Irthi Museum: the region’s first contemporary craft museum is coming to Sharjah

Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council has announced Irthi Museum, billed as the region’s first museum dedicated to contemporary craft. It will sit inside Sharjah Creative Quarter, the arts district the emirate unveiled in January 2025.

The announcement closes out a decade of revival work. Irthi was founded in 2015 under the patronage of Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, and has since built a network of more than 640 craftswomen across 13 countries. Its remit covers talli, safeefah and faroukha — the braiding, weaving and embroidery traditions that predate the UAE — and its collaborations run from Bulgari and Cartier to Asprey and Design Miami. The same council ran an Al Sadu workshop with Apple at this year’s 1 Billion Followers Summit.

The museum is the permanent version of that project. Irthi says it will preserve the UAE’s craft heritage, reinterpret it through a contemporary lens, and keep the knowledge moving to the next generation of artisans. Traditional craftswomen get a platform to show their work internationally; the crafts themselves get a building.

Sharjah Creative Quarter, designed by Taller de Arquitectura with Daniel Rosselló, will host the museum alongside the Sheikha Jawaher Bint Mohammed Al Qasimi Collection, the Qasimi Archives, the Sharjah Fashion Lab and a L’ÉCOLE School of Jewellery Arts campus supported by Van Cleef & Arpels. The quarter sits near the House of Wisdom and the American University of Sharjah.

Sharjah is a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art, which makes the fit less surprising than the delay in getting here. Irthi’s research arm has been documenting craft knowledge in publications on palm fibres, natural dyes and perfumery since long before the museum had a name.

What Irthi has not said is when the doors open. The release carries no opening date; Sharjah24 reported in December that the museum was planned for 2029, while a 2024 UNESCO report pointed to 2026. Both are unconfirmed, so treat either as a guess.

For a council that has spent ten years arguing that craft belongs in the same conversation as fine art, a museum is where that argument stops needing to be made. Al Ain Museum reopened last year after an expansion; Irthi’s arrival gives the country’s craft traditions a home of their own.