Under the patronage of H.E. Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani, Museum With No Frontiers (MWNF) launched a new online exhibition platform at a live event in Doha co-hosted by the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum. The launch event included a panel of ten cultural institutions that have an existing partnership with Museum With No Frontiers to discuss potential uses of the new online platform for education, exhibition programming, and interaction with physical exhibitions. Representatives in attendance included cultural organizations from Egypt, Ethiopia, Jordan, Oman, Portugal, Qatar, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, in addition to a number of dignitaries, ambassadors, and local and international media representatives.

The presentation of the new platform was based on a demo exhibition titled “The Use of Colours in Art”, enabling users to scroll through themes and digitally interact with collections on a faster, more dynamic system. The new, very visually appealing platform provides MWNF with the tools to accompany audiences through history and art easily.

MWNF has an almost twenty-year history in developing and managing virtual exhibitions. The biggest achievement of this new online exhibition platform is its innovative technical solutions – like the use of automated templates – to minimize resources spent on programming and allow MWNF to devote more time to developing high-quality content with its international network of cultural partners.

Virtual exhibitions and programming are not new to MWNF. Founded in 1995, MWNF has built popular and wide-reaching online museums and galleries through strong collaborations with world-renowned sites and museums. Projects to date include “Discover Islamic Art”, “Discover Baroque Art”, and “Sharing History”, as well as MWNF Galleries where the material is sorted by medium or type of objects such as “Discover Carpet Art” or “Discover Glass Art”.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused an industry-wide shift towards digital & virtual cultural activities. While physical exhibitions are resuming, there is still growing demand placed upon cultural institutions by audiences across the globe, expecting them to access educational and artistic resources at their fingertips. This was the motivation behind MWNF’s desire to develop its new online platform, responding to the situation the heritage industry finds itself in.

The new online platform is an extension of the Museum’s pioneering approach – collaborating with local experts and focusing on local priorities to combine their interpretation of artefacts and monuments with the cultural and historical context.

With the new platform in place, MWNF hopes to achieve the following goals:

• Create international exhibition projects with all Partners joining with the same possibilities.

• To promote internationalisation, namely also in the elaboration of curatorial concepts
• To make the results of research accessible and enjoyable to a large audience.
• Improved visual formatting, making educational content more appealing.
• The development of exhibitions for specific educational groups, focusing on age-appropriate information for different levels of schooling.
• The chance to use virtual and physical exhibitions side-by-side, increasing their potential audience or improving the experience of visitors to physical spaces.

Providing opportunities to young people and students in relevant fields, allowing them to understand the process of creating exhibitions & the possibility virtual space provides

Source & cover image credit: Press Release

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Fareeha Imtiaz

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