Mariam Ibrahim ALMULLA
(Qatar University, Doha, Qatar)

Keywords: archeaology, education, community-museums relationships

Abstract:
Many museum educational programs are made to communicate to the public on importance of ethnography, heritage and archaeology. The programs began in Europe to avoid dealing with fundamental issues that concern great significance of context and scientific results of ejection. Museums as evident can discuss context using materials from European culture projects as the culture spreads to the East. In Europe for example, the French revolution led to a new way of imagining cultures through reordering museums’ collection. Public museums were established as the tools to direct people to activities that make them valuable human resources. They targeted to position visitors as users of knowledge and the curators as knowing subject with special expertise. In the late twentieth century museums in Qatar rediscovered objects of historical significance, treated them differently from the past and displayed within exhibitions reflecting their cultural contexts. The objects acted as models, with the ambition that each of them illustrated their ‘original’ function in their ‘original’ environment. Furthermore, the national museum, with its emphasis on national identity, acts as a tool for empowering citizens ‘to take control over their course of self-educational development’. There have been real and mythical animals that appear in legends and fables. Islamic world of tales features timeless stories that only museums present exhibition of the variety of objects. These include manuscripts, ceramics and textile as well as jewelry to demonstrate the appeal of the characters and stories in culture. My focus on the educational role of the museums in Qatar during the 21st century, aims to provide analysis of the Museum of Islamic Art’s education department and its educational programs. We will see that how the current educational plans of the MIA aim to enhance Qatari self-confidence and promote a global reputation for Qatar through Qatar’s investment in culture and heritage.