Sharjah's Barjeel Art Foundation Is Building Its First Museum

A new museum devoted to modern and Arab art is taking shape in Sharjah. The Barjeel Art Foundation, which stewards the collection assembled by Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, has broken ground on its first dedicated museum, with opening planned for January 2028.

Al Qassemi announced the milestone alongside a photograph from a recent visit to the 38,750-square-foot site on Sheik Mohammed Bin Zayed Road. He also said the project has been assigned to Abdelmoneam Essa of Architecture Corner Consultants, whose design will draw on sketches and photographs Al Qassemi made of architecture in the Al Rigga neighborhood.

The museum marks a significant step for an institution that has increasingly positioned itself as more than a private holding. In recent years, Barjeel has expanded its collaborations beyond the Emirates, lending works to regional institutions and making its holdings more visible through online access, publishing, and curatorial projects. Its stated mission is to deepen Arab art history while supporting contemporary artists, a balance that has shaped both its acquisitions and its public-facing programs.

That approach was evident in March, when the foundation launched a virtual gallery of abstract art by women from the SWANA region in partnership with Google Arts & Culture. Later in the year, it loaned roughly 40 works to“Resonant Histories” at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya in Mumbai, an exhibition that sought to build an art-historical dialogue between Indian and Arab modernism.

Barjeel curator Rémi Homs has described the collection as one guided by academic relevance and by the idea of a lasting regional heritage. The new museum suggests that this ambition is moving from digital access and institutional lending into a permanent physical home - one that could give Sharjah a new anchor for the study and display of Arab modern art.

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