First phase of museum district opens in Kuwait

The Government of Kuwait’s desire to create a new cultural quarter in Kuwait City has been achieved this year with the opening of the Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre - described as the largest museum project in the world.

Situated on a 13-hectare site in the Al-Sha’ab district of Kuwait City, the complex has been developed in just five years and is part of the country’s strategy to create a new cultural quarter – a resource for schools and colleges and a major attraction for families from Kuwait, the Middle East and beyond.

When fully open, the Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre will house 23 galleries over 22,000  metre². Currently it incorporates a quartet of museums: the Arabic Islamic Science Museum; the Space Museum; the Natural History Museum; and the Science and Technology Museum along with a Theatre and Fine Arts Centre.

Officially opened in February but with its full range of attractions opening during the year, the four museums have been designed to work together and are connected by a shaded ‘street’.

Specific exhibitions and attractions will include a 4D ride through the body to fight germs, a replica walk-through experience of the International Space Station, a race against Usain Bolt to see how much energy you can burn and a virtual tour through Earth’s orbit on the Virgin Galactic.

The facilities will also include a 120-seat Planetarium; a huge indoor living greenhouse themed as a South east Asian rainforest complete with a one-million-litre aquarium; an immersive camera obscura room; and intricate models of mosques from around the world.

The SAASCC is itself part of an even wider development, the Kuwait National Cultural District – a cluster which also includes the Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Cultural Centre, containing the largest opera house in the Middle East, and the Al Shaheed Park Museums close to the city centre.

The museums of the Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre

Arabic Islamic Science Museum
Conceived as a celebration of “the science, learning and craftsmanship that flourished as the Islamic empire expanded between 9th and 14th centuries”, the museum will showcase some of the distinctive architectural and design styles that developed during this ‘golden age’– including models of the holy sites of Mecca, Medina and Al-Aqsa – as well as the contribution made to science by scholars, united by the Arabic language and supported by Islamic patronage.

It will provide an Islamic context to all the other museums, setting astronomy, transport, calligraphy, science, medicine and natural history in a cultural context for Kuwaiti visitors.

Visitors will enter the House of Wisdom, “a contemporary interpretation of one of the greatest libraries in history”, which was created to bring together scientists, scholars and translators.

Space Museum
The Space Museum “tells the story of human endeavour in pushing the boundaries of technology and human endurance to explore space and discover more about the universe.” Its interactive galleries will give visitors the chance to get involved with a range of activities and exhibits that bring them closer to life among the stars and planets, from the Big Bang to humankind’s place in the solar system.

Science and Technology Museum 
The Science and Technology Museum, Kuwait, aims to excite visitors with scientific phenomena and the possibilities of science and innovation. Visitors will experiment with natural phenomena in the Experiments gallery; operate and programme robots in Discover Robots; build and test vehicles in Transport or Design; and engineer their own inventions in the young people’s Maker Space. In the human body galleries, visitors will take a 4D ride through the body to fight germs, burn off energy with a race against Usain Bolt and contemplate the science issues of the moment with friends and family in Science News and Views.

Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum stands out from others of its type as it houses a range of living ecosystems which link together to showcase the wonders of the natural world. Visitors will be able to lose themselves in a huge living ecosystem of lush rainforests, mangroves and coral reefs, see different species of live insects and an underwater world in a million-litre tank aquarium. They will also be able to trace the story of Earth, from the Big Bang, through the age of the dinosaurs, to the present day.

For more information go to www.ascckw.com

Images: The Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre from the air (top) and as it sits on the waterfront of Kuwait City (middle). Lower image shows one the Centre's connecting 'streets'.

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