Despite a minor fire last month, construction for Qatar’s upcoming National Museum remains on track, and an opening date is scheduled for 2016, Qatar Museums has confirmed. When completed, the museum, located across from the Corniche near the Museum of Islamic Art, is expected to look like a desert rose that appears to grow out of the ground. It will join Qatar’s growing collection of cultural facilities, including the MIA, which opened in 2008, and the Arab Museum of Modern Art (Mathaf), which saw a 2010 launch. Late last year, Sheikha Amna bint Abdulaziz bin Jassim Al-Thani was appointed as the museum’s director.

Read More: Qatar’s National Museum Eyeing 2016 Opening

The Qatar Museums Authority (QMA), the body that oversees the present and future museums in the tiny, energy-rich Gulf state of Qatar, is completing a transition into a “private entity for public good”, including new policies that will impact on finance, human resources and tendering. “It is a major change,” Ed Dolman, the chief executive of the authority, tells The Art Newspaper. “This is a commonly used structure in Qatar, where so many projects are funded by the government. It means that the QMA will generate its own revenues, for example through sponsorship, but will still have government support and will still be approved and audited.”

Read More: Qatar Museums Shake-up

The Qatar Museums Authority, led by HE Sheikha Al Mayassa Bint Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Abdellah Karroum as the new director of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art. Karroum, a curator, researcher and independent artistic director, will assume his new role at Mathaf in June 2013.

Read More: Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art Announces Dr Abdellah Karroum as Director

When they decided to build the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, the veteran Chinese-American architect IM Pei was summoned out of retirement to design it. The fact that the then 86-year-old Pei was best known for the landmark glass pyramid in the forecourt of the Louvre — still widely regarded as the world’s greatest museum — was by no means accidental. The Museum of Islamic Art was designed to make an impact: to put the Qatari capital on the map as a cultural centre and to broaden global perceptions of Islamic culture. Just five years after its opening, this groundbreaking institution is already acclaimed as one of the world’s great museums.

Read More: Museum of Islamic Art, Doha