ABSTRACT
The tiny Gulf state of Qatar continues to invest in major western-style museum projects, such as the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) (opened in 2008) and the forthcoming National Museum of Qatar (currently due to open in 2017). These projects demonstrate a desire at state level to utilise westernstyle heritage institutions, epistemologies and methodologies as part of an agenda of international communication and cultural diplomacy. This agenda is arguably not well understood by many Qatari nationals and has resulted in a level of dissent and criticism voiced in local media and social media, which focus on the involvement of western expatriates and the perception that the museums – a large economic investment – are aimed at foreign audiences. Using the example of the MIA as an ‘international’ museum, this chapter also assesses how the identities constructed by the new museums might conict with locally produced identities, which continue to exist and evolve outside the spaces of the museums, resulting in a disconnect of the local community from these institutions. The discussion suggests that the dissent articulated in relation to the new museums is symptomatic of wider state-society tensions that have become increasingly evident since the Arab Spring in 2011, shedding light on the changing nature of the “ruling bargain”, where political representation is foregone in exchange for extensive state benets (Ulrichsen 2011: 86, 165; Fromherz 2012: 154). The local response to the new museums, which are not regarded as representing or benetting Qatari society in the eyes of many Qatari nationals, can be seen as an index of the emerging call for reform and representation in Qatar and the region.
