An aerial view shows the iconic Museum of Islamic Art with the Doha old port and the Emiri Diwan in the background. Kammutty VP
DOHA: A total of 203,504 people visited the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) this year, taking the number of visitors since it opened in 2008 past the one million mark.
The I M Pei-designed museum’s extensive collection along with Mathaf’s was introduced to a wider audience around the world through Qatar Museums Authority’s (QMA) involvement on the Google Art Project, one of the many achievements of QMA for the year.
Through the project, people from around the world are now able to access high-resolution images of objects at the MIA and Mathaf in addition to a virtual view of the museums. With 151 partners in 40 countries, Google Art Project has a repository of clear images of more than 30,000 works of art from various museums.
This year, MIA added the 280,000-square metre Museum of Islamic Art Park to the list of must-see tourist destinations in the country. The park includes restaurants, a play area and a souvenir shop.
A number of exhibitions were hosted at the MIA including the 1001 Inventions — a travelling expo which has already reached over 50 million audience in various cities in different countries across the world including London, New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Istanbul, focusing on the golden era of Islamic civilisation and scientific innovation.
Another QMA achievement was the week-long Ferjaan; Qatar in Tokyo which served as a highlight of Qatar Japan 2012, celebrating the 40th anniversary of relations between the two countries. For five days over 22,000 people visited the exhibition while over 6,000 followed the event on Facebook.
The Qatar Japan 2012 website received the Best Web-Design Award (under the Governmental Organizations Category) while the QMA Facebook page bagged the Best Interactive Award from the Pan-Arab Web Awards Academy this year. The Peninsula
