A view of the Company House
A strategic placement in the heart of Doha, adjacent to Souq Waqif or the traditional market combined, Msheireb Museums is a testament to how the country values history, traditions, and culture.
Msheireb Museums has four remarkable historic houses that journey to socio-economic history and travel back to Qatar’s past through the eyes of the nation’s fathers.
These historic houses are Radwani House, Bin Jelmood House, Company House, and Mohammed Bin Jassim House.
Radwani House is a restoration of a Qatari family house. It gives an insight into how a Qatari family evolved over the years. Moreover, it also shows the transformation of domestic family life.
Bin Jelmood House narrates the spread of slavery throughout history via the rooms and corridors. It likewise portrays the social, cultural, and economic contributions of those influenced by slavery. Furthermore, the house is an opportunity for visitors to pledge to fight slavery personally.
Mohammed Bin Jassim House
Within Ben Jelmood House is an exhibition called “Journey to the heart of life.” The exhibit is a series of interactive and audiovisual displays to understand how to leverage genetics and genomics in uncovering Qatar’s rich cultural and historical heritage.
Qatar’s first oil company was the Company House. It narrates how Qatari pioneers worked relentlessly to transform this country into a modern one.
Mohammed Bin Jassim House was the residence of the son of the founder of modern Qatar. It tells the country’s past as legacy, current development, and sustainable future. Take a walkthrough to discover how the country evolved over the years and the impact on its vision. It houses the Echo Memory Art Project using objects uncovered during excavation work on the site.
Among Msheireb Museums, two latest exhibitions include “Art For Freedom” and “Mahalat.”
Art For Freedom is a collaboration with the National Committee for the Combating Human Trafficking, Msheireb Museums and organised by Alhosh Gallery.
The exhibit was formulated to raise awareness programmes and activities to unify efforts to improve awareness and knowledge among various members of society and to work on combating this global phenomenon.
Plastic paintings and models are featured in the exhibit by 18 artists from Qatar and the Arab world.
Walkthrough and travel to old Msheireb in an art exhibition of paintings called “Mahalat” (shops) by one of the pioneers of the modern art movement in the country, Qatari artist Yousef Ahmed where 41 of his paintings are featured.
“Most of these paintings were brought from my memory. There’s no photo resource or source for these paintings. There is no photo equal from these paintings,” says Yousef Ahmed.
Ahmed said he wanted the viewer to experience his paintings as an invitation to voyage the old Msheireb. “That’s why you don’t see any human figure in my painting, the reason for that is I invite you as a viewer, as an audience to come inside the painting, and you can walk and go in,” he explained.
The exhibit, which will run until March 2022, is a journey of Kahraba and Abdullah bin Thani streets which play an essential role in Qatari history as the first commercial area with electricity. The streets were established after the discovery of oil.
Msheireb Museums Director Hafiz Ali Abdulla said the exhibit is important for Msheireb Museums in documenting a very significant aspect in Qatari history.
“Msheireb played a big role in changing the community and inspiring people to think about how they can look into the future.”
Msheireb Museums celebrate Qatar’s history nestled within the oldest part of the capital. It reveals a distinctive approach as it converses the rich culture of the past through the four restored houses as the public traverses in the present, combining the two elements to inspire the future.
