Started in 2014, PhotoSpark is a weekly feature from your story With photos that celebrate the spirit of creativity and innovation. In the previous 825 posts, we featured one art festival, Cartoon Gallery. World Music Festival, Telecom Expo, millet fair, Climate Change Expo, wildlife conference, startup festival, diwali rangoli, and Jazz Festival.
Doha, the capital of Qatar, has hosted several major tech events in 2024. They include the Web Summit (held for the first time in the Middle East) and the Digital Creator Awards (with over 100 prominent digital creators from the Arab world).
Ooredoo Qatar organized M360 MENA in partnership with the GSMA and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, while the Digital Ecosystem Conference was the flagship event of the Ooredoo Group. Events like these help strengthen Qatar’s position as an emerging business hub in the vibrant Persian Gulf region.
In addition to business and technical activities, the government agency Qatar Museum has helped make the city a vibrant center for art, culture and education. Museums help ignite new thinking, initiate important cultural conversations, and spread awareness about environmental stewardship and sustainable practices.
The newly launched Creative Hub supports projects such as photo festivals, fashion and design initiatives, and artists in residence. For scholars and students, the National Museum of Qatar offers research centers, laboratories and digital archives.
Check out Part I and Part II of our photo essay on the museum’s unique architecture and immersive gallery spaces. There is also a traditional food forum and a landscaped park with indigenous plants of Qatar.
The museum’s first few galleries take visitors on a journey through time and space, revealing our planet as it may have been millions of years ago. Different habitats and species are depicted in landscape and seascapes.
Audio visual experiences in the form of surround sound and movies immerse tourists in a world of canyons and sand drifting through time. Directed by Zannah Al-Ani, the film creatively combines aerial footage of archaeological sites with close-up images of artifacts.
Stone cutting tools, arrowheads and fragments of pottery reveal the work of archaeologists piecing together historical narratives through careful excavation. In a large format oral history, Qatari people share memories of their traditional lifestyle.
These memories are also depicted by camel saddles, leather water bags and navigational instruments. There are special exhibits for children to track animals in the desert and navigate by the stars.
Other highlights for children are the Nakilat Adventure Ship, a playground modeled after a traditional Qatari shipwreck. Children can learn about sailing, pearling and fishing.
Rituals surrounding the birth of a baby camel reflect the close relationship between people and animals in arid regions. Falcons were widely used for hunting, while camel caravans and fleets of dhows drove regional trade.
Director Meera Nair’s film Nafaas (sigh) narrates the story of the pearl divers and their hardships. They were often separated from their families for months at a time, while they depended on the bounty of the sea.
Another provocative film by Peter Weber deals with recent stages such as the unification of different tribes into one nation. It is inspired by techniques like shadow theatre, which evokes a sense of curiosity in the audience.
The industrial wave is well captured in an interactive digital wall with hundreds of photographs and archived documents representing the transformation of Doha. John Sanborn’s film (AlchemyExplores how the discovery of liquefied natural gas (LNG) changed the economy.
The gallery’s concluding sections feature large digital installations that capture new opportunities and horizons opening up to Qatar. The museum has also issued publications such as The Grandeur of the Atlas: A Journey Through Morocco’s Heritage and a catalog on the title exhibition Manjar: Art and Architecture in Pakistan -1940s to Today.
The exhibition includes a selection of approximately 200 paintings, drawings, photographs, videos, sculptures, installations, tapestries and miniatures. It reveals a deep involvement of artists and architects in continuity and continuity, with a commitment to flexibility and sustainability.
The Qatar Museum has operated large public art installations in several locations. The artist and sculptor lineup includes Saloa Rauda Choukair, Subodh Gupta, Ali Hassan Al Jabar, Roach Vandrome, Buthaina Al Muftah, Damien Hirst, Tony Smith, Sarah Lucas and Richard Serra.
The museum’s archeology team also collaborates with counterparts in other parts of the world. For example, the Qatar-Sudan Archeology Project aims to research and preserve heritage in Sudan.
what now you Done today to pause your busy schedule and use your creative side for a better world?
(All photographs taken by Madanmohan Rao on location at the National Museum of Qatar.)