"Practices of Cultural Futures” is a conversation series that brings together cultural leaders, curators, specialists, and practitioners from across Qatar Museums and beyond to reflect on how institutions produce knowledge, shape public imagination, and participate in the making of cultural futures. Through talks, presentations, and discussions, the series open up the often-unseen processes through which culture is researched, exhibited, conserved, and made public.
Museums have long been defined by the objects they collect, but showcasing culture extends far beyond the material. Memory, ritual, storytelling, sound, and digital practices all shape how heritage is created and transmitted, often in ways that resist traditional collection and display. As museums engage with these living and evolving forms of culture, new questions emerge around preservation, interpretation, and continuity.
Bouthayna M. Baltaji is the Director of Museography and Heritage Museums Development at Qatar Museums, where she develops activation models that establish heritage sites as sustainable cultural, social, and economic ecosystems. Drawing on each site's history, environment, collections, and memory — and on research developed collaboratively across the QM Heritage Cluster — she builds site-specific narratives that live beyond the object: in living traditions, oral histories, and participatory public engagement. Her practice treats heritage as a living language, keeping it accessible and relevant to the needs of audiences and communities today. Bouthayna holds an MA in Museum and Gallery Practice from University College London and a double-major BA in Social Research and Public Policy and in Visual Arts from New York University Abu Dhabi.
Carmen Blanco is an art historian and paintings conservator and was trained at the University of Barcelona and the Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione ed il Restauro in Rome. With over 25 years of professional experience, she has worked with major Italian museums and collections, including the Vatican Museums, Museo Correr, and the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, as well as on international conservation projects in Central America in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since relocating to Doha in 2019, Carmen has been working on the preservation and conservation of the Lusail Museum collections, initially as paintings conservator and, as of 2024, the Head of the Conservation Section.
Hadeer Omar is an Egyptian media artist, designer, and performer whose interdisciplinary practice bridges art, technology, and storytelling. She is currently an Associate Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, where she teaches time-based media and XR storytelling. Her work investigates themes of cultural identity, memory, and womanhood in the MENA region, using immersive XR, photography, performance, and video installations. Omar’s creative projects have been showcased across international platforms, including the Doha Film Institute, Katara Studios, Shubbak Festival, Noor Riyadh, WePresent and Ars Electronica. She has collaborated with diverse artists and institutions to amplify dialogue around self-exploration and cultural heritage.
Nicoletta Fazio is a Curator of Iran and Central Asia at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha. A medievalist by training, she received her PhD from the University of Heidelberg. Prior to joining MIA, she was Junior Curator at the Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin, and Research Associate at the Freie Universität, also Berlin. Her fields of interest include comparative manuscript studies, textile history, and radical museology.