Perfumery Museum��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������

Our Expressions: Art & Culture Talks continued in 2021 with five exciting new iterations. Expressions aims to highlight the intersections and cultural connections that tie the U.S., Arab, and Islamic worlds together through the act of storytelling. These talks features a variety of personalities, artist, and creatives who have lived or work in the Arab world and whose works were inspired and influenced by these cultures and people

Three of the year’s Expressions talks featured filmmakers in honor of our partnership with the Doha Film Institute (DFI), and the creatives we spoke with either work directly with DFI or participated in their programs for rising filmmakers: “The Next Generation of Filmmaking” with Khalifa Al-Thani; “Arab Cinema: Then & Now” with Farida Zahran; and “The Horror Film in Middle Eastern Cinema” with Babak Anvari. The filmmakers spoke on their background and study with DFI, the type of films they enjoy working on, as well as current and upcoming projects. For the webinars that were streamed live, audience members had the opportunity to ask questions of the creatives.

The final two Expressions talks tied into QAIC’s monthly themes: “Msheireb: A New Heart for Doha” with Michael Webb; and “Arab Life Through the Lens” with Wendy Ewald, focused on architecture and photography respectively. Michael Webb took audience members on a visual tour of one of Doha’s most exciting and innovative new neighborhoods, and Wendy Ewald spoke on her extensive portrait work in the U.S. and the Middle East.

Filmmaker Khalifa Al-Thani speaks on his upcoming and most recent work with the Doha Film Institute to QAIC’s audience through our Expressions Webinar

Architectural author Michael Webb discusses the various cooling techniques used in the construction of the Msheireb neighborhood in Doha

Last year we launched a new virtual program, QAIC’s Museum Series. Through this platform, we bring together museum experts and curators from Qatar and the U.S. to highlight and discuss their respective collections and the impact their work has had on their organizations and the wider museum world. Through these presentations, viewers have a glimpse into museum collections they’ve never experienced before and are able to interact directly with the curators to satisfy their curiosity.

The inaugural webinar, “The Curation and Influence of Islamic Art in Museums Today,” premiered on April 6 and featured a panel of curators that manage the Islamic art collections at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar. The discussion was moderated by the Chair of QAIC’s Board of Directors, Peggy Loar. The panel explored the evolution of Islamic art curation in museums today as experts from both the U.S. and Qatar shared their own curatorial processes and approaches towards exhibiting their institutions’ Islamic art collections.

The second webinar, “Native Stories: Indigenous Arts & People from America & Arabia” was hosted on May 25 and featured representatives from the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, and National Museum of Qatar. Moderated by QAIC’s Executive Director, Fatima Al-Dosari, the webinar focused on the curation of art and artifacts of indigenous populations from North America and Qatar.

The third and final Museum Series panel of 2021 was “Framing Context into Concept: The Unseen Challenges of Contemporary Art Curation.” Presenters spoke to the audience on the delicate nuances and the diverse processes that are taken into crafting a contemporary art exhibition. Featuring curators and directors from the Smart Museum in Chicago, the Asia Society Museum in New York City, the Institute of Arab & Islamic Art in New York City, and the Doha Fire Station, this panel explored the question: how does one create a contemporary art exhibition when much of contemporary art often aims to redefine our conception of art?

Dr. Linda Komaroff, Curator of Islamic Art and head of the Middle East Department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), discusses the special care given to the Islamic artifacts in her care during our inaugural Museum Series event.

Dr. Alexandrine Guerin, Curator of Archaeology and Early History at National Museum of Qatar, discusses the importance of early Bedouin objects and their relevance today.

Orianna Cacchione, Curator of Global Contemporary Art at University of Chicago’s Smart Museum, discusses the different approaches a curator must take if working with a single living artist as opposed to multiple artists or artists that are deceased.”