The collected works: Sharjah’s vision of the modern museum

The director general of Sharjah's Museum Department recently outlined her vision of what the modern museum is and what it can be.

A bronze statuette of a man holding a bird, from the ancient site of Mleiah in Sharjah and on show at the Archaeology Museum. Pawan Singh / The National
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Do museums still matter in an age where we have the world’s information at our fingertips? What is their role in the modern age?

“We need to allow people the chance and the environment in which to share the human experience and to share the common wealth that we all share together as humankind,” said Manal Ataya, the director general of Sharjah Museums Department.

“It’s not always about museums and collections but about how museums can actually be this living organism that lives in your community that actually does listen to what the community needs and can be that space you can explore and be, basically, informal.”

Ataya was speaking at the third and final talk of the Sky Over the East exhibition, which presents a selection from the collection of the Barjeel Art Foundation.

Monday's talk, Museum Collections Make World Connections, was moderated by The National's senior Arts&Life editor Saeed Saeed and hosted in association with the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation and New York University Abu Dhabi.

As director general, Ataya is responsible for 16 Sharjah museums that include contemporary art, ­Islamic culture, and maritime and natural history.

On Monday, she addressed the importance of responding to a community’s needs, present and future, by creating accessible spaces and displays that grow with the audience.

“There’s something that people might not necessarily think they need right now or let’s say are not ready to handle but in a few years they will be, so you have to give a little space for that,” said Ataya.

“It might be a little bit touchy, might upset a few people maybe, but you have to give space to allow for that because some people won’t [like it], some people will and in two years they’ll be asking for change.

“This idea of not caring or being indifferent is something that we absolutely don’t want,” said Ataya. “It’s the worst thing you can have … It’s not about provoking but it’s about having some substance and different layers so that different people can access it at different points.”

Ataya fell in love with museums when she was 8 years old, at a dinosaur exhibition in London’s Natural History Museum.

She expected to become a curator after completing her MA in museum studies at Harvard. Instead, her career focused on management, finance, branding and technology, and human resources – subjects now given more weight in museum studies.

Ataya works closely with the Sharjah Ruler, Dr Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, who is actively involved in the direction of Sharjah’s museums. “He’ll talk to me and say: ‘This is what I imagine we should do …’ and he’ll say, in a very simple way and in a very meaningful way: ‘We need to have children learn this. We need more children in the sciences’, for ­example.”

Museums, like people, change from place to place. In the Emirates, museums are social venues. Visitors come in groups and like to talk.

“Our museums are quite noisy,” said Ataya. “People are always saying ‘What’s that’ or ‘ I think that’s horrible’ or ‘I love that’ or ‘What is that, mum’?”

Sharjah Art Foundation reaches its audience by hosting exhibitions in non-traditional spaces. The foundation is also creating an online database of collections that will be accessible to the public.

The recent Sharjah exhibition of Vatican-owned Islamic objects, So That You Might Know Each Other, was displayed abroad for the first time and met with a mixed ­reception.

“From ‘this is wonderful’, because the message His Highness [Dr Sheikh Sultan] had was one of peace and interfaith dialogue and some people thought this shouldn’t have been … that it was not appropriate to have material that was not necessarily brought to the Catholic Church by the right means,” said Ataya.

Others, unaware that it was a collection of Islamic materials, worried the exhibit emphasised Catholicism.

“Even if it was an exhibition of crucifixes and crosses, what’s wrong with that? We’re all people of the book so we should have respect for other religions and it should be interesting for you to see that. We’re not asking you to convert. We’re asking you to look and learn.

“We should take care of material culture regardless of whether it’s our own or somebody else’s. We should take care for humanity.”

Anna Zacharias is a senior features writer for The National.