DOHA: Dr Karen Exell (pictured), Honorary Senior Research Associate at UCL Qatar, recently delivered Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) Monthly Dialogue Series lecture.
The consultant for Qatar Museums shared some of the key points in her soon-to-be-published book on the topic “Museums and Modernity in the Arabian Peninsula.”
Speaking at Georgetown University in Qatar’s campus, where CIRS is located, she shared that she was inspired to write the book after her preconceptions were challenged over the course of her work setting up the UCL Qatar programme in museum practice. “We came with the idea that this knowledge didn’t exist here. But we found that collecting practices have existed in the region for a long time. So I began to focus on how the region engages in modernity through its collecting practices.”
The museum expert launched into a critical overview of how heritage projects and museums are conceived and managed in the Arabian Peninsula by presenting contrasting poles of ultra modern western museums and the small scale local festivals that celebrate and document cultural heritage and historical events.
The heavy investment in global art projects have served to grab the attention of the world, which she explains is the exact intention. “Engagement with western-style museums is a strategic choice of leadership to guard cultural heritage and recently discovered artifacts. More recently, modern museums have helped to brand nations through accessing western arts. So museums aren’t a necessity but are a desire.”
The Peninsula
