DOHA: Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art was named the Middle East’s ‘Best Emerging Culture Destination’ at 2015 Leading Culture Destinations Awards in London recently.
Dubbed ‘The Oscars for Museums’, the award honours the world’s most visionary arts institutions and emerging cultural hotspots. The awards ranked Mathaf as No. 1 ‘Best Emerging Culture Destination of 2015’ on a shortlist that included Oman National Museum, Dubai Moving Image Museum and Dubai Salsali Private Museum.
Winners were judged by a panel of 12 cultural and creative figures from around the world and chaired by Gail Dexter Lord, Co-Founder, Lord Cultural Resources, a practice dedicated to creating cultural capital worldwide.
“It is a great honour to receive recognition as the Best Emerging Cultural Destination at the awards and a wonderful recognition for the Mathaf team and Qatar Museums.
“Mathaf is an open stage — our solo and group exhibitions — featuring the greatest artists from the region and connecting them to the global art scene.
“It explores and celebrates modern and contemporary art. Our exhibitions and education programmes play an important role as a centre of art production, research and a resource for fostering art and creativity as part of daily life,” said Abdullah Karroum, Director, Mathaf.
The awards, in second year, are described as “celebrating the vibrancy and vitality of museums and institutions around the world” and aim to shine a light on museums that have made the most exceptional contributions to culture in the past year. Leading cultural destinations annually nominates museums by region in five categories: Exhibitions and Programming; Architecture & Spatial Design; Eat & Drink; Shop; and Digital Experience.
Museum of Islamic Art was also shortlisted in the ‘Architectural and Spatial Design’ category.
Founded in 2010, Mathaf houses the largest and most extensive permanent collection of modern and contemporary Arab art in the world, with more than 9,000 works in its care, dating from the 19th century. Mathaf is displaying works by five pioneering Arab artists at an exhibition, ‘Focus: Works from the Mathaf Collection’ open until February 14.
The Peninsula
