Inside The Middle East

SHOW #71

Qatar

ART TREASURES REVEALED

Ancient art finds a modern home in Doha at the Museum of Islamic Art as it celebrates its first anniversary. The galleries host an “unparalleled” collection of artifacts covering the scope of Islamic Art from jewelry to textiles to ceramics to metal work - spanning from the 7th to the 19th centuries, from Spain to China. The design of the building – minimalist Arabesque cubism – was designed by award-winning architect I.M. Pei, famed for his Pyramid at Paris’ Louvre Museum. Schams Elwazer takes us inside Doha’s cultural landmark.

CAMPUS FORUM

In a region where 60 percent of the population is less than 30 years old, IME is going to the region’s universities to gauge the pulse of the region’s campuses and speak to tomorrow’s business & industry leaders. On this edition we visit the Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar and ask design students about their passions, concerns, identity issues, and what it means to be young in the Middle East today.

On campus we also catch up with an industry leader - architect and humanitarian entrepreneur Cameron Sinclair of Architecture for Humanity and hear his message of global action to young design students.

YOUR IME DIARY

We report from on the ground in Mecca, Saudi Arabia where millions of Muslims gathered for the annual Hajj pilgrimage followed by the celebrations of Eid Al-Adha.

Qatar launched the first annual World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), hoping to become the educational equivalent of the World Economic Forum, aiming to “create a new international multi-disciplinary platform to shape education models of the 21st century.”

In the UAE, the Abu Dhabi Art exhibit brought famous names to its galleries while the Dubai World Championship brought golf stars to its greens.