Manal Ataya: Information is Power
Manal Ataya. Photograph by Siddharth Siva
Museums are treasure chests—of art, history, nature, science—to be experienced with the five senses, in person. The Covid-19 pandemic shut down experiences of all kinds worldwide. Museums, typically tightly budgeted operations despite their often-opulent settings, faced an existential crisis.
Manal Ataya had long been planning a way to consult with institutions around the world about the future of museums when the pandemic gave the topic real urgency. Sharjah Museums Authority (SMA) quickly organised The Evolving Museum: Adapting, Learning and Exhibiting in the New Era, an online symposium held in December to share the lessons learned during 2020 and the very different future that museums are now facing.
“For major changes to happen in life, there has to be something that rocks the foundations,” she says. “Museums, like a lot of other institutions, can get stuck in rigid paradigms and frameworks that they rely on. If this pandemic had not happened, museums would not have changed for many more years, perhaps decades. So, whilst this year has been really tough, there are also good things to have emerged, not least a change in outlook.”
In March 2020, Ataya had to close all 16 Sharjah museums. Digitising the collections became urgent. In a matter of weeks, the permanent collection at Sharjah Art Museum as well as the Aïda Muluneh photography exhibition Homebound were live in the digital sphere. Additionally, a curated exhibition of objects from the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization was uploaded onto Museum With No Frontiers, a virtual museum portal.
“We were in a good position to react quickly,” Ataya says. “Our team is flexible and, whilst it took a lot of work, we focused on the goal to make it happen.”
The next step was to keep audiences engaged. SMA began hosting mini online workshops demonstrating arts and crafts activities that could be done at home. A webinar series in English and Arabic presented a wide range of subjects, such as poetry, heritage, history and customs. “We noticed a huge surge in numbers compared to events that we had hosted before in real life,” Ataya says. “It was wonderful to see such a positive response and that people were hungry for content.”
During her 15 years at SMA, with just over 12 years as Director General, Ataya has worked to implement the vision of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohamed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, a vision for the emirate to stand out in the region for its dedication to knowledge, culture and the arts. His Highness entrusted Ataya with this mission when she was just 28, making her one of the youngest women to be appointed to a leadership position in Sharjah government. She recognised the stakes when Covid-19 hit and prioritised the safety of the 600 SMA staff as well as her audiences.
“[Covid-19] was something that nobody had ever imagined. Initially, it was frightening because the situation was so unknown and it was evolving so quickly. It was also psychologically unhealthy because suddenly we were all working from home, to maintain balance when your home is your office is almost impossible,” she says.
“Having said that, when you are in a state of emergency, it is amazing how your brain automatically reacts. I felt like my brain was already giving me solutions as things unfolded; it was then my priority to translate my thoughts into actions when it came to how best to lead the organisation and to keep the staff calm.”
Sharjah Fort (Al Hisn) was built with coral stones collected from the deep waters of the Arabian Gulf. Photo: Sharjah Art Museum.
Research and education personnel pivoted to online content. Many support staff underwent additional training from home. “We were fortunate to be able to offer all staff job security,” she says. “Ultimately, I wanted to ensure that we used this as an opportunity to press the reset button and think about how to bring about change and break down barriers by making access to art more democratic through digital platforms, trying to understand digital engagement and how best to apply it so we are not just communicating one way to our audiences.”
Museums in Sharjah and around the world play many roles, particularly as ambassadors of education, cultural dialogue and world civilisation. Within the UAE, Sharjah’s museums form an integral part of school curricula as well as college and university programmes. Students regularly visit the collections and participate in workshops specifically devised around their needs and interests. “We have become very focused on our communities and their diversity, creating and delivering all kinds of programmes for more inclusive experiences. At the same time, our museums are much needed and much appreciated sites for the affirmation and celebration of Arab-Islamic identity,” Ataya says. “As far as our international visitors are concerned, our museums offer ample opportunity to learn about local traditions, heritage, art and culture—in an environment that is welcoming and encourages learning.”
Since her appointment in 2008 to Director General, Ataya has opened six new museums: Sharjah Aquarium, Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization, Sharjah Heritage Museum, Sharjah Maritime Museum, Hisn Khor Fakkan, and Sharjah Fort (Al Hisn), which was a reimagining. Several others have gone through major refurbishment and reinterpretation projects. Through regular initiatives including school visits, mobile exhibitions, community festivals, social responsibility activities, and interactive workshops around exhibitions, SMA concentrates on reaching wider audiences. There are also initiatives that work with people with disabilities, cancer patients, the autism community, and inmates in correctional facilities.
“It has been important to me over the past 12 years to understand, evaluate and deliver initiatives that are consistent and provide for our audiences. I don’t believe in one-offs or great messaging that has no substance behind it,” she says.
Ataya has dedicated years to building partnerships with regional and global organisations to co-curate and organise international exhibitions. “It has been a personal goal to enhance the representation of Arab artists and use the museum as a platform to showcase their work and initiate alongside it educational programming and publication of their work, often for the first time in their careers.”
An example is the annual Lasting Impressions series, which gives first-time retrospective exhibitions to well-established yet often under-celebrated Arab contemporary artists. This year, the tenth anniversary edition will spotlight pioneering Algerian artist Baya Mahieddine. The series also collaborates on exhibitions with Islamic collections around the world.
Ataya has joined hands with local universities to enable students to work in real practice and to find solutions to real challenges. She has established the SAWA Academy, a training programme between Sharjah and Berlin for students of museum studies.
As for the future, SMA is looking at strategies to ensure operations continue smoothly and to ensure accessibility, including talking to architects and designers about how to make the museums touchless as well as how to safely bring students back into the museums to allow learning to continue offline. More of the annual budget is allocated to cyber security and digital programmes, to further enhance the online experience.
The digitisation drive has broadened Ataya’s platform. Over the years, she has spoken at more than 100 events locally and globally about the work of SMA, with the content reserved exclusively for attendees. In 2020, she participated in a dozen more, but as the events were virtual the content is available online for people to view and learn from. “For the first time in history, people all over the world are able to access the world of academia and the previously exclusive speeches made at conferences,” she says. “Before you would need to be invited, pay fees and then travel to these events. Now anyone can virtually attend and access recorded content over and over again. This means that information has been democratized, one of the positives of the pandemic. Information is power and it deserves to be shared.”
In October, Ataya was elected to the board of trustees for Hamilton College in New York, where she began her art studies. She is the youngest person on the board and the first international student to be elected. “This is one of my proudest achievements,” she says. “Hamilton gave me an understanding of the world and taught me to challenge myself and others, for me to return to the college in a different way to help and support is wonderful.”
Ataya remembers childhood museum visits as “a dream situation” for her endless curiosity. “I never get bored of learning and that is why museums will always be my priority. I truly believe that there are so many people whose lives would fundamentally change if they had access to somewhere that is informative, fun, free, and non-judgmental, and that is what a museum provides.”