Museums are complex structures that serve multiple purposes. Mental stimulation, knowledge acquisition, cultural enrichment, visual enjoyment and, for many, stress and anxiety relief. Museums and art galleries are havens of calmness, but also, importantly, places of delight. I like to think of them as essential environments of wellbeing. The museum experience is historically associated with a respectful, reverential silence. From the moment we cross that threshold, we are tol

According to the Financial Times, Abu Dhabi is planning to spend $6bn on various cultural projects to diversify from oil. This is not a new strategy. After the emergence of Dubai as the playground of the Middle East in the early 1990s, the Abu Dhabi government set out to develop a vision that would transform the UAE into a world-class cultural powerhouse. Culture is thus a tool in a long-term political-economic strategy that aims to diversify revenues and address concerns aro

Defining what a museum is and does is no mean feat. We know museums do a lot more than just preserve and display valuable objects that the public can enjoy and learn from. Through their collections, museums trace the history of humanity and teach millions of people about who they are. As such, museums aren't just containers of heritage, they are creators of visual, social and cultural identity. I simplify, but it's all much more complicated than this. The roots of many museum

The numbers are in. According to The Art Newspaper's yearly survey, Ai Weiwei is officially the world's most popular artist. His travelling show Root attracted over 1.1 million visitors across four Brazilian cities. Scrolling down the Top 20 list I see some of the usual suspects: Van Gogh is there, of course, as is the crassly commercialised Treasures of Golden Pharaoh show. King Tut's belongings first went on an American tour in 1976 as the result of a political deal broker

They keep coming in. My inbox is inundated with emails from museums (and art galleries) announcing their temporary closure, which is of course the only sensible thing to do. Join us on social media, they say, we will show you our collections. Call me old hat, but I don't think that even the most innovative technology can deliver a remotely comparable experience. There is something uniquely magical, almost mystical, about stepping inside a museum. As it happens, I just realise

In this rather scary and depressing lockdown climate, I have noticed many museums were quick to ramp up their social media presence getting creative with technology to engage with their audiences. The Broad Museum in Los Angeles has announced they will livestream Yayoi Kusama's mesmeric installation on Instagram stories. Given everyone's well-nigh nonexistent chances of flying to LA to see this these days, I'd say it's definitely worth giving the Broad's account a follow and