DOHA.- Qatar Museums (QM), the nation’s preeminent institution for art and culture, today announced a wide-ranging fall 2026 programme of exhibitions, public art presentations, and initiatives designed to spark global cultural exchange and dialogue.
Featuring openings from September through November, the season includes dozens of exhibitions, including a retrospective survey of the Baghdad Modern Art Group; a presentation of works by renowned Italian contemporary artist Giuseppe Penone; and the Doha debut of Beyti Beytak • بيتي بيتك • My Home Is Your Home, an exhibition focused on Arab hospitality that premiered at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.
M7, Qatar’s creative hub for fashion, design, and entrepreneurship, will present a suite of exhibitions including the first museum retrospective dedicated to the fashion house ERDEM and an expansive jewellery exhibition bringing together more than 500 objects, almost entirely selected from Qatar Museums’ collections.
Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums, said, “This new season is a celebration of resilience and creativity across our region and around the globe, showcasing an abundance of artistic and design achievements from centuries past through today. Over the course of three months, we will open more than fifteen standalone exhibitions, present the second edition of Design Doha, and inaugurate our next ambitious undertaking, an international contemporary art quadrennial, Rubaiya Qatar. Each milestone is a testament to the human spirit and a powerful reminder that in times of conflict, it is more important than ever for people to come together through the power of culture.”
Anchors of the fall season are the second edition of the Design Doha biennial, opening on 6 November, and Rubaiya Qatar, opening on 21 November. This edition of Design Doha brings together participants from across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia for a total of more than 20 related exhibitions led by Arab Design Now 2026, which will feature 81 designers, 78 new commissions, and 15 films. The inaugural edition of Rubaiya Qatar, QM’s contemporary art quadrennial, will present a dynamic programme of exhibitions, commissions, public art projects, residencies, publications, and more. Its headline exhibition, Unruly Waters, features more than 50 artists from the SWANA region and more than 20 new commissions engaging with the urgent issues of ecological transformation and geopolitical change.
Qatar Museums’ Fall 2026 Exhibitions, Programs, and Initiatives
(in chronological order, as of June 2026)
Uzbekistan: Heritage in Motion
3 September 2026–28 November 2026
Museum of Islamic Art
This major exhibition explores Uzbekistan’s Islamic history through architecture, manuscripts, ceramics, jewellery, textiles, and dress. Organised as a thematic journey from the eve of the Islamic conquest to modern expressions of the cultural legacy, Uzbekistan: Heritage in Motion will foreground the continued resonance of historical forms, materials, and knowledge systems. Developed in collaboration with the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, the presentation will include objects from Uzbekistan alongside works from the Museum of Islamic Art’s collections.
Ektashif Uzbekistan
3 September 2026–28 November 2026 Museum of Islamic Art
Ektashif Uzbekistan presents the artistic results of an educational art trip organised by the Museum of Islamic Art for Qatari artists. Centered on artistic learning and cultural exchange, the programme follows the artists’ journey across Tashkent, Samarkand, and Bukhara, where they explored museums, galleries, historic sites, and architectural landmarks while participating in workshops focused on traditional arts. Ektashif Uzbekistan brings these experiences into the Museum of Islamic Art, showcasing new work developed by the participating artists and offering audiences an opportunity to engage with Qatari artistic responses to Uzbekistan’s Islamic cultural heritage.
Frame & Focus
5 September 2026–5 October 2026
Al Hosh Gallery
Frame & Focus is a group exhibition presenting the work of 13 photographers who participated in the advanced photography course led by VII Foundation in collaboration with Qatar Museums’ Tasweer Photo Festival and Qatar Preparatory School (QPS). Bringing together diverse photographic approaches and personal narratives, the exhibition explores diverse photography themes of identity, memory, belonging, faith, heritage, migration, and contemporary life across Qatar and beyond. The exhibition marks the culmination of an intensive programme of mentorship, critical inquiry, and creative development, highlighting the participants’ unique voices and evolving photographic practices.
What Lingers in the Artist’s Mind: The Experiments and Legacies of the Baghdad Modern Art Group
25 October 2026–6 February 2027
Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art
Drawn principally from the unsurpassed collection of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, this exhibition examines the achievement of the trailblazing Baghdad Modern Art Group, founded by Iraqi artists Jewad Selim and Shakir Hassan Al Said in 1951. Active through the early 1970s, the group produced paintings, sculptures, and drawings and operated as a site of cultural exchange across West Asia, North Africa, and Europe, influencing artists for generations to come. Through artworks and archival materials, What Lingers in the Artist’s Mind traces the group's legacy while reflecting on the devastating impact of war on Iraq's cultural memory, treating absence and fragmentation as integral to historical narrative. The exhibition is curated by Nada Shabout.
Beyti Beytak • بيتي بيتك • My Home Is Your Home
26 October 2026–29 May 2027
Fahad Bin Ali Palace
Organised by the future Art Mill Museum, Beyti Beytak • بيتي بيتك • My Home Is Your Home comes to Qatar following its debut at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2025. Now expanded, the exhibition features new programming and public engagement opportunities to explore themes of home, hospitality, and architectural exchange across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia. Beyti Beytak includes works by pioneering architects alongside contemporary practitioners. Qatari architect Ibrahim Jaidah will be prominently represented through works that anchor the exhibition in the evolving architectural identity of Doha.
Wooden Doors of Qatar: From Storage to Story
26 October 2026–29 May 2027
Fahad Bin Ali Palace
Curated jointly by Qatar Museums’ Museography and Heritage Museums Development Department and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), this exhibition presents nearly 60 historic wooden doors, and windows from the collection of the National Museum of Qatar. On view for the first time, the exhibition presents architectural fragments as carriers of cultural and iconographic history and as part of an evolving design typology. Visitors will be immersed in AKTC’s fascinating documentation and conservation work, and will be invited to contribute in the understanding of the doors history through online forms and in person programming.
Atharna 2026: Life and Death in Pre-Islamic Qatar
26 October 2026–29 May 2027
Fahad Bin Ali Palace
Atharna is Qatar Museums’ annual archaeology pop-up exhibition, highlighting new excavations, research, and discoveries of QM’s Archaeology Department. The 2026 edition will highlight excavation finds from Neolithic and pre-Islamic burial mounds. After exploring the grave mount reconstruction and the archaeology tent outside of the exhibition space, visitors will discover an atmospheric exhibition highlighting jewels and weapons excavated from Pre-Islamic warrior graves in Qatar. Bioarchaeology and archaeological conservation are also highlighted in this unique exhibition that visitors will be invited to explore with a flashlight.
Boats Floating Afar: The Maritime Trade in Ancient Chinese Ceramics
26 October 2026–31 January 2027
National Museum of Qatar
Boats Floating Afar: The Maritime Trade in Ancient Chinese Ceramics is a visiting exhibition from the National Museum of China, presenting over 120 pottery vessels representing more than 1,000 years of trade and cultural exchange that crossed the seas along the Maritime Silk Road between China, the Arabian Gulf, Africa and Europe.
Giuseppe Penone: The Inner Flow of Life
26 October 2026–13 February 2027
National Museum of Qatar
Giuseppe Penone: The Inner Flow of Life will transform the National Museum of Qatar’s Baraha and Old Palace through a series of pavilions, sculptures, and outdoor installations by one of Italy's most prominent contemporary artists. Featuring works from 1969 to the present, the exhibition foregrounds Penone’s enduring interest in the synergy between organic and artistic processes and the poetic relationship between humans and the environment. Along with works in wood, iron, bronze, clay, and marble, the exhibition is accompanied by a newly installed public sculpture, Idee di Pietra, at the Doha Old Port. This exhibition is organised in partnership with Studio Giuseppe Penone and is curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Issa Al Shirawi.
ERDEM: About Time, About Her
27 October 2026–26 December 2026
ERDEM: About Time, About Her is a retrospective marking the twentieth anniversary of the fashion house founded by Erdem Moralioglu, tracing his evolution from early sketches and experiments to the fully formed language that defines the House today. Curated by Olivier Gabet and organized thematically, the exhibition explores Erdem’s atelier, house codes, and craftsmanship through garments, ephemera, and works from Qatar Museums collections that emphasise intersections among fashion, art, and cultural narrative while highlighting the precision and poetic sensibility at the core of Erdem’s work.
Expanded Tradition. Contemporary Craft Practices in Mexico
27 October 2026–26 December 2026
Expanded Tradition. Contemporary Craft Practices in Mexico presents works by artisans under the age of 40 from Mexico who have been immersed in traditional artisanal production environments. Focusing on a new generation of makers, the exhibition traces the continuity of Mexico's vibrant craft heritage while examining how emerging practitioners reinterpret inherited techniques and forms in response to current contexts.
Around the World in Jewellery
27 October 2026–26 December 2026
Around the World in Jewellery invites visitors on a journey through time and across continents to explore one of the most universal forms of human expression: jewellery. The exhibition brings together over 500 exceptional objects from around the world, highlighting the diversity of cultural traditions and the ways people transformed materials to express identities, beliefs, status, and creativity. Families are welcomed to experience a specially designed interactive space where children aged 4 and older can learn and discover the exhibition through playful and educational activities. This project was born from a close collaboration between Qatar Museums and L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts supported by Van Cleef & Arpels, united by a shared commitment to the study, preservation, and transmission of cultural heritage. Through this partnership, and thanks to the collections of the National Collection of Qatar, the National Museum of Qatar, the Museum of Islamic Art, and the future Lusail Museum, many works are presented to the public for the very first time.
Tasweer Residency: As the Image Unfolds — The Language of Athar
31 October 2026–15 December 2026
Tasweer Studios, Bayt Al Wakrah
Tasweer Residency: As the Image Unfolds — The Language of Athar is an ongoing five-month residency programme bringing together three image makers from within the Tasweer ecosystem. Through structured mentorship, critical exchange, and community engagement, the residency supports the development of photographic projects that explore photography as both record and reimagining.
Design Doha 2026
6 November 2026–31 January 2027
Building on the remarkable success of its inaugural edition in 2024, Design Doha 2026 marks a significant expansion in scale, ambition, and international reach. The biennial will present more than 20 exhibitions, headlined by Arab Design Now 2026, curated by Noura Al Sayeh and bringing together 81 designers, 78 new commissions, and 15 films, with a production scale rarely seen in regional design exhibitions. The participating designers represent 27 countries from across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia (MENASA) and their diasporas, working in more than 15 disciplines ranging from architecture, furniture, and product design to craft, urbanism, UX/UI, sound, and social design. Details for Design Doha 2026 including talks, installations, and events, will be announced in due course.
Artists Intensive Study Programme 1st Edition Exhibition
6 November 2026
Fire Station
Over the course of nine months, the Artists Intensive Study Programme (AISP) offers an intensive curriculum that includes practice-based workshops, seminars, group critiques, and lectures led by established artists, curators, and theorists. For the inaugural AISP, an international panel of experts selected 23 artists from Qatar and 14 other countries from 996 applications. The AISP will conclude with all 23 artists showing their work in an exhibition curated by Artistic Director Wael Shawky in November 2026.
Rubaiya Qatar
21 November 2026–30 April 2027
Rubaiya Qatar is a new nationwide contemporary art quadrennial established to support and inspire a new generation of artists, thinkers, and cultural practitioners. The inaugural edition’s headline exhibition, Unruly Waters, will be held across ALRIWAQ Art + Architecture and at the Museum of Islamic Art. Bringing together more than 50 artists and more than 20 new commissions, the exhibition explores water as a lens through which to examine how geography, ecology, history, and human activity have shaped Qatar’s place within interconnected networks spanning Asia and beyond. The quadrennial also includes the exhibitions Our Common Currents at Katara QM Gallery and Seething Sea at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art. The exhibitions will be accompanied by a dynamic programme of public art unveilings, performances, educational initiatives, artist residencies, and events, extending the quadrennial’s engagement with audiences across Qatar.
