Qatar Museums is proud to present five new dynamic and exciting exhibitions this Spring, providing new experiences of art, culture and heritage for the people of Qatar and its visitors.

Under the visionary guidance of Qatar Museums’ Chairperson, HE Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Qatar Museums is opening 555; Qajar Women: Images of Women in 19^th Century Iran; Marvellous Creatures: Animal Fables in Islamic Art; Wael Shawky: Cabaret Crusades and Other Stories; and Ismail Azzam: For Them,for visitors over the coming weeks.These artistic and cultural displays, located in a number of venues across Qatar, celebrate a unique sense of heritage whilst inspiring a future generation of creators.

For over twenty years, Qatar Museums has been dedicated to supporting Qatar’s artistic flair by creating the conditions for creativity and cultivating new talent. In celebration of this, the 555 exhibition, opening on the 15^th March at Doha’s newly renovated Fire Station, will include installations, photographs, and videos of what Doha’s inaugural art residences were like from the early 1990s, introducing visitors to a part of Qatar’s recent history that has never been shared so extensively before.

Alongside the opening of 555, Qatar Museums recently announced that Doha’s Fire Station has been transformed to host a new artists in residence programme, Fire Station: Artists in Residence. The programme fulfils a key part of Qatar Museum’s commitment to nurturing emerging talent by offering local artists the opportunities to develop best practice and provide a platform for the exchange of ideas.

Qatar Museums also hopes that its Spring Programme will enable visitors to reconnect with Qatar’s traditional culture and heritage. As part of this, the iconic Museum of Islamic Art also welcomes two new must-see exhibitions this Spring: Marvellous Creatures: Animal Fables in Islamic Art and Qajar Women: Images of Women in 19^th Century Iran.

Marvellous Creatures, opening on the 4^th March, focuses on the real and mythical animals that appear in the legends, tales and fables of the Islamic world, featuring timeless stories such as Shahnameh, Kalila wa Dimna and One Thousand and One Nights. Qajar Women, opening on the 25^th March, demonstrates the centrality of women in the artistic expression of 19th-century Iran and how it continues to inspire contemporary artists. Showcasing women at the court, and in private, alongside images of female musicians and aristocratic women, this exhibition explores rarely-told narratives of the Qajar artistic tradition.

Elsewhere, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art at Qatar Foundation will open a major solo exhibition, Wael Shawky: Cabaret Crusades and Other Stories, on the 17^th March. Wael Shawky is acclaimed as one of the most powerful and urgent voices to emerge from the Middle East in the last decade. His films, installations and performances explore history, culture and the effect of globalisation on contemporary societies through fact and fiction. The exhibition presents two newly completed film trilogies, each inspired by stories and scripts of literature; Cabaret Crusades (2010-2014) draws on Amin Maalouf’s novel The Crusades through Arab Eyes (1983) while Al Araba Al Madfuna (2012-2015) collages the stories of Mohamed Mustagab with the artists experience living in Upper Egypt.

Finally, Ismail Azzam: For Them is the fifth exhibition presented by Qatar Museums this Spring, opening at the Qatar Museums Gallery in Katara on 25^th April. The exhibition will showcase Ismail Azzam’s distinctive portraits of painters and sculptors who have made a significant contribution to Arab Art, with the entire body of work created exclusively for this show in Doha.

Commenting on the Spring Programme, Hamad Al Eida, Director of Communications at Qatar Museums, said:

“Culture and art support the realisation of Qatar’s National Vision, developing and inspiring the next generation of cultural audiences and ideas. Wonderful initiatives like the Fire Station Artists in Residence programme are critical to nurturing our wealth of artistic talent, whilst nostalgic exhibitions like Marvellous Creatures help us celebrate our favourite childhood stories that are known and loved by us all. As we announce our exciting Spring exhibitions Programme, I look forward to what promises to be an incredible year for art in Qatar.”

In addition to the vast array of exhibitions coming to Doha this Spring, earlier this year, Qatar Museums officially announced the launch of the Qatar Turkey 2015 Year of Culture, following the great success of Qatar Brazil 2014.

The Qatar Turkey 2015 Year of Culture celebrates the relations between the State of Qatar and the Republic of Turkey through cultural partnerships between Qatari and Turkish organisations, institutions and individuals. A rich programme will explore the contemporary and traditional cultures of both countries and will include world class exhibitions, festivals, performances, educational programs and cultural exchanges across Qatar and Turkey

For more information, please visit http://www.qm.org.qa

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