Cultural Calendar
Spring/Summer 2026 season exhibitions and public art in Doha
Resolutions: Celebrating 15 Years at Mathaf
Until 8 August 2026
Venue: Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art
To commemorate Mathaf’s 15th anniversary, Resolutions examines the museum’s evolution through four key areas: its origins as an artistic hub in Doha under Sheikh Hassan bin Mohammed Al Thani’s pioneering efforts; its role as a production site through commissions and exhibitions; its commitment to formal and informal art education across the Arab world; and its contribution to defining Arab identity through modernist representations, particularly in the post-independence era, when artists developed a shared visual language reflecting pan-Arab ideology and resistance to the occupation of Palestine.
A Sneak Peek at Qatar Auto Museum Project
Until February 2027
Location: National Museum of Qatar
Design Doha
November 2026
Multiple locations
Design Doha is Qatar’s flagship platform for contemporary design, established by Qatar Museums in 2024 under the leadership of Her Excellency Sheikha al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. Conceived as more than a biennial, it operates as a long-term cultural and economic platform, positioning design as a driver of creative industry growth, urban innovation and global exchange across the MENASA (Middle East, North Africa and South Asia) region. Led by acting director of Design Doha, Fahad Al Obaidly, with Glenn Adamson as artistic director, Noura Al Sayeh as curator of headline exhibition Arab Design Now 2026, and Javier Peña Ibáñez as curator of the Public Design Commissions programme, the biennial brings together participants from 27 countries across the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and their diasporas. It spans 16 design disciplines, from architecture, furniture, product and urban planning to crafts, textiles, UX/UI, sound, service and social design, reflecting design’s full cultural, economic and civic scope. At its core, Arab Design Now 2026 presents the work of 81 designers, artisans and makers.
Public Art Highlights
Rock on Top of Another Rock
Permanent
Location: MIA Park
Peter Fischli and David Weiss’s work introduces two massive granite boulders in seemingly precarious balance, one atop the other. At 5.5 metres high, it embodies a deceptively simple gesture that oscillates between the binaries of stability and instability, construction and destruction. It was installed in London’s Kensington Gardens in 2013 as part of the Qatar-UK Year of Culture.
East-West/West-East
Permanent
Location: Brouq Nature Reserve
Unfolding in the desert across more than a kilometre of Qatar’s Brouq Nature Reserve, Richard Serra’s stunning East-West/West-East features four steel plates standing at 14 to 16 metres tall. The artist has called this work “the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done”. We were lucky enough to experience it at sunset. It is one piece on a list of incredible public art installed throughout the country.