"The beauty of art and the power of culture is that it brings people together. We [Qatar] like to bring people together, we like to inform them and educate them through art," said HE Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani during the 'Art For Tomorrow: The Art of Diplomacy' panel discussion last year that took place in Athens, Greece.
On the eve of this year's Art For Tomorrow conference in Italy, Her Excellency shared a snippet of her speech on her Instagram account where she highlighted the importance of cultural exchange, cultural diplomacy, and understanding the art of different nations in creating a more connected and harmonious world.
The Art for Tomorrow aims to analyze the effect the arts can and do have on society. It brings together artists, gallerists, designers, museum directors, and other experts to explore the social impact of the arts.
HE Sheikha Al Mayassa, the Chairperson of Qatar Museums, is again among the long list of speakers for this year's event. She will speak about cultural heritage (Heritage for Tomorrow) — the role the past can play in bringing the world together.
Speaking to New York Times ahead of the talk, which can be viewed tomorrow April 27 at 11:20pm (Doha time) on the Art for Tomorrow YouTube channel, Her Excellency said she would specifically address the importance of heritage across the planet, the shared sense of how the past can inform the future, and the ways different cultures can coexist in mutual respect to determine what defines art for the present and future.
According to Sheikha Al Mayassa, art can help in diffusing tensions that arise due to intolerance of cultures. “I think there’s a need for a place for discourse and tolerance because today I feel there is a lot of intolerance around the world because people think you ought to behave in a certain way,” she said. “I think culture can help diffuse that.”
"I really believe that culture is a bridge that brings everyone together. That is where Art for Tomorrow seems vital," she said speaking to NYT adding that "in a world of people feeling more and more separated, togetherness is even more important. I think Art for Tomorrow becomes a platform for people to meet, to listen to different people and ideas,” she said.
She continued: “Art in all its forms, whether it’s film, fashion, visual arts, dance or music, brings people together.” Her Excellency emphasized that this did not necessarily imply that all forms of art would be accepted in every culture, as she recalled an incident at the Art for Tomorrow conference in Greece last year when a lady from the audience asked about 'Qatar's strict censorship laws' when it comes to art exhibitions.
In last year's talk, Sheikha Al Mayassa said: "Censorship is a matter of perception. We’re not interested in getting people to create a negative impact or reaction, because that’s not what art should be doing, in my opinion. We like to bring people together, we like to inform them and educate them. So if I know that that’s your position and you feel strongly about it, I probably wouldn’t work with you. Respect my morals and values as a person who’s in charge and responsible for bringing art from all around the world."
Responding to a question from last year's talk, Her Excellency said that in many places, even in New York where she lived for a while, there were some exhibitions where organisers would ask art pieces to be removed, and according to her it’s not just an Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern thing, but a question of values that will govern an institution and that Qatar is very strict when it comes to this regard.
"We have a curatorial conversation with the people who come to Qatar because we have to respect our own norms and cultural traditions,” she told NYT in a recent interview. “I think culture brings people from different backgrounds and norms together and allows for constructive dialogue in terms of respect. But one person’s freedom ends as soon as he or she infringes on another.”
Speaking on building museums and cultural infrastructures in Qatar, she said: “When Art for Tomorrow began here in Qatar, we had two museums in our 25-year plan as we were just beginning our mandate,” she stated. “We combined not just artists and creative people, but we brought in policymakers, planners and decision-makers.”
Qatar plans to open the Art Mill Museum in 2030, which will be housed in a former flour mill and built by Pritzker Prize-winning Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena. The museum and cultural complex, which will sit along the Doha waterfront, will feature the mill's soaring silos.
“We’re keeping the silos as part of our identity,” Sheikha Al Mayassa told NYT. “I think buildings create an identity of place. Qatar is not a very big country geographically, so we want to preserve as much as we can.”
She also brought up the future Lusail Museum; 560,000 square feet designed by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, which will hold one of the world’s most extensive collections of paintings, drawings, photography, sculptures, rare texts, and applied arts, much of it from Qatar Museums’ so-called Orientalist collection by European artists who depicted the Muslim world.
Speaking on the history of the Gulf country, Her Excellency explained: “If you go to the north of Qatar, we have a UNESCO site with ruins where you can walk and explore and see how people lived. If you visit the National Museum, you can see how old the country is. I think preserving heritage is not just about buildings but also sites, and showing the tribes that we know we’re descended from.”
Sheikha Al Mayassa invites everyone to watch the panel discussion on 'Heritage for Tomorrow' on April 27 at 11:20pm, Doha time, on the Art for Tomorrow YouTube channel.
