[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/irthi.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tThe United Arab Emirates landscape is expanding once again, with Sharjah set for the region\u2019s first contemporary crafts museum.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Irthi Museum will open in Sharjah\u2019s Creative Quarter sometime in 2029 and house a permanent collection of contemporary crafts from across the Gulf, the Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council announced. More specifically, the museum will preserve and document tradition skills\u2014weaving, woodworking, glassmaking, and more\u2014 while offering opportunities for research and the development of new craft practices.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe Irthi Museum stands as a living bridge between heritage techniques and contemporary expressions,\u201d Reem BinKaram, director-general of the Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council, told The National<\/em>,\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tHe added, \u201cIt is a celebration of craft not as a preserved relic, but as a vibrant, evolving legacy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe council was established in 2016 by Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi. By 2019, following Sharjah\u2019s designation as a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art, it was providing vocational training for Emirati craftswomen through its Bidwa Social Development Program. Novice and seasoned artisans alike practice local art forms, including safeefah (palm-frond weaving), faroukha (a hand-woven tassel), and talli embroidery, while collaborating with international designers such as Murano.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe Sharjah Creative Quarter, meanwhile, is under construction by Taller de Arquitectura \u2013 Mauricio Rocha in collaboration with Daniel Rossello, on a site near the American University of Sharjah. Like most Gulf creative projects, it is ambitious in scope and rapidly taking shape. Other institutions planned for the quarter include Qasimi Archives, Sharjah Fashion Lab, Sharjah Design Centre, and a Sharjah satellite of L\u2019\u00c9cole, School of Jewelry Arts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/sharjah-is-set-for-regions-first-contemporary-craft-museum-1234794760\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/irthi.jpg?w=1024″] The United Arab Emirates landscape is expanding once again, with Sharjah set for the region\u2019s first contemporary crafts museum. The Irthi Museum will open in Sharjah\u2019s Creative Quarter sometime in 2029 and house a permanent collection of contemporary crafts from across the Gulf, the Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council announced. More specifically, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2092135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2092135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2092135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2092135\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2092135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2092135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2092135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}