Department of Culture and Tourism - Abu Dhabi Monocle
An enduring legacy of culture.
Zayed National Museum
5/6
The Cultural Tour Series
A rendering of the Zayed National Museum’s By Our Coasts gallery
A rendering of the Zayed National Museum’s interiors
Curator Fatema Al Hammadi; a rendering of the Zayed Natio
The museum’s director, Dr Peter Magee
GOLDEN AGE
All countries need a national museum to make sense of who they are. But there’s an argument to be made that younger nations, particularly those as culturally rich as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), need this most. A history museum has existed in Al Ain for more than 50 years but the Zayed National Museum – soon to open as the crown jewel of Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Cultural District – will tell the story of the UAE through its founding father, HH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, as well as archaeological discoveries across six galleries and two floors.
IN TO THE FUTURE
This ongoing national story won’t be told solely through audiovisual material. There will be plenty of physical objects too. Some, such as the 2,200-year-old Abiel coin, point to the country’s deep roots; others are more recent, such as a wooden foetal heart monitor used to check pregnancies in the 1960s and 1970s – evidence of the rapid development of medical care in the uae. Underpinning it all are Sheikh Zayed’s values of consensus, unity and progress. “It’s all about where the UAE has been and where it is going,” says Dr Peter Magee.
LASTING IMPRESSION
“Sheikh Zayed understood the importance of preserving the past,” says Zayed National Museum curator Fatema Al Hammadi. She has been interviewing uae residents to collect more than 100 oral histories about the legacy of the UAE’s first president, who ushered in a period of unprecedented political and economic change. Al Hammadi’s project is open-ended, with more testimonies added over time. “When the Zayed National Museum opens, this will continue through new research,” says the museum’s director, Dr Peter Magee.
