H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), on Monday, dedicated The Media Majlis at Northwestern University in Qatar. The ceremony at the QF partner university was also attended by H E Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, QF Vice Chairperson and CEO.
Speaking at the dedication ceremony, Sheikha Hind said: “At QF, we continue to be a platform for the expression and exploration of different ideas and perspectives, where people are encouraged to challenge the status quo through knowledge. The Media Majlis demonstrates how narratives exist to be explored and challenged rather than simply accepted and how connecting with different voices, standpoints, and ideas extends the boundaries of our understanding, nourishes critical and original thought, and enriches lives.” The first exhibition, entitled `Arab Identities, images in film’, provides an exploration of how over a century’s worth of film history has shaped by notions of Arab identities.
The Media Majlis is the first museum of its kind in the region and the first university museum in Qatar. It is an active and empowering space where people can engage with the exhibition’s content and programmes which focus on communication, journalism and media in the Arab world, as well as contribute to the global conversation on the continually changing landscape of media.
Dean Everette E Dennis said, “The Media Majlis aims to foster public understanding of journalism and communication and their role in shaping public opinion and shaping the image of the Middle East to the rest of the world. It underscores the importance of media in society from the earlier and most basic forms of communication to the most modern and draws on images and materials from local sources and global collections.”
With a focus on the Arab world, the museum will host two exhibitions each year addressing major themes and ideas that are pertinent to the region. The museum features extensive digital-capacity creating exhibitions where visitors can participate through interactive commentary and engagement. It also offers digital content shared using a number of different technologies, objects and other physical content features to explore stories from multiple perspectives.
The museum’s first exhibition will continue until June 1 and reopen in August and run through December. With sections from more than 60 films and hundreds of images, some that date back to the 1880s, and posters from the early 1990s, visitors can bring nuances to the deep and complicated meanings of identity, as well as the ideas and connections that influence people’s understanding of that theme.
Director of the museum, Pamela Erskine-Loftus, said, “Our exhibitions, complemented by a series of programmes and publications, examine and discuss multiple angles and perspectives to provide audiences with a 360-degree engagement with the subject, leaving them more empowered and knowledgeable to make their own opinion on the subject at hand.”
The museum’s name draws on the traditional Arab majlis – or gathering place- as a vital source of interpersonal communication, but extends it to modern interactive media, thus connecting values of local culture to universal and global concerns.