $434 million, the first plans for the museum were first drawn up in 2003, and construction began in 2011, before being completed in 2018. At the centre of the National Museum of Qatar is the restored palace of Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani, the son of the founder of the State of Qatar. The palace is the final exhibit in a series of galleries that show the history of Qatar, right from the time its geographical boundaries began to be formed millions of years ago, to the most recent developments that have shaped the outlook and identity of the nation.
Sheikha Amna bint Abdulaziz bin Jassim Al Thani, Director of the National Museum of Qatar, said, “After more than a decade of planning, we are deeply gratified to welcome the people of Qatar and our international visitors to this exciting, multi-layered, experiential museum. From the start, Qatar Museums and the National Museum team knew that we wanted to create a living experience for our people—a museum with a heart. We have created galleries full of movement, sound, and color in order to engage our public fully, with their senses and emotions as well as their intellects, and have assembled creative and authentic content that is so rich that people will discover something new with each visit. It is now time for the discoveries to begin.”
Together, the eleven permanent galleries take visitors from the formation of the Qatar peninsula millions of years ago to the nation’s exciting and diverse present. Giving voice to the nation’s rich heritage and culture and expressing the aspirations of its people, NMoQ aims to serve as a hub for discovery, creativity, and community engagement, providing diverse educational opportunities for Qatar and advancing the nation’s cultural vision on the global stage.
Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums, said, “The opening of the National Museum of Qatar is a source of immense pride for our country, and an exceptional moment for engaging with people from around the world. The extraordinary schedule of inaugural activities draws together outstanding artists, architects, thinkers, and cultural leaders from Qatar and the international community, vividly demonstrating how the National Museum of Qatar will always be a dynamic resource in its programs as well as its exhibitions. Culture connects people, and with this new museum we believe we have created an exceptional platform for dialogue.”
