Mathaf at 15: From Museum to Campus of Making

As Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art marks its 15th anniversary, the institution signals a decisive shift in its role—from a museum dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, and researching Arab modernism to a living campus where artistic production, learning, and experimentation take centre stage.

Timed to coincide with this milestone, Mathaf announced a major, multi-phased campus expansion led by Lebanese-born architect Lina Ghotmeh, founder of Paris-based Lina Ghotmeh Architecture and the designer of the forthcoming Qatar Pavilion at the Giardini of La Biennale di Venezia. The expansion reimagines Mathaf not only as a place of display but as an active site of making, one that places artists, designers, and communities at its core.

A New Chapter Begins: The Majlis Library and Community Space

The first phase of this transformation was inaugurated on 16 December with the opening of a newly designed, majlis-inspired library and conversation space. Located within the museum’s atrium, the open-plan library brings together Mathaf and Qatar Museums publications alongside an extensive selection of art books, positioning reading, dialogue, and research as visible, shared activities.

Defined by flexible, modular furniture that can be reconfigured for talks, workshops, or informal gatherings, the space operates as a civic interior—one that extends the museum’s reach beyond exhibitions. An expanded book and gift shop operated by QC+, along with a café offering casual dining, further reinforces the atrium as a social and cultural hub rather than a transitional zone.

Anchoring the redesigned atrium is a newly commissioned portrait of His Highness The Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani by Chinese painter Yan Pei-Ming. The work joins existing portraits of The Father Amir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, originally commissioned for Mathaf’s opening, reaffirming the museum’s symbolic and national significance.

From Parking Lot to Production Spaces

Future phases of the expansion will radically reshape the museum campus. What is currently a parking lot and plaza will be transformed into a network of specialised studios dedicated to ceramics, glass, sound, textiles, and material experimentation. Existing warehouses will be adapted into purpose-built facilities, developed in close collaboration with practising artists who act as advisors.

Among the planned spaces are a state-of-the-art ceramics studio developed with ceramicist Adrian Müller, equipped with specialised kilns and shared wet and dry work areas capable of supporting large-scale production; a makerspace for glassmaking and woodworking developed with artist Matteo Gonet; and a sound studio conceived in collaboration with sound artist Tarek Atoui, featuring advanced acoustic and recording facilities.

Together, these spaces will form the backbone of a new residency programme, positioning Mathaf as a site where artworks are not only exhibited but conceived, tested, and produced in public view.

Architecturally, the campus will be unified through a new curtain-like skin that brings coherence to its disparate volumes, while an earthen ground plane and climate-responsive landscape will stitch the site together, grounding the expansion in material and environmental sensitivity.

For Mathaf’s Director Zeina Arida, the anniversary marks a philosophical shift as much as a physical one. She describes the expansion as a transformation of the museum into a place where artists can create, not only display—enhancing visitor experience, deepening community engagement, and reinforcing Qatar’s long-term investment in its creative economy.

Lina Ghotmeh echoes this vision, describing Mathaf as a “rightly cherished and unrivalled institution” that will evolve into an active museum of making and learning, alongside its role as a centre for exhibition and research. Positioned alongside the future Qatar Pavilion in Venice, the expansion places Mathaf firmly within an international architectural and cultural conversation—while remaining rooted in the region it represents.

Anniversary Programming: Sound, Sculpture, and Scholarship

The spatial transformation is accompanied by a robust programme that reflects Mathaf’s future-facing ambitions.

At the heart of the anniversary is Waters’ Witness (17 December 2025 – 18 May 2026), an ongoing sound research project by Tarek Atoui that explores water as a carrier of human, ecological, and industrial histories. Composed of marble, metal, ceramics, and other resonant materials, the installation traces the sonic identities of port cities including Athens, Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Istanbul, Porto, Singapore, Sydney, and now Doha. Created from field recordings by Atoui and collaborators Eric La Casa and Chris Watson, the work unfolds as both an installation and a live programme, including a performance with musician Mazen Kerbage and singer Lynn Adib on 16 December. The project extends into collaborations with schools, special needs communities, VCUarts Qatar, and the future Dadu, Children’s Museum of Qatar.

Running concurrently is Autorretrato (17 December 2025 – 21 February 2026), a monumental sculptural self-portrait by Argentinian artist Gabriel Chaile. Presented in collaboration with Qatar Museums’ Public Art team and as part of the Qatar–Argentina and Chile 2025 Year of Culture, the work offers an early glimpse into Mathaf’s growing focus on ceramic practice.

Expanding Knowledge: The Mathaf Encyclopedia

The anniversary also marks the relaunch of the Mathaf Encyclopedia of Modern Art and the Arab World, an essential research platform that has been significantly expanded to include 70 artist biographies, 30 author biographies, and five new scholarly essays. The update reinforces Mathaf’s role as a global reference point for Arab modernism, bridging academic research and public access.

These initiatives unfold alongside Resolutions: Celebrating 15 Years of Mathaf, a reinstallation of the museum’s permanent collection curated by Mathaf’s research and curatorial team and on view until 8 August 2026, as well as we refuse_d, a group exhibition bringing together fifteen artists whose practices examine resilience, refusal, and collective action in response to contemporary political and social realities.