Reimagining Museums Preview Edition

MUSEUMS
etc
Reimagining Museums
Practice in the Arabian Peninsula
Edited by Pamela Erskine-Loftus
MuseumsEtc

2 | Contents
REIMAGINING museumS

contents | 1
PRAC TICE IN THE aRABIAN PENINSULA
Reimagining Museums

contents | 3
Reimagining Museums
Practice in the Arabian Peninsula
Edited by Pamela Erskine-Loftus
museumsetc | edinburgh & boston

4 | Contents
REIMAGINING museumS
ContentsContents

contents | 5
10 Introduction
Common Purpose and Uncommon
Outcomes: The Cultural Transferability
of Museums
Pamela Erskine-Loftus
Independent Researcher
66 Contextualizing History: Bahrain’s
Innovative Approach to Museum Creation
Alex Aubry
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
98 Hybrid Heritage and Cosmopolitanism
in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi
Sarina Wakefield
The Open University, UK
130 The Impact of Social Change
on Museum Development
Mona Rashid Bin Hussain Al Ali
School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester

146 How Collaborative Approaches May Help
Museums Reach Their Communities
Salwa Mikdadi
Independent Art Historian and Curator

6 | Contents
REIMAGINING museumS
160 Museums in Qatar: Creating Narratives
at a Time of Global Unease
Mariam Ibrahim Al-Mulla
Qatar Museums Authority
204 Social Change and the Rules of the Game:
A Conversation About Museum Values in
the United Arab Emirates
Marjorie Schwarzer, University of San Francisco
Aisha Deemas, Museum of Islamic Civilization, UAE
Leigh Markopoulos, California College of the Arts
238 On Uncertain Grounds: Visitor Research
and Community Involvement in a Regional
Museum Project in Yemen
Susan Kamel & Christine Gerbich
German Archaeological Institute
Branch Sana’a, Yemen
284 Khasab Castle: A Museum for the Material
Culture of the Musandam Peninsula in the
Sultanate of Oman
Marcia Dorr, Abdullah bin Salem Al Zahli,
Aisha bint Abdullah Al Thanawi &
Saif bin Khamis Al Rawahi
Ministry of Tourism, Oman

contents | 7
322 Six Things We Didn’t Know:
Researching the Needs of Family Audiences
in Qatar
John Bull & Shaikha Hamad Al Thani
Qatar Museums Authority
346 Engaging Visitors,
Without an Attraction!
Sarah Kneebone
Oman Botanic Garden

392 The Relationship between Museum
Architecture, Exhibits and Audience
Sarah White
Bait Al Zubair Museum
Muscat, Oman
432 Developing Interactive Exhibits
Across Cultures
Claudia Schleyer
Consultant for Interactive Exhibits, Berlin

470 What Are We Silently Saying?
Non-verbal Communication and Exhibitions
Pamela Erskine-Loftus

8 | Contents
REIMAGINING museumS
520 The Adaptation of Western Museum
Education Practices
Alya Rashid Burhaima
Sharjah Museums Department, UAE
538 Teaching as Learning: UCL Qatar’s
Museum Studies Masters Programme
Karen Exell
UCL Qatar
570 Artist Encounters: Artist-led Interpretive
Programs and Inclusionary Practices
Michelle Dezember
Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Qatar
612 Students Are Key! Cooperation in Abu Dhabi
Jane Bristol-Rhys
Zayed University, Abu Dhabi, UAE
624 Professional Reciprocity
and its Opportunities
Sue Underwood, Qatar Museums Authority
Pamela Erskine-Loftus, Independent Researcher

contents | 9
638 Appendix: Names and Nomenclature

644 About the Authors
662 Index
696 Also from MuseumsEtc
700 Colophon

10 | Introduction
reimagining museums
Introduction
Common Purpose and
Uncommon Outcomes:
The Cultural Transferability
of Museums
pamela erskine-loftus
Independent Researcher, New York

PAMELA ERSKINE-LOFTUS | 11
prac tice in the arabian peninsula
Muthaf (also pronounced mathaf) pl. matahif :
museum
From the root word “to present”, also the root for
tuhfa, pl. tuhaf : gift, present, curiosity, rarity,
article of virtue, object d’art, work of art.
(Wehr 1994: 111)
A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution
in the service of society and its development,
open to the public, which acquires, conserves,
researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible
and intangible heritage of humanity and its
environment for the purposes of education, study
and enjoyment.
(Article 3, Section 1, ICOM Statutes 2007: 2)
Museums are products of their environments; for
western museums the political, social, cultural and
economic changes over the last 300 years or more
have directly shaped them. In return museums have
shaped and contributed to these changes. Today how
we understand museum is not fixed but changes with
place and time, and can therefore be understood
differently by different people. These ideas of the
museum may be diverse, distinct and contradictory,
and influenced by multiple location-specific

12 | Introduction
reimagining museums
components. Differences of understanding will –
and it can be argued, should – therefore manifest
themselves in the physical museum. During their
history, museums in the west have been viewed as
dedicated to public service, collecting and caring,
research, education, inclusion, enjoyment, story-
telling, tourism, sharing, and as contact zones and
as symbols, though not all at the same points in time.
Equally they have been exclusionary, imperialistic,
didactic, contested, propaganda, ineffectual, and
boring.
The idea of museum as western can be found
throughout museum and museology history
publications to the extent that this trajectory of
development is taken as a given. According to
this trajectory museums originated out of the
emergence of Renaissance humanism, and through
the Enlightenment, and modernity and democracy,
museums developed in Europe in order to reflect the
growth of objective science, ideas of evolution and
development, and rationality. Via the collecting and
preservation of material culture museums could
display aspects of power, and national and cultural
identities. Built into this was the communication of
“rational knowledge” and ideas of moral good and
societal improvement. Public museums emerged

to serve as both temple to the arts and functional
site of education (democratic, moral and social). As
components of, and responses to, their environments
museums have contested histories and purposes
that have been examined and discussed in multiple
museum studies publications. These publications
examine western museums and the multiple
influences of components of culture and society,
economics, industry and politics occurring to greater
or lesser extents and at different times across Europe
and North America. However, these museum-shaping
influences have never been universal but Eurocentric,
and as such to westerners appear as components of
a familiar and “natural” history, components of
which are manifested across civil society including
museums.
It is this Eurocentric form of the museum, and
its accompanying practices and philosophy, which
has spread to locations around the world. Indeed
this museum form may be one of the west’s most
successful exports. Museum development and
purpose has been investigated in areas outside the
west, and more recently the development of non-
western museum models, which may both create a
new/alternate museum discourse as well as illuminate
components of western practice with a more nuanced

14 | Introduction
reimagining museums
context. Informative discussions have included China
(Denton 2005), India (Banerjee 1990, Bedekar 1995),
Pakistan (Bhatti 2012), Morocco (Pieprzak 2010),
Maori (Tapsel 2011), Pacific Rim (Kreps 2003, Healy
& Witcomb 2006, Stanley 2007), and West Africa
(Ardouin & Arinze 1995, Tegomoh 2007) amongst
others.
Due to the hegemony of Western museology, most
people have difficulty thinking and talking about
museums, curation, and heritage preservation
in terms other than those provided by Western
museological discourse. (Kreps 2006: 459)
Only by attending to the discourses, practitioners,
and the cultural nexus of non-Western museums can
their nuanced existence – as it mediates the local/
global – be illuminated and allow for the envisioning
of comparative museum models/museologies.
(Bhatti 2012: 119)
This proliferation of museums internationally which
either wholly or to a large extent use the Eurocentric
model, a “characteristically Western institution”
(Hudson 1987: 3), is not universal. Non-western
museum forms have developed which represent

and accommodate different understandings of
collections, curatorial practices and audiences, and
whichthereforemayofferfarmorerelevantmuseums
and experiences. Often referred to overarchingly
as appropriate museology, the use of culturally and
socially relevant contexts, economics and conditions
as a primary component of museum development
and staff training has grown particularly over the
last twenty years. These forms of museums which
are bottom-up, community-led organisations
are most often spoken about with regard to
“indigenous” populations and cultural collections,
in which culturally understood components such
as architecture, local knowledge, local resources,
and culturally-specific understandings are guiding
principals (e.g. Kreps 2003, Peers & Brown 2003,
Sleeper-Smith 2009). Interconnected concepts
include the post-museum, where the community and
the museum are highly integrated and the museum
moves from being a building or physical structure
to an experience (Hooper-Greenhill 2000, Simpson
2007). Also, the idea of the ecomuseum and a holistic
approach to community development with ideas
of the centrality of memory, identity, traditions,
landscapes, and community empowerment – the
museum as concept rather than a specific, contained

16 | Introduction
reimagining museums
space (Davis 2007, Corsane, Davis & Murtas 2009,
Graybeal 2010). However, neither the western nor the
“indigenous” describes museums in the Peninsula.
The purpose of this book is to start considering
a museum form located somewhere between the
Eurocentric and the “indigenous”, and what these
museums might look like, function as, and project,
within a specific non-western geographic area,
namely the Arabian Peninsula. There is nothing
inherent to the ICOM museum definition which
requires a museum to look, function, classify
collections, engage audiences, or operate in the way
that western museums do – however all of these
aspects have accompanied the Eurocentric museum
form internationally. Can a museum form based
on so much western history and culture function
successfully (however that may be articulated)
outside of the west? Alternatively, what aspects of
appropriate museology can be used in museums
with collections that are not culturally linked to the
museum’s location or audiences?
It is the Eurocentric museum form which is
prevalent in the Arabian Peninsula though it should
be noted that contrary to much media coverage it is
not ubiquitous. Even with over 50 years of museum
history in the Peninsula, including extensive private

collections and museums, the emergence of national
museums in the 1970s, and the development of
archaeological and heritage sites, it is perhaps the
more recent museum boom since the mid-2000s
which has received the most attention. Media
coverage has created the idea that museums are new
to the Peninsula, and have been brought in from the
west as a type of cultural package. This belies the
work which has been going on in museums across the
Peninsula – existing and new – particularly over the
lasttenyears.Thishomogenizationcomesfrommany
directions, and makes many assumptions far wider
than museums, including culture, society, ethnicity,
language and religion, for “many contributions to
global museological discourse betray an unreflective
Eurocentrism, together with a set of implicit
developmental assumptions with respect to tradition
and modernity, cultural identity and national culture,
and so on” (Prösler 1996: 23).
Currently museums in the Peninsula range from
fine art, calligraphy and illuminated manuscripts
and books, to natural history and the environment
(naturalandbuilt),heritageandethnography,historic
houses and forts, archaeology, national and family
history, science, discovery, faith, as well as living
collections. The work to create these ICOM desired

18 | Introduction
reimagining museums
spaces and collections which are in “service of society
and its development for the purposes of education,
study and enjoyment” requires that society, its
development,educationandenjoymentbeconsidered
for the place that the museum is located in, resulting
in different museums, different purposes and
different audiences. Here western museum practices
and components intermingle, to greater or lesser
extents – sometimes successfully, sometimes not –
with indigenous components. Thus far the analysis of
regionalmuseumshasbeenconfinedtodiscussionsof
the “imported” museums, specifically those from the
Musée du Louvre, Paris, and Guggenheim Foundation
in New York (e.g. Thompson 2008, Skluzacek 2010,
Ersoy 2010), and extensive international media
coverage has been along the same lines (see White
2010 for a discussion of some media coverage).
As with collections and museums elsewhere
Peninsula museum developments reflect cultural
and social aspects specific to the region, personal
and family interests and passions in collecting, and
governmental interests in education, soft power,
and the projection of nation, and national cohesion.
The reason for, and the role of, these museums is
divergent. In general, the current role would appear
to be the projection of self, internally (as national

cohesion and education) and externally (projection on
international stage) through predominantly a single
didactic authoritative though passive narrative. Some
of the roles found internationally do not currently
appear strongly within museums – particularly as
actual activity rather than desired plans – such as
roles of community cohesion, urban regeneration,
challenging of presumptions, to provoke and
stimulate, strengthen civic society, or heritage debate
and polivocality. Vagueness of purpose can be seen
in the often-random programming of temporary
exhibitions in multiple museums, particularly
those which are arts-related. Currently museums
see themselves as a place rather than a process.
Increasingly (though slowly) that “place” is related
to physical location, however the idea that opening
a museum is the end of the process rather than the
beginning is still widespread.
Political science academic Ibrahim Abu-Lughod
has stated that Arab institutions are either associated
with traditionalism or modernism (1998: 248).
Institutions associated with the “modern sector”
include those dealing in economics and education,
while those linked with traditionalism include the
preservation and continuation of heritage and family/
tribe connections. The creation of the museum in

20 | Introduction
reimagining museums
the Peninsula as a modern, educational institution is
virtually undocumented, but a clear differentiation is
suggested in available literature between the official
versus public attention paid to institutions, which
may be summed up:
Official attention is reflected in the establishment
of museums in which artifacts are preserved and
displayed, whilst public interest and popular
participation are indicated by the organization of
exhibitions and festivals concerned with traditional
culture. (Hurreiz 2002: 39)
The reason for, and the role of, museums in the
Peninsula is as varied as in any other part of the
world. For some of the museums, specifically those
referred to regionally as heritage museums, their
purpose can be clearly seen in their collections and
buildings. Through the use of vernacular architecture
(restored and purpose-built) to house and display
ethnographic collections, a clear interpretive
message projects the importance of tradition,
history and previous generations to a contemporary
population. “Heritage revivalism”, including but
not limited to the use of historic houses and forts
as museums, has become a popular way of creating

what may be considered an ethnoscape, allowing for
the instilling in a landscape of national meaning,
and therefore the possible creation of landscapes
of group identity (e.g. Khalaf 2002, Fox, Mourtada-
Sabbah & al-Mutawa 2006b, Picton 2010). However,
these museums cannot be considered as a form of
the post- or ecomuseum. With a top-down, didactic
approach these and other museums exude a specific,
deliberate “history” through the use of western-
based museum practices. Nevertheless, heritage
museums are perhaps currently the best bridge
between the official museum and the extensive and
highly attended heritage festivals of the region, which
highlights the fact that there is extensive interest in
collection types though the museum is not the media
of choice for interaction. This suggested binary of
tradition:modern is a highly complex component of
the Arabian Peninsula, and one that must be analysed
in order to contextualise these postmodern states,
and in a different way Yemen, whose more recent
background and history has sadly not developed at
the same rate as the rest of the Peninsula.
The speed of change in the Gulf States (Kuwait,
Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia)
permeates all aspects and components of society.
1
The massive economic growth, and global economic

22 | Introduction
reimagining museums
engagement which has been actively sought out,
has been accompanied by on-going changes in
both population size and composition, expansion
of higher education and cultural revivalism and
investment, the creation of ultra-modern cities,
extensive sovereign wealth funds and holdings,
universal healthcare (or plans to widen citizen
healthcare to whole population), and international
companies, luxury airlines, investment firms, and
much more – all within a generation. The strategic
location of the Peninsula with regard to travel, trade,
oil and gas, and neighbouring countries (including
Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan), has been exploited by
the Gulf countries as well as those from outside the
region. This rapid globalization does not fit accepted
academic theories, which do not account for the
experiences in the region, described as turned on its
head. Rather than the “traditional” social sciences
outlook of the leadership of economics shaping
globalization, in the Gulf it is the opposite, where
“social organization and ideology build the economy”
(Fox, Mourtada-Sabbah & al-Mutawa 2006a: 4).
Throughout literature on globalization in the Gulf
States two major strands dominate: that of duality
andspeed.Thespeed,spreadandusesofglobalization
differ between States, but has collectively made them

the most competitive Arab countries in the Middle
East and North Africa (MENA) region
2
(Sala-i-Martin
etal. 2011: 15). The United Nation’s HumanDevelopment
Index report for 2011 (Klugman), designates all the
Gulf States as developed countries, placing most
higher than other MENA countries aside from Israel.
This was all carried out through a strategic use of
globalization – globalization did not happen to the
Gulf States, but by the Gulf States.
Thequestionhasbeenasked,isthis“traditionalism
globalized or globalization traditionalized?” (Fox,
Mourtada-Sabbah & al-Mutawa 2006a: 3). The
atypical melding of traditionalism and globalization
symbolises the unique Gulf experience. As major
sea ports in the region for centuries the global
interaction and trade of the coastal cities has a long
history. Throughout this time the traditional social
structure of family, clan and tribe shaped life and
this is what directs globalization today. It is the
capitalist component of globalization that has been
absorbed into the traditional, resulting in the creation
of what may be considered a not-for-profit practice:
“what motivates social interaction, thus, is not so
much maximizing profit but keeping the structure
of mutual relations and obligations intact” (Fox,
Mourtada-Sabbah & al-Mutawa 2006a: 11). It should

24 | Introduction
reimagining museums
be noted however that this practice might have been
able to happen due to the degree of national wealth
from oil available to all nationals through allowances,
waqf endowments, free housing and utilities, and the
welfare state apparatus.
3
Without the huge income
from oil, and now for some countries gas, there may
have been a far greater need for profit within the
Gulf States, which may not have allowed for such a
synchronised melding with globalization.
In the Gulf the continuation of traditional
relationships is the maintenance of asabiyya, “natural
solidarity”: “presently, kinship and religion seem to
still outweigh work and profit as a most significant
consideration in directing social interaction” (Fox,
Mourtada-Sabbah & al-Mutawa 2006a: 41). This
synchronisation of the local with the global is a
self-created cosmology rather than an imported
package of (western) values, ideas and lifestyles.
With some western ideas seen as an opportunity, it
is the melding of these without sacrificing cultural
personality or identity that has been described as
“uniting the modern with the authentic” (Swann 1985:
196). Governmentally there has been a peaceful move
from traditional regimes to “modern” bureaucratic
kingdoms within the Gulf, with the continuity of
tribal rule seen as a continuation of tradition and not

inconsistent with aspects of (semi) democratization.
For Gulf States tradition is an instrument for
achieving modernity and (attempting) a controlled
globalization.
The management and integration of globalization
into the existing traditional social structure has for
the most part dealt effectively with the enormous
transformation of theeconomyfollowingtheboomin
oil discovery and the rapid prominence on the world
stageofalltheGulfStatesinthe1970sand1980s.What
this has created in some areas of the Gulf, particularly
for younger generations, is a personal version of the
tradional:modern duality for everyday life, with two
ways of doing many things (Gregg 2005: 84-85, Fox,
Mourtada-Sabbah & al-Mutawa 2006a: 41). For many
there is the traditional dress, customs, traditions
and Arabic of home life, in opposition to the life
of work: English, commerce, university education,
and retail consumption: “English… is the language
of globalization” (Asfour 2006: 141). For many the
acceptance of consumerism and western trappings
in no way negatively interferes with tradition as the
high level of traditional culture means that national
identity (haweeya al watani) within a country is
not threatened and therefore there is the idea that
one can “have it all”. Globalization may therefore

26 | Introduction
reimagining museums
not homogenize but rather create an accrual of
diverse perspectives, which can be separated and/or
intermingled,creatingnewanddifferentcomponents
of identity to assume, dependent on context. Both
old and new are desired, agonistic rather than
antagonistic, parallel and compatible, neither at the
other’s expense. Tradition and Arabness is considered
chic (Fox, Mourtada-Sabbah & al-Mutawa 2006a: 49).
Professor Muhammad Ayish has summed this up in a
UAE example: “in many parts of the world, tradition
is viewed as something from the past. But in Sharjah
it is an integral part of the living experience, moving
in tandem with modernity” (2009, online).
This can be seen as glocalisation: a contraction of
global and local that represents the two intertwined
spheres, which shows the overlap of the positive
effects of both elements. As “global processes always
manifest themselves locally” (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
2006: 36) the coexistence of globalization with
the distinctiveness of localism may allow for the
creation of a non-binary mentality that transcends
both. “This new globalism simultaneously asserts
local independence and global interdependencies…
[and thrives] on an interaction that “contaminates”
without homogenizing” (Brydon 2006: 188). This
practical negotiation of globalization operates at an

individual as well as community and national levels.
In addition, by the inclusion of the global there is
a certain level of control of it – from control of the
materiality of collections and how that may be used
to express identity, nationally and internationally,
through to the use of soft power outside the region.
The 2012 reopening of the Islamic arts galleries at the
Musée du Louvre, Paris, were funded in large part
by members of the Saudi, Kuwaiti and Omani royal
families. Through participation there may be a level
of appropriation of ownership of message, identity
and their projection.
One of the most often discussed aspects of this
speed and breadth of growth and change is its impact
on population sizes and composition. This has taken
place to different degrees in each Gulf State, and is
tracked through extensive decennial censuses and
other government and university research projects,
as well as international organisations such as UN and
World Bank. Qatar doubled its population in four
years (2004-2008), and current population numbers
stand at 1.8M (approximately 300,000 of which are
Qatari citizens). With the number of upcoming
projects in the country, including the 2022 World
Cup and on-going hyper construction projects like
Lusail City, this growth is unlikely to plateau let

28 | Introduction
reimagining museums
alone subside. In the UAE, citizens make up between
11-13% of the population, depending on sources. The
country’s population has almost doubled between
2005-2012 (approximately four million to almost
eight million), with the cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi
having the highest population densities.
Saudi Arabia, by far the largest country in the
Peninsula by land mass (80%) and population
(28 million in 2011), is one of only two Gulf States
with a larger citizen population than expatriate,
approximately 70%/30%. In 2011 laws were put in place
to lower the expatriate population (“guest workers”)
further in the country to 20% over the next few years.
The other, Oman, has a similar spread, 71%/29%, of
their 2.7 million population. Bahrain has closer to a
50/50 spread; international population discussions
are more often related to the citizen population as
Shia or Sunni (approximately 70%/30%), particularly
following the civil unrest and resistance since
February 2011. Expatriate populations in the Gulf
States are not evenly spread between genders, nor
across age ranges, with to varying degrees, the
majority being males between the ages of 25-45.
This is particularly the case in UAE (2.4 males for
every female) and Qatar (where just under 25% of
the total population is female); however the other

four Gulf States round out the top six “imbalanced”
male to female ratio populations in the world. This is
specificallyduetothehighnumberofmaleexpatriates
from South Asia working in construction and similar
industries. Due to restrictions on expatriates bringing
immediate family members with them to the Gulf
States, most often dependent on level of monthly
salary and job type, the vast majority of guest
workers are not accompanied by wives or children,
compounding the gender ratio imbalance. Within
citizen populations the rapidly growing under-25
population is projected to grow by a third by 2020.
In order to make the most of human resources, and
forestall social problems and political risks associated
with high unemployment there is, and will continue
to be, a need for employment opportunities and
desirable jobs. Due to its population size and certain
socialconstraintsthisisparticularlyanissueforSaudi
Arabia. Although oil and gas are the primary exports
of the region this area has a low citizen employment
rate – in 2010 an average of 1% of employees in this
sector were citizens. Is the non-profit sector ideal
for this job growth? Due to the high salaries for GCC
nationals combined with social allowances, work
hours and vacation time, macroeconomics suggests
that the highest profits will not be made from new

30 | Introduction
reimagining museums
industries and professions with a high (actual or
required) citizen workforce. Cheap labour equals
higher profit. Projects designed to employ higher
numbers of citizens will therefore not be the most
globally competitive within a for-profit business
model. There is far greater interest by citizens in
government and semi-governmental organisations
as places of employment (in some places to the extent
of entitlement) rather than the private sector. This
is attributed to higher wages, shorter work hours
and longer vacations, but also seen as resulting
in high levels of low productivity (Willoughby
2006: 225, El-Katiri, Fattouh & Segal 2012: 178).
Concentration recently has been on creating high-
status sectors whose purpose (at least for the most
part) lies outside of profit, including the “creative
industries” a term seen with increasing frequency
in the region. Concurrently however, culture may
be strong regionally but cultural industries are not
well understood generally, and some areas are often
viewed as unsuitable for citizen employment.
Currently the primary competition to the heritage
revivalism/museum/arts growth is the substantial
increase in government-funded sports events. Rather
like museums, this is not necessarily participation
(although that is being actively encouraged) but

attendance and observation. And like museums and
collecting, sporting events are not new; traditional
sports have taken place for a long time, including
falconry and horse sports, although some aspects,
such as camel racing, have been co-opted into playing
a role within a heritage revivalism narrative (see
Khalaf 2000, Wakefield 2012). The region has long had
enthusiastically supported football clubs and leagues,
and tournaments such as the Gulf Cup of Nations
started officially in 1970 and the Dubai Rugby Sevens
tournamentstartedthesameyear.Itistheexpansionby
severalPeninsulacountriesintothehostingofregional
andinternationalsportscompetitionsand“exhibition
matches” which has escalated most recently along
with the necessary facilities not only for sport but the
accompanying accommodations, training centres,
and government infrastructure to organize such large
events and collaborate with international sporting
organisations.
4
The purchase of foreign sports teams
(particularly football) has also multiplied, as has the
sponsorshipandthereforenamingofstadiumsabroad,
and extensive participation in other marketing at
sporting events. Government support and funding of
bids for large international competitions, including
the Olympics, would suggest that this area of growth
is not subsiding.

32 | Introduction
reimagining museums
Much of this incredible growth has been built on
petroleum and natural gas exploration and export;
Saudi Arabia is the largest petroleum exporter in the
world. The relatively small population sizes of the
other Gulf States allows for the export of significant
amounts of oil, particularly from Kuwait and UAE.
Qatar, though also an oil producer, is the largest
exporter of natural gas in the world, primarily from
the offshore North Field, part of the world’s largest
gas field, which transverses the Qatar-Iran maritime
boarder. The cities which these incomes have created
have been labelled “oil cities” but different from those
in other oil-producing countries:
…not an industrial oil city but one in which oil
wealth has shaped both physical structure and
social composition… most Gulf cities have evolved
not only as the capitals of their countries but also
as urban centers where multiple functions are
performed, such as managing all aspects of the
“political economy” of oil wealth… [the] label
“industrial” is not an adequate term to describe these
still-developing cities… “petro-urbanism” seems
more appropriate to describe the emerging urban
character and ethos of the Gulf oil city. (Khalaf
2006: 246)

Buildings in these cities have changed dramatically
over the last decade (Elsheshtawy 2008) and do not
last long – those constructed in the 1970s and 1980s
are often demolished to make way for gleaming
skyscrapers. It is this image of the petro-urban city
thatisbestknowninternationally,mostoftenthrough
images of the chain of consecutive skyscrapers on
Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai. Other States – Oman
and Bahrain for example – have taken a more
thoughtful and steady building process, resulting in
cityscapes which may feature glass encased, reflective
skyscrapers but have also retained a semblance of a
more culturally-relevant environment. Much of this
recent city development has been guided by national
development plans (Qatar National Vision 2030,
Bahrain Economic Vision 2030, Abu Dhabi Vision
2030, Kuwait Vision 2035, etc.) addressing economics,
education, employment, and medical and social
welfare, through to the environment and climate
change. This planning is not just related to planning
for the end of oil and gas as the major incomes for the
GCC countries (TAO – time after oil), but rather that
new technology and developments will make these
resources obsolete even before they run out.
In order to diversify and build on oil and gas
incomes the Gulf States have been highly successful

34 | Introduction
reimagining museums
in their creation of sovereign wealth funds (SWF),
pooled government assets used to invest in financial
markets and investments, often foreign. Gulf States’
SWFs have extremely rapidly become global and
highly diversified, and the largest in the world – it
has been projected that they will reach twelve trillion
dollars by 2015. All the Gulf States have invested
globally through multiple SWFs each, “rather than
the absolute size of these funds, it is their rapid shift
from the periphery to the centre of global financial
markets and the speed by which they have joined the
ranks of other significant investor classes that have
moved them into the global public space” (Behrendt
2008: 1). These investments, controlling concerns
in a multitude of companies and locations, and
the outright purchase of companies, international
luxury brands, and sports franchises, has allowed
for the diversification of the economy. However this
diversification has little regional diversification,
resulting in “a sense of duplicating strategies. As
they aim to diversify their economies and create jobs,
they have also duplicated efforts and reinvented the
wheel” (Ali & Al-Aswad 2012: 17). A domino effect
has States following other States plans closely,
resulting in competition in similar areas and excess
capacity. This duplication can also be seen in cultural

projects and policies in the States, including those
related to museums. As an example, niche tourism is
projected to be a key trend in the GCC over the next
ten years, including the establishment in the region
of sport, heritage, wildlife and nature, and healthcare
tourism. Here there have been differences in the
packaging of cultural experiences between States,
however all these offerings are aimed at the same
audience, an affluent, educated, globalized tier of
society. Though this is an expanding tier of GCC and
regional societies, by nature of the composition of the
Peninsula this promotion of cultural experiences is
actively exclusionary to a large percentage of possible
participants. Whether this means that museums will
be a tourist destination, a motivator for visitorship, or
rather an enhancement of existing location offerings,
is unclear.
The use of this wealth has also been directed at
the creation and growth of knowledge-based societies
throughout the States, though at different paces and
via different routes. A component of this has been
the emergence of a comprehensive and expanding
higher education sector, including universities,
technical training colleges and centres, and bridge
programmes (programmes bridging high/senior
school and university). Varying numbers of national

36 | Introduction
reimagining museums
universities have been joined by a number of
international universities from around the world,
including multiple institutions from the UK, Canada,
USA, India, France, Germany, Netherlands, and
Australia, amongst others. Although Gulf States have
long funded students to attend universities abroad
this has been less attractive to female students for
socio-cultural reasons. Many of the international
universities in the region have been brought in due
to their excellence in the subject areas not taught by
existing state universities, therefore offering subject
diversification. This increase in university courses
and opportunities has probably had the greatest
impact on female citizens – in the Gulf States women
now make up 70% of university graduates. These
funds have been invested to educate the population
so as to adapt to the demands of a changing economy
away from oil. The higher education sector is also
income generating, offering international university
courses to students from the wider Middle East who
due to cost and visa requirements may have difficulty
attending the university’s “home” campus.
These discussions of a few of the aspects of
globalization in the Peninsula are, unfortunately, in
stark contrast to the situation of the one non-GCC
country, Yemen. Almost any comparison related to

economics and growth, education and welfare, and
infrastructure between GCC countries and Yemen
highlights the vast differences in the southwestern
corner of the Peninsula. Unlike all its Peninsula
neighbours who are at the top of the MENA list
for competitiveness, Yemen is the lowest placed
MENA country, and 138th internationally. Although
Yemen’s largest export is also oil, its resources have
decreased and in 2009 it was only the 54th largest
exporter; natural gas exploration and exports have
increased as a component of economy diversification
which began in 2006. Since the creation of a unified
Republic of Yemen in 1990, the country has seen
multiple secession movements, including military
action and outright warfare, and more recently
unrest culminating in the removal of then-President
Ali Abdullah Saleh via a deal brokered by the GCC
Secretariat. This troubled recent past overshadows
the long history of the country as a major player in
trade, commerce, industry and ports, with a highly
diverse coastal population and a global outlook.
However, this has been in contrast to the interior
of the country, still organised and run along tribal
lines of affiliation and patronage. “Yemen defies
easy categorization” (Burke 2012: 1), but the country
is most often seen as a “failed” or “failing” state

38 | Introduction
reimagining museums
internationally. But, compared to its Peninsula
neighbours it has a far more robust civil society
(possibly due to the lack of top-down patronage seen
as being a constraint on organisations in the GCC),
extensive archaeological and architectural sites and
towns, and four World Heritage Sites, including
Old City of Sana’a, with over six thousand buildings
constructed before the eleventh century, and the
Walled City of Shibam. According to an interview
in early 2012 with Dr. Abdullah Bawazeer, General
Authority for Museums and Historical Monuments
director, there are currently 28 museums in Yemen,
and an interest in creating “new, open-air museums
to really show the country’s history” (Sallam 2012,
online). With its collective cultural patrimony,
and active though downplayed arts scene, the
opportunities for cultural and heritage tourism
are extensive, and in certain aspects greater than
elsewhere in the Peninsula. However until security,
infrastructure and transportation components can
be stabilised and improved this type of economy
diversification cannot grow.
Consumerism and travel are both aspects of
globalization that have made their mark on the
Gulf States. With a large number of vast, luxury
shopping malls, over ten State-created airlines

and over fourteen international airports there is
no shortage of consumption outlets. The region’s
international interaction has a long history, and
commerce abroad influenced society long before
the advent of globalization. Museums, as part of
the global diffusion of ideas and images, are part
of this Gulf globalizing system.
5
As an active part
of globalization, Gulf museums function as part of
traditionalism, becoming a Janus-faced site for the
continuation of many facets of tradition in a modern,
western styled, globally disseminated site. As such,
the majority of the region’s museums function within
globalization without aspiring to be global, with the
notable exceptions of Abu Dhabi’s Guggenheim and
Louvre projects, although the argument can be made
on occasion to also include Qatar’s Museum of Islamic
Art in this grouping. Museums may aspire to be
global via the proliferation of their brand globally, the
Guggenheim being the most obvious example, or via
the inclusion of artefacts and objects from around the
worldinmuseumcollections,resultinginthecreation
of what is often referred to as universal museums.
The vast majority of the States’ museums have not
attemptedglobalizationthrougheitherofthesemeans,
however they function in a globalized space and for a
highly globalized audience. These museums – actual

40 | Introduction
reimagining museums
or planned – that do hold more globally connected or
collectedcollectionsdosoasamediumthroughwhich
to exhibit relationships and histories not available
through regional heritage collections.
Hybridity has been used to describe some of
these museums but this is problematic as this term
is so inextricably tied to colonial and post-colonial
theory, and the accompanying aspects of an unequal
and antagonistic binary (i.e. colonized-colonizer),
ambivalence (oscillating attraction and repulsion),
and mimicry (the adoption of cultural habits in order
to imitate). The history of the Peninsula countries is
quite different than those of the wider Arab region
and the use of terms so closely tied to post-colonial
theory may only exacerbate the homogenization that
already occurs. Perhaps anthropologist Fernando
Ortiz’s transculturation better serves as a descriptive
– the convergence of cultural aspects and the making
of new ones within that merging.
6
Transculturation
incorporates multi-directional, overlapping and
interactive processes designed to meet the needs of
contemporary people, and mutual interaction despite
differences in power distribution and authority:
[T]ransculturation is a set of ongoing
transmutations; it is full of creativity and never

ceases; it is irreversible. It is always a process in
which we give something in exchange for what
we receive: the two parts of the equation end up
being modified. From this process springs out a new
reality, which is not a patchwork of features, but a
new phenomenon, original and independent. (Ortiz
as quoted in GIRA nd., online)
Perhaps for the future the role of the museum may
be analogous to that of the majlis – the museum
as a form of majlis. As historically and culturally
the forum for the exchange of ideas and opinions,
the majlis is a site of assembly and hospitality
seen as a multigenerational area for dialogue and
learning. Younger generations learn through
example and discussion about life in a forum seen
to be as important for many as formal education,
and contributing to shaping personality and
strengthening personal connections throughout life.
Many of the aims of museums post-New Museology
are parallel to that of the majlis, aspects of identity,
meaningful contributions and relationships
(audience to museums and vice versa), to be a unique
and adaptable social resource which encourages and
respects tradition and change, and to be a dialogical
public space. It has been suggested that museums

42 | Introduction
reimagining museums
“attuned to the rhythm of their environments and
communities” will not only better serve visitors
but also sustain themselves and encourage social
resilience (Butler 2010: 14). The return of agency to
communities is not a simple or easy process; the
authoritative voice of the museum changes when new
voices are introduced to the mix. The majlis serves as
arespecteddiscussionspace,muchassomemuseums
internationally wish to do, promoting useful ways
of thinking, and develops ways of thinking that are
outside of social constructs such as subject (art,
science) and formal education: “mental and sensory
gymnasiums for societies” (Duke 2011: 19).
What exactly the museum work in the Peninsula
may be creating is still uncertain, but the chapters
in this book aim to start sharing and discussing
the work of Peninsula museums so that a far more
nuanced and informed discussion can occur. As will
be discussed throughout the rest of this book, this
combination of the local and the global manifests
itself in new combinations of site, presentation,
interpretation, and audience that both fit with but
challenge the idea of the western museum as well as
the traditional cultural norms of the region.

This book has been divided into three sections,
although there is overlap between these divisions
in many of the contributions. Constraints on
contributors due to the organisations they work
in/with, and the understandings of museums within
society and often government, were of concern in
initiating this project. For the most part this has not
proven to be an issue, although some contributions to
this publication have been withdrawn due to external
pressures. Chapters cover a range of issues and areas,
and a variety of forms, from the more academic to the
highly practical.
The initial papers are grouped under the
heading Museum and Place, and present and discuss
some of the broader aspects of museum creation,
understandings and development within the region.
Discussing the more recent development of museums
in Bahrain, Alex Aubry examines the on-going debate
on how to preserve and represent the small island-
state’s heritage whilst also involving contemporary
aspects such as modern architecture. Bahrain’s
museum expansion is unlike that of its Gulf State
neighbours and offers a very different trajectory, a
more entrepreneurial though still socially acceptable
development. The UAE is discussed in the three
following chapters: Sarina Wakefield interrogates the

44 | Introduction
reimagining museums
use of museums and heritage places in Abu Dhabi;
Mona Al Ali discusses some of the aspects of social
change in the UAE as they intersect with museums;
and Salwa Mikdadi proposes how museums may
adopt more interdisciplinary and collaborative
approachestotheirwork,benefitting institutionsand
audiences. Though all three chapters are applicable
to the wider Peninsula region, collectively they
offer a spectrum of aspects which highlights the
diversity of museums and museum work within one
country. Next, Mariam Ibrahim Al-Mulla examines
the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar, and its
opening temporary exhibition. The exhibition’s
relationships to larger governmental agendas and
narratives, and why this may be occurring, offers
an informative view on museum-based soft power.
The final chapter in this section involves three
contributors Marjorie Schwarzer, Aisha Deemas
and Leigh Markopoulos. Through a conversation
discussion format these three writers – two from
USA, one from UAE – discuss aspects of museums in
the UAE which are often misunderstood, assumed or
disregarded as they do not fit with existing western
notions of the museum.
With, in many cases, the extreme speed at which
museums have been developed there has been a lack

of formative evaluation and research with regard to
audiences – current, potential or desired. However
there have been projects aimed at understanding
audiences in specific countries, and museum staff
and consultants who have taken a reflexive approach
to their practice, bringing together information
for museum planning and improvements, to
facilities and programmes. Section two of the book,
Communities and Audiences, presents and discusses
some of these aspects.
Audience research conducted in Marib and Sana’a
inYemenforaplannedmuseumisdiscussedbySusan
Kamel and Christine Gerbich (who led the research),
which highlights the difficulties of conducting
research, engaging communities, and creating a
museum which aims to be a site of social inclusion
and equality, in a country in flux. A quite different
process and outcome can be seen in the exploration
of community involvement at Khasab Castle in the
remote and beautiful Musandam region of Oman.
Marcia Dorr and her colleagues Abdullah bin Salem
Al Zahli, Aisha bint Abdullah Al Thanawi and Saif
bin Khamis Al Rawahi, with Oman’s Directorate of
Historical Sites Development, discuss aspects of the
processesofdevelopmentandtangibleoutcomeswith
the Khasab community. John Bull and Shaikha Hamid

46 | Introduction
reimagining museums
Al Thani from Qatar Museums Authority have been
involved in a multi-year audience research project
for a new museum, and in their chapter introduce
and discuss six aspects which have come to the fore,
some with unexpected outcomes, in their on-going
research with families. The Oman Botanic Garden
has yet to open, but its community involvement
started during planning stages and has brought
communities to the Garden site while it is still in
process. Sarah Kneebone writes about how this has
come about and some of the benefits, short and long
term, of communities understanding the work being
conducted and creating meaningful connections for
both audiences and staff.
Collectively these audience and community
project outcomes have challenged some established
western audiences research, and so start to offer a far
more nuanced understanding of audiences within the
societal and cultural norms of the Peninsula. They
highlight the complications of the use of western
audience understandings and presumptions that can,
and have, occurred when locally-specific research is
not conducted. How this and other audience research
may change the functions and practices of local
museums – what may change in order to be more
audience orientated – is yet to be seen. As an area of

research and information actively sought by museum
professionals in the region, hopefully the sharing of
these projects will encourage further distribution of
research outcomes that can benefit all museums.
The third section of the book offers insight into
someexamplesandaspectsofExhibitingandEducating.
The first three chapters discuss three specific though
overlapping aspects of exhibitions. Sarah White starts
this section with a discussion of the relationships
between the architecture, collections and audiences
of Bait Al Zubair Museum in Muscat, Oman, a
family-founded heritage museum. Can a museum
that actively seeks to create relationships between
its vernacular architecture and collections – and
which considers its buildings part of its collections
– offer a more inclusive, encompassing and relatable
experience for audiences? Most of the Peninsula
countries have a discovery or science centre museum
of some kind, and this is a growing museum type seen
as being both educational and entertaining. In Saudi
Arabia, writer Claudia Schleyer developed interactive
exhibits for the forthcoming Prince Salman Science
Oasis in Riyadh. In her chapter Claudia discusses
some of the cultural aspects behind her work, as well
as some of the practical considerations, which though
in many ways universal, are often unconsidered

48 | Introduction
reimagining museums
regionally. I have contributed a chapter to this
section, discussing the understandings, or possibly
misunderstandings, which methods of display
may be communicating in exhibitions. Most often
it is language which is “translated” – however the
written or spoken word is only one of the methods of
communication employed in exhibitions, yet there is
little thought given to the translation of non-verbal
communication.
Alya Burhaima discusses the work of museum
education staff at Sharjah Museums Department, and
their on-going self-evaluation of practice in order to
create and offer more place- and audience-specific
programmesandresources.Takingaspectsofwestern
museum education practice as a starting point, this
chapter discusses how a greater understanding of
place and audience should shape how “best practice”
is used. An alternate aspect of museum education is
discussed in Karen Exell’s chapter. With the growth of
museums in the Peninsula has come (albeit later, and
still sporadically) a growth in training opportunities.
In Qatar it is UCL Qatar that offers graduate degrees
and training in museums, conservation and
archaeology. Karen discusses from a university
perspective the creation of a Master’s degree in
museum studies and the complexity of designing

a regionally-specific programme that observes and
incorporates the needs of students, museums in the
region, and stringent university requirements.
Staying in Qatar, Michelle Dezember analyses
the artist-led programmes at Mathaf: Arab Museum
of Modern Art. Through the lens of reciprocal
benefit, this chapter discusses how museums may
work with artists as programme leaders in creating
engaging workshops which extend the creativity of
both participants and the artists themselves. The
final two contributions consider alternate aspects of
museum staff experiences and training. Jane Bristol-
Rhys of Zayed University in Abu Dhabi points out
some of the difficulties of enabling students to have
productive and informative museum experiences
and placements/internships within the UAE. These
difficulties are not unique to the UAE and pose a
problem not only for universities but also museums
that may hire well-educated students only to find
they have very little or no museum experience.
Sue Underwood and myself conclude this section
with a consideration of staff exchanges (regionally
and internationally) as a form of museum training
and professional development, specifically from a
reciprocal perspective. Just as there are experiences,
insights and understandings that can be gained

50 | Introduction
reimagining museums
by Peninsula staff abroad so there is as much to be
learned by international staff coming into the region.
Collectively these chapters highlight the
Peninsula’s museums similarities with the western
ideaandpurposeofthemuseumoutlinedintheICOM
Statute at the beginning of this introduction, as well
as the differences, and the increasing customization
museums desire and are undertaking in order to
create and facilitate purposeful engagement and
shared experiences with their audiences. The chapters
in this book are only the tip of the iceberg in these
regards, but hopefully will encourage a far greater
sharing of research and information on museums
in the Peninsula, not only for the benefit of museum
professionals in the region but also for those working
internationally.

NOTES
1 Globalization within the Peninsula region is a subject too large
for more than a passing mention in this Introduction but
nevertheless an important and primary component influencing
museums, their staffing and visitorship in the region. For far
greater discussions of the multiple components in the region see
Fox, Mourtada-Sabbah & al-Mutawa 2006c, Ehteshami & Wright
2011, Davidson 2011, Held & Ulrichsen 2012.
2 In GCC order: Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain.
3 Highly pertinent and informative here is rentier state theory though
it is too extensive for discussion in this Introduction. Although
rentier mentality has influences and ramifications across the
States there are components that directly influence museums in
the region and which are seen as weakening civil society,
including work-reward causation and doing versus being. See
discussions in Crystal 2001, Ehteshami & Wright 2011, Davidson
2011, El-Katiri, Fattouh & Segal 2012, Held & Ulrichsen 2012.
4 Such as FIFA (2022 World Cup in Qatar), Amaury Sport
Organisation (cycling, Tour of Oman and Tour of Qatar),
Formula 1 (Bahrain Grand Prix and Abu Dhabi Grand Prix), Asiad
(2006 Asian Games in Qatar), and multiple International Tennis
Federation competitions, among many others.
5 Discussions of museums and globalization bring up aspects of
the non-western, but still centre on a Eurocentric trajectory
intersecting with either the indigenous or the postcolonial
(Mathur 2005, Müller 2005) or with the global within the

52 | Introduction
reimagining museums
western (Rectanus 2006). It should also be noted that the overuse
of global in the description of museums obscures more nuanced
expressions, including those of cross-regional and bilateral.
6 The work by Ortiz and others on transculturation is used here
with the recognition that a much fuller discussion of the term and
its use would need to recognize and consider the social-political
implications of location, hierarchies, and international relations.

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Kreps, C. F. (2003) Liberating Culture: cross-cultural
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M U S E U M A N D P L A C E
Mural, Muharraq, Bahrain | Photo: Alex Aubry

66 | Contextualizing History
reimagining museums
Contextualizing History:
Bahrain’s Innovative Approach
to Museum Creation
alex aubry
School of the Art Institute of Chicago

alex aubry | 67
For nearly half a century oil has fueled the Kingdom
of Bahrain’s boom, the revenues from which helped
transform the archipelago of 33 islands into a
modern state.
1
Yet being the first nation in the Gulf to
discover oil also meant that it was the first to face the
inevitable loss of this precious resource. Since oil has
never gushed in the same quantities as its neighbors,
Bahrain has also had to expand at a much slower
and thoughtful rate, which may provide lessons
to other Gulf nations looking towards sustainable
development.
Since the 1950s hundreds of archaeological
discoveries have taken place throughout Bahrain’s
main Island. While the majority of these have been
uncovered by professional archaeologists, some
have been made by amateurs working on the heels
of bulldozers clearing ground for new construction.
Before the Kingdom established its first museum,
a number of ancient artifacts were displayed at the
home of Sheikha Haya Ali Al-Khalifa, a member of
the royal family, who could best be described as the
country’s first local archaeologist. Around 1960, when
a bulldozer tore up her garden to make way for a new
addition to her house, it uncovered ancient seals,
pottery and a Hellenic bronze sculpture. She began
excavating on her own, later bringing in Danish and

reimagining museums
French archaeological teams to study other sites
throughout Bahrain. Sheikha Haya would eventually
become the director of Bahrain’s Antiquities and
Museums Department.
There are certainly precedents for museum-
creation in the Middle East dating back to the last
century. Cairo, Damascus, Beirut and Baghdad had
established world-renowned institutions by the early
part of the 1900s. Yet in the Gulf region, long lacking
an appropriate showcase for its rich and diverse
history, Bahrain became one of the first nations to
establish a museum.
Modest in scale, it was housed in the former
officer’s dining hall of the British Royal Air Force
(RAF) base in Muharraq. When the RAF left in 1967
the premises were converted to house a collection
of exhibits in two galleries. Many of the artifacts
which had been excavated during the last century
were displayed in the Archaeology Gallery, while the
Ethnography Gallery contained a display of national
costumes, local crafts, armor, cases illustrating
pearl diving traditions, and a display of historic
documents. Very little is known of the planning for
this early museum.
It was not until 1970, in anticipation of Bahrain’s
independence the following year, that a new museum

alex aubry | 69
was created at Government House, an imposing
building with a honeycomb façade that opened in the
capital, Manama, in 1969. In addition to the museum,
the building also housed offices for the Amir and
Prime Minister, as well as the Ministries of Finance,
Foreign Affairs, Information and Development.
Michael Rice & Company, a London-based
information and public-relations consultant, was
enlisted by Bahrain’s late Amir, Shaikh Issa bin
Salman Al-Khalifa, to carry out the project. Working
with the Bahrain government since 1962, Rice began
specializing in the planning and design of museums
in 1969. It was around this period that he conceived
the new museum, which would become a forerunner
to the Bahrain National Museum. He would also go
on to plan several other museums throughout the
Arabian Peninsula, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Today, as Bahrain seeks to diversify its revenue
from its primary oil and finance industries, one of
the challenges it faces is attracting the kind of high-
end international and regional tourists that have long
flocked to Dubai. “We are not trying to compete with
other Gulf countries by building vast commercial,
entertainment and residential developments. Instead
we want to compliment what is going on there by
creating an alternative destination for travellers,

reimagining museums
one built on local culture, heritage and the arts,”
2
explains Bahrain’s Minister of Culture, Sheikha
Mai bint Mohammed Al Khalifa, who is driving the
Island’s cultural transformation.
Having long been fascinated by Bahrain’s history,
she has authored several books that include a
biography of Charles Belgrave, the British adviser to
Bahrain from 1926 until 1957, as well as a study of the
first one hundred years of education in the Kingdom.
As the first woman in the Arabian Gulf to hold the
post of Minister of Culture, she is on a mission to
place Bahrain firmly on the world’s cultural map.
“Our biggest challenge now is to create awareness of
our culture not only outside, but within Bahrain,” she
notes.
In a region where the race is on to invest billions
in art and culture, Bahrain by contrast has taken a
more modest though no less innovative approach
to museum creation. Hidden behind the island of
Muharraq’s ornately carved wooden doors, one will
find some of the Kingdom’s more intriguing cultural
institutions, where the past rubs shoulders with the
twenty-first century. In the span of a decade small
museums, culture centers, libraries and art galleries
have sprung up in the folds of the neighborhood’s
historic dwellings. With each transformation,

alex aubry | 71
traditional buildings are being made relevant to a new
generation.
Known for its cluster of nineteenth century town
houses and wind-towers, this sleepy neighborhood
has become ground zero for a campaign to transform
Figure1:Thepastrubsshoulderswiththetwenty-firstcenturyattheBinMatar
HouseinMuharraq.Oncehometoaprominentpearlmerchant,itsgroundfloor
hasbeenconvertedintoagalleryspaceshowcasingcontemporaryart.

reimagining museums
the tiny island kingdom into the region’s next cultural
hub. More intriguing perhaps is that the majority of
these buildings have been preserved through the
intervention of Sheikha Mai, long before she assumed
her role as the Minister of Culture.
It was the demolition of her grandfather’s house in
the1970swhichspurredhertobecomeanadvocatefor
the preservation of the Kingdom’s culture and history.
“My grandfather, Shaikh Ebrahim bin Mohammed
Al Khalifa, was a well known intellectual and man
of letters in the early part of the 20th century. His
weekly majlis [community salon] brought together
local and international men of politics, culture and
science to debate issues of the day. He also maintained
an extensive library of books, periodicals and
newspapers from around the world,” recalls Sheikha
Mai, who earned a degree in Political History from
England’s Sheffield University. “I was very upset when
they tore down his home. It was not only one of the
most beautiful houses in the area, but a huge loss in
terms of our cultural and intellectual heritage.”
About twelve years ago, Sheikha Mai decided to
continue her grandfather’s legacy by purchasing
the land on which the house once stood in order to
establishacenterinhisname.OpenedinJanuary 2002
in a mashrabiya-clad building, the Shaikh Ebrahim

alex aubry | 73
Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Center for Culture and
Research relives the heady days of the majlis, hosting
lectures and exhibitions by international and local
artists, authors, philosophers and poets.
Since its opening, the Center has evolved into
an NGO dedicated to preserving Bahrain’s past,
while providing venues to showcase contemporary
creation in the Kingdom. “As the Center was being
built, I heard that the house of Abdullah Al-Zayed,
who published Bahrain’s first newspaper in 1939, was
going to be demolished and replaced with a three-
storey building. So I bought the house myself and
renovated it,” says Sheikha Mai.
Renamingit theAbdullah Al-Zayed PressHeritage
House (Figure 2), the restored building boasts exhibit
spaces, as well as research and lecture facilities.
Overlooking the house’s former courtyard is a three-
storey brass wall that glistens under an arching
skylight, while painstakingly restored rooms have
been fitted out with modern furnishings and light
fixtures by the likes of Marcel Wonders and George
Nelson. The upstairs research library also features
a rare hand-painted wood ceiling, one of the few
examples of its kind to have survived in the Gulf.
The Press Heritage House became the first of
many preservation projects undertaken by Sheikha

reimagining museums
Mai and her newly formed NGO. Yet far from creating
a sanitized vision of the past, or heritage village, many
of these new projects were inserted within established
residential neighborhoods, in addition to being free
and open to the public.
“It’s difficult to relate to the past if you simply
preserve it. One has to live with it in order to
appreciate it. These restored houses aren’t simply
museums to showcase heritage, they also function
as contemporary cultural spaces, making them
relevant to the community in more ways than one,”
continues Sheikha Mai, who has since restored
sixteen historic homes, displaying within them the
works of contemporary Bahraini artists to encourage
alternative forms of cultural dialogue.
Walking through Muharraq’s winding alleyways
today is akin to going on a cultural treasure hunt.
There are murals covered in winding calligraphy
that bleed onto the pavement, created by Lebanese
artist and designer Dia Battal, while turning another
corner reveals an art installation or water garden. In
a society where tearing down the old to make way
for the new has long been the norm, the restorations
have also sparked a shift in mentality amongst locals.
Such projects have opened the eyes of Bahrainis to
the potential benefits (and beauty) of readapting

alex aubry | 75
traditional buildings to meet twenty-first century
needs.
As a historian, Sheikha Mai believed early on that
in order to decode the history embedded in objects one
Figure2:Traditionalinteriorscometolifewiththehelpofmoderninterventions
atthePressHeritageHouse,Muharraq.TherestoredhomeofAbdullahAl-Zayed,
whoestablishedBahrain’sfirstnewspaperin1939,todayithousesexhibitspaces,
researchandlecturefacilities.

reimagining museums
needed to establish a context first. “It’s not enough
to simply display historic objects in a room. Placing
them in the environment in which they were created
or used paints a more vivid story and brings these
histories to life,” she notes, adding that a number
of objects displayed in the renovated houses were
donated by local collectors as well as herself.
A few steps from the Press Heritage House is
another tiny museum, Beit Al Kurar (Figure 3), which
is dedicated to preserving an endangered form of
embroidery indigenous to Muharraq. Known as Kurar
for the gold thread it employed, this labor-intensive
embroidery typically requires three women, who
weave a multitude of threads between their fingers
to produce the fringe along traditional thobes. With
its remaining practitioners well into their eighties
and nineties, the museum’s objective is to revive
awareness of this dying art form as well as transmit
its knowledge to future generations.
Entering through its large wooden door, visitors
find themselves in a tree-covered courtyard leading
to the ground floor exhibit area, which showcases
priceless examples of embroidered thobes culled
from private collections. While on the second
floor is a restored traditional majlis decorated with
contemporary art, where live demonstrations of this

alex aubry | 77
rare craft are held. “We’re not only trying to revive
these old crafts and provide opportunities for the
women to sell them. There is also the hope that a
new generation will pick up on these traditional skills
and innovate to create new products,” says Sheikha
Figure3:BeitAlKurar’scourtyarddisplaysanintriguingblendoftraditionaland
moderndesigns.Thesmallmuseumisdedicatedtopreservinganendangered
formoftraditionalembroidery.

reimagining museums
Mai, whose work in Muharraq eventually attracted
the attention of officials at the then Ministry of
Information.
Her once private interest in culture grew into
a public one in 2003, when she was appointed
Assistant Undersecretary for Culture and Heritage
at the Ministry. Her first order of business was to
raise her country’s profile through a place on the
World Heritage Committee. In 2005 she successfully
lobbied UNESCO to list the historic fortress of Qal’at
Al-Bahrain and its ancient settlement and harbor as a
World Heritage Site. One of the conditions for being
added to the prestigious list was that a museum be
built at the location.
This in itself was a challenge, as funding for the
arts and culture in Bahrain has traditionally been low.
“One point that’s seldom brought up is the economic
benefits of a healthy cultural infrastructure. It has
the potential to create more jobs and income for the
Kingdom,” says the Minister of Culture. To make
the museum a reality, Sheikha Mai tapped into her
previous experiences running the Shaikh Ebrahim
Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa Center for Culture
and Research, which recently celebrated its tenth
anniversary. “I learnt some valuable lessons when
I established my NGO. After two years of investing

alex aubry | 79
my own funds into the restoration of these historic
houses, I decided to seek alternative sources of
funding through the private sector.”
Through existing projects she had financed
on her own, she was able to convince both private
companies and banks of the long-term benefits of
investing in cultural infrastructure. “It proved to
be a more expedient and effective way of funding
projects,” notes Sheikha Mai, who launched a unique
fundraising campaign that has become a key feature
of the Ministry. Called Investing in Culture, its mission
is to garner financial support from the private sector
for its various cultural projects. “The Ministry is
unique in that it goes against pre-conceived ideas of
how a governmental institution functions,” observes
Noura Al-Sayeh, the Head of Architectural Projects at
the Ministry, adding that the government now relies
heavily on private capital, particularly from the local
banking community to finance its new museums.
3
“It’s not only about the government driving these
projects, but creating opportunities for communities
in Bahrain to take part in this development,” adds
Sheikha Mai.
Arcapita, an investment bank, financed the
construction of the Qal’at Al-Bahrain Site Museum.
OpeningitsdoorsinFebruary2008,itbecamethefirst

reimagining museums
museum dedicated to an archaeological site in the
Kingdom. Overlooking the ruins of Qal’at Al-Bahrain,
an imposing fortress rising from palm groves on the
north coast of the Island, it occupies one of the most
important excavated sites in the country. In 1954
archaeologists uncovered the remains of almost five
thousand years of continuous settlement.
In 2008 the Ministry of Information was renamed
theMinistryofCultureandInformation,withSheikha
Mai placed at its helm as Minister. Since assuming
her position, the institution has undergone a further
name change to that of the Ministry of Culture
in order to define its focus. “When I took on this
position it was important to create an organization
that works efficiently. We’ve tried to consolidate
the Ministry’s various roles to include cultural
infrastructure, media and tourism. By doing so we
havebecomemoreeffectiveintermsofimplementing
policy and projects, which include the creation of
new museums,” says Sheikha Mai, who also had the
Ministry’s offices moved to existing space at Bahrain’s
National Museum in Manama. Conceived in 1988
by the Danish architecture firm KHR Arkitekter,
the National Museum occupies a seaside complex
covering nearly twelve acres of reclaimed land. At the
time of its construction, it provided a single venue

alex aubry | 81
for a vast trove of archaeological artifacts, a natural
history hall, as well as a collection of traditional
costumes, crafts and historic documents.
Although Sheikha Mai has championed the
preservation of the Island’s history and heritage,
she was also keen to expose the public to the work
of Bahrain’s established and emerging artists. As a
result, a new gallery space was opened at the National
Museum for this purpose. Hundreds of art works
emerged from the museum’s storage facilities, some
of which hang along the corridors of the Ministry
of Culture, providing a visual history of Bahrain’s
modern art scene over a period of sixty years.
“Althoughyouneedfundstobuypiecesatauction,
it’s more difficult to acquire objects from ones own
land once they are gone. What makes Bahrain unique
is that we don’t have to buy or borrow objects to fill
our museums. The objective now is to bring to light
and enhance the rich cultural legacy we have here in
the Kingdom,” she notes.
Yet despite creating a significant showcase for
Bahrain’s rich history, a national museum alone could
not change perceptions concerning the importance
of preserving the Island’s past as a potential cultural
and economic resource. “One of the Ministry’s more
pressing issues right now is to raise awareness of

reimagining museums
endangered archaeological sites,” says Noura Al-
Sayeh, noting that the creation of new museums
is playing a key role in this endeavor. Bahrain, like
many developing nations in the Gulf, has changed
with great speed during the last quarter of a century.
Yet achieving progress is bound to provoke conflict
between conservationists and developers eager to
modernize. The burden of achieving the right balance
is immense, especially in the case of Bahrain.
As the causeway linking the Island to Saudi Arabia
was being built between 1981 and 1986, archaeologists
worked with urgency to excavate what they could of
some 600 burial mounds that would be destroyed
in the course of construction. While history
enthusiasts defended the rescue of the threatened
site, economists argued that the loss of the ancient
graves was a small sacrifice to make for the sake of
the nation’s prosperity.
In addressing the pros and cons of such a debate,
a society must eventually reach a compromise that
reflects its willingness to accept that there is more
than one perspective on preserving a nation’s past. In
the case of Bahrain, complimentary change may offer
a solution that could satisfy both conservationists
and developers. Thus by engaging the private sector
in its various cultural initiatives, the Ministry hopes

alex aubry | 83
to reach solutions that take into account economic,
cultural and social concerns.
At Qal’at Al-Bahrain, known locally as the
Portuguese Fort after the colonizing forces which
occupied the Island in the sixteenth century, some
of the ruins date back over 5,000 years. Decades of
excavation have unearthed traces of the ancient
civilization of Dilmun, covered over time by the
remains of successive civilizations including Tylos,
the Hellenistic period, Islamic conquests and, finally,
the Portuguese Fort of 1522, which stands today.
Although many of the archaeological finds were
housed at the National Museum, the sites themselves
were sadly neglected, with few facilities and no
guides to inform visitors of their significance. It was
a situation Sheikha Mai was anxious to rectify, with
an ambitious plan to build new museums and visitor
centers at archaeological sites scattered throughout
the Island. To get an idea of her master plan, one
need only cross the sculpture garden that separates
the Ministry from the National Museum, whose main
hall has been transformed into a virtual timeline of
projects that are either in the planning phase or under
construction. It is all part of the Ministry’s efforts
to engage and inform the public about its various
cultural efforts.

reimagining museums
The first in a series of museums to be located at an
archaeologicalsite,theQal’atAl-Bahrain SiteMuseum
was conceived by Danish architect Claus Wohlert, a
principal at Wohlert Arkitekter in Denmark and an
expert in museum design. The result is a long white,
modernist building comprised of two low-lying
structures that echo the proportions of the nearby
fort (Figure 4). The first building houses exhibit
spaces, a sea-front café, an auditorium for lectures
and an education hall, where children can practice
excavation and other archaeological activities. In the
second building are the museum’s administrative
offices, research facilities and additional spaces used
by archaeologists during excavations.
Located in the village of Karbabad, hugging
the edge of the harbor, visitors enter the museum
through a pair of sliding glass doors that open onto
a semi-enclosed courtyard with a gurgling fountain
and framed views of the fort and its harbor. From here
one leaves the outdoor heat to enter the building’s
cool interior spaces, featuring Italian sandstone floors
and dark wood ceilings. Light pours into the exhibit
areas through skylights and light turrets which
punctuate the museum’s exterior façade.
DanishdesignerEskildBjerreLaursencollaborated
with French curators Dr. Monique Keveran and Dr.

alex aubry | 85
Pierre Lombard to lay out the exhibits around a
dramatic central display that cuts through the floor
plan to reveal a century’s worth of accumulated
archaeological sediment. The museum’s exhibits
Figure4:AttheBahrainFortSiteMuseum,acentraldisplaycutsthroughthe
museum’sfloorplantorevealacentury’sworthofaccumulatedarcheological
sediment.OncedisplayedattheNationalMuseum,manyoftheartifacts
excavatedattheBahrainFortnowresideatthesitemuseum.

reimagining museums
offer striking lessons in curiosity, such as a display
of some 50 bowls, each containing the skeleton of a
snake coiled around a precious stone or pearl. During
the Dilmun period snakes were considered a symbol
of immortality and were often placed in graves beside
the dead. Interactive screens nearby show the pots
being unearthed, while another display of Chinese
porcelain excavated on site, points to the Island’s
importance as a trading center.
When Dr. Nadine Boksmati-Fattouh became the
museum’s director, one of the challenges she faced
early on was finding qualified individuals to assist in
the day-to-day running of the institution. “Similar
to other parts of the Arab world, museum studies
is a fairly new field, so I had to train my staff early
on. We also offer internships to students from the
Tourism Department, to give them a sense of what
it’s like to work within a museum,” she explains,
noting that the vocabulary and knowledge of running
a museum is still being developed.
4
As a result, one
of the Ministry’s long-term strategies is to invest in
the training of young Bahraini professionals, in order
to nurture careers within the museum department.
This year, three staff members traveled to the United
States to attend workshops at various institutions in
New York, Chicago and Washington D.C.

alex aubry | 87
In addition to her role at the Qal’at Al-Bahrain
Site Museum, Dr. Boksmati-Fattouh works closely
with the director of the National Museum to plan
exhibitions and address collections management and
conservation issues. “As we move towards creating
more satellite museums there may be a push to
establish a museum authority in order to manage
these institutions,” she observes. The Ministry is
also focused on building a solid team of curators.
“We recently hired a new art curator, but when it
comes to exhibitions I typically do it myself assisted
by Bahraini staff. In the past there weren’t many
Bahrainis with curatorial experience, but we’re seeing
more qualified individuals emerging, particularly
at the National Museum,” explains Dr. Boksmati-
Fattouh, who includes her staff in the planning of
smaller exhibitions to expose them to the curatorial
process.
By including the museum’s employees in the
process of putting together exhibitions, the hope is
to also foster a sense of ownership and responsibility
towards the preservation of Qal’at Al-Bahrain’s
unique history. “Part of our goal is to make visitors
and locals aware of the historical significance of the
Bahrain Fort and its ancient site. Given the chance,
it has the potential to be a major tourist attraction

reimagining museums
and its success is important for the development of
other museums that will follow,” adds Dr. Boksmati-
Fattouh.
The Ministry is now attempting to obtain
UNESCO protection for several other ancient sites,
in a race to save Bahrain’s archaeological heritage
from the bulldozers of developers. At stake is not
only the Kingdom’s pre-Islamic heritage but also the
makings of a lucrative tourism industry. “We have a
particularly rich and unique history that goes back
5,000 years, and we have a responsibility to protect
it and make it accessible to the public. Many ancient
sites in Bahrain have immense universal value, and
if we don’t act now they will be destroyed,” cautions
Sheikha Mai. Of particular interest are 12,000 Bronze
Age burial mounds located at eleven sites on the
main island, which date to the Dilmun civilization,
once known as a crossroads of the ancient world that
reached its zenith from 2050bc to 1800bc.
Today urban development has destroyed about
80% of the roughly 85,000 graves. Sprawling villas
and apartment buildings have been built over many
of the burial grounds and the developments bump
up alongside surviving ones. Sheikha Mai and her
team are working to preserve what is left of them by
including them on the World Heritage List.

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