2021 & BEYOND

from QAIC 2020 Annual Report

TRANSCENDENT TEXT EXHIBITION

New QAIC programs, partnerships, and its vision for the future

2021 in Monthly Themes

In 2021, QAIC is dedicating each month to a specific theme that will relate to either a U.N. International Day or an area of focus for the Year of Culture initiative. Many of QAIC’s programs and content series will align with these themes:

January: Film February: Sports March: Architecture & Olfactory Art April: Theater, Music & Dance May: Museums June: Environment & Sustainability July: Culinary Arts August: Photography September: Literature & Education October: Heritage & History November: STEAM (Science, Technology, & Sustainability) December: Languages & Diversity

QAIC on Social

Following widespread positive reception of the social media series, #CreativeMondays and #ThrowbackThursdays, QAIC will launch two new social media series in 2021: #QatarWednesdays and #FilmFridays. #QatarWednesdays will inform audiences about Qatar, its people, and its culture, featuring creatives, institutions, initiatives, or landmarks in Qatar that pertain to that month’s theme. On the last Friday of each month, #FilmFridays will feature a publicly available Arab or Qatari film to introduce and educate QAIC’s audiences about Arab cinema and filmmakers from the region.

QAIC Goes Virtual

Due to COVID-19 guidelines, QAIC has made the switch to digital programming to keep its audience engaged with its programming even from afar. For instance, the Expressions Art & Culture Talks series has temporarily moved to a virtual format and the “Transcendent Text: Exploring Universal Values Through Islamic Calligraphy” exhibition has been made viewable online through a virtual exhibition service. QAIC envisions that these virtual and digital engagements will be much of the organization’s offerings for the first half of 2021 until further guidance from city officials and updates to health guidelines and restrictions.

In-Person Tours

In addition to the virtual exhibition option, in 2021 QAIC will start private tours of the physical exhibitions starting January for interested members of the media and cultural entities. By coordinating with the QAIC staff using the portal on the QAIC website, visitors will be able to view the artworks while adhering to current COVID-19 guidelines.

QAIC’s Museum Series

In 2021, QAIC is starting a new initiative to celebrate and highlight the stories and achievements of professionals who work in art and culture institutions around the world. Similar to the format of QAIC’s Expressions series, the Museum Series will invite speakers from notable backgrounds and organizations to speak on their experiences, successes, and challenges that come with the world of museum curation and operation. The first of these series will take place in April 2021 and will feature guests from the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and others.

A Year for Partnerships

In anticipation for the 2021 Year of Culture between the U.S. and Qatar, QAIC has established several programmatic relationships with Qatarbased organizations in order to delivery on the programming in store for the year.

In follow up to MOUs signed between QAIC and the Doha Film Institute and the Katara Cultural Center, QAIC will be working with these insitutions to deliver on quality programming in 2021 (and beyond) in regard to Arab film and cultural and creative partnerships respectively.

As 2021 is the Year of Culture between the United States and Qatar, QAIC is also partnering with organizations such as Qatar Museums to promote artistic and cultural exchange between the two nations through various initiatives to be announce in 2021. QAIC is also partnering with the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Museum in Doha to host a traveling exhibition in 2021 titled “The Majlis - Cultures in Dialogue,” which will exhibit various artifacts and artwoks collected over centuries which tell the story of Arabian culture and its influence on the world that surrounds it.

Lastly, QAIC will be hosting several salon dinner events in 2021 in partnership with Tables Without Borders. These dinners will gather members from QAIC’s network for a dinner prepared by a TWB-sponsored chef and to learn about the culture from the chef’s origin.