Qatari artists reimagine Uzbekistan
Also this week: Falcons meet AI, John Legend live and tales from the sea
1. Leading the week: Ektashif Uzbekistan at the Museum of Islamic Art |
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Artists featured in the Ektashif Uzbekistan exhibition at the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha. (Photo courtesy of Museum of Islamic Art) |
Seven Qatari artists went to Uzbekistan and came back with an exhibition. Ektashif Uzbekistan, opening at the Museum of Islamic Art, is the result of an educational trip organized by MIA with Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sending the group through Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara to study the country’s Islamic heritage, traditional crafts and architecture firsthand. The lineup spans disciplines rather than sticking to one lane. Leena AlAali works heritage motifs into a contemporary visual language centered on women as symbols of memory and identity, while ceramic artist and mechanical engineer Hameed Al Qahtani treats his material as both function and cultural expression. Calligrapher Abdulla Fakhroo reworks Kufic script through architecture and geometry, and Noora, trained in mechanical and manufacturing engineering, folds AI-assisted design into work that puts heritage and technology in direct conversation. It is the latest edition of a program that has previously sent Qatari artists to India, Turkey, Spain and Morocco, each trip translating into a body of work shaped by what the artists encountered on the ground. This time, the destination shows up in the details such as the geometry borrowed from Islamic architecture and craft traditions reimagined rather than copied. Date: Sept. 3 to Nov. 28 Location: Fourth Floor West Side Gallery, Museum of Islamic Art More details here. |
2. Word on the street: S’hail returns to Katara |
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A man looks at a falcon displayed at the Katara International Hunting and Falcons Exhibition 2025 (S'hail) at Katara Cultural Village, Doha, Sept. 11, 2025. (KARIM JAAFAR/AFP via Getty Images) |
Falconry season in Qatar has a new soundtrack this year, and it involves AI. S'hail, the Katara International Hunting and Falcons Exhibition, returns to Katara Cultural Village for its 10th edition, and for the first time, it is opening up workshops in artificial intelligence and 3D modeling alongside one of the country’s oldest traditions. The addition is meant to give younger visitors new ways to engage in a heritage that runs deep in Qatari culture, without losing what the exhibition has always been about. Alongside the tech workshops, expect a dedicated falconry competition for children, seminars on environmental issues and conservation, and the usual mix of falcon auctions, hunting gear and outdoor equipment. More than 300 global brands are expected to take part, with newcomers from Kazakhstan, Australia and China joining regulars from Spain and Russia. Families are not an afterthought either: Workshops, food courts and other activities are built in alongside the trade side of the event. Date: Sept. 8-12 Location: Katara Cultural Village More details here. |
3. Doha diary |
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US singer, songwriter and pianist John Legend performs during the 60th Montreux Jazz Festival, in Montreux on July 9, 2026. (Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images) |
Doha is getting intimate treatment from a 13-time Grammy winner. Presented by Visit Qatar, John Legend takes the stage for a one-night show built around storytelling as much as music, with stripped-back versions of “All of Me,” “Ordinary People” and “Tonight,” alongside two decades of fan favorites. It is refined, soulful and over almost as soon as it starts. Date: Sept. 10 Location: QNCC - Conference Hall 3 & 4 More information here.
Conductor Elias Grandy leads the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra on a journey from Viennese Romanticism to the American frontier in a single evening. Pianist Joseph Moog, a Gramophone Young Artist of the Year and Grammy nominee, joins for Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 before the orchestra closes with Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, written during the composer’s years in America and still one of the most loved symphonies ever put to paper. Date: Sept. 6 Location: Qatar National Convention Centre, Auditorium 3 More information here.
Long before towers and highways, Qatar’s story ran through the sea. This panel discussion digs into the country’s maritime legacy, traditional Qatari shipbuilding and the seafaring traditions shared across the Gulf. It’s an hour well spent for anyone curious about what came before the skyline. Date: Aug. 26 Location: Mohammed Jassim Al Khulaifi Library More information here. |
4. Book of the week: ‘Sea of Pearls’ |
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| If you are planning to attend this week’s panel on Qatar and its maritime heritage, this is the book to read beforehand. Robert Carter, who taught at UCL Qatar and later worked with Qatar Museums, traces the entire history of Gulf pearling from antiquity to its collapse in the 1930s, showing how the industry built the region’s coastal cities long before oil ever did. It is thorough, richly illustrated and grounded in real archaeological and archival research, exactly the kind of background that turns an hour-long discussion into something you can follow and contribute to. |
5. View from Doha |
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Motorists drive past the Ottoman-inspired Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani Mosque, Pearl Island, Doha, Aug. 13, 2026. (KARIM JAAFAR / AFP via Getty Images) |
