Sharjah’s Barjeel Art Foundation Is Building its First Museum
Sharjah’s Barjeel Art Foundation, which manages the modern and Arab art collection assembled by Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, has broken ground on its first dedicated museum, scheduled to open in January 2028. Al Qassemi announced the project on Instagram, describing a 38,750-square-foot site on Sheik Mohammed Bin Zayed Road and naming Abdelmoneam Essa of Architecture Corner Consultants as the architect, with a design informed by Al Qassemi’s sketches and photographs of Al Rigga architecture. The foundation has expanded its international and regional collaborations, including making holdings available online and organizing loans and publications. In March (during Women’s History Month), it launched a virtual gallery of abstract art by women from the SWANA region with Google Arts & Culture, and later loaned roughly 40 works to “Resonant Histories” at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya to connect Indian and Arab modernism. Barjeel curator Rémi Homs said the foundation prioritizes academic relevance and building a lasting heritage collection for the region.
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This story was covered in Biennales in Flux, Institutions Under Pressure