2026-08-08
Sharjah has launched the Irthi Museum, the first museum in the region dedicated to contemporary craft. Announced on 8 August 2026, the new institution sits in Sharjah Creative Quarter and caps a decade of work by the Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council, which has grown since 2015 into a network of more than 640 craftswomen across 13 countries. The museum will preserve authentic Emirati craft traditions, reinterpret them through contemporary design and run programmes in research, education and collection development. For Sharjah, it is another building block in a creative economy already recognised by the UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art title. For companies watching the UAE, it is a clear signal of where the emirate keeps investing: culture, tourism and the creative industries.
The region’s first museum of contemporary craft
Museums of heritage exist across the Gulf, but the Irthi Museum takes a different route: it is built around contemporary craft, the living practice of taking centuries-old Emirati techniques and turning them into modern design objects. According to the launch announcement, the museum will document how contemporary craft has evolved in the UAE and the wider region, develop a permanent collection, and act as a platform for research, education and design innovation rather than a static display of artefacts.
Reem Bin Karam, Director-General of the Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council, described the project as “a living bridge between heritage techniques and contemporary expressions, a promise to keep our rich craft practices intact and carry them forward into the future.” The framing matters: the institution is designed to keep producing craftspeople, collections and collaborations, not only to exhibit them.
Ten years of Irthi: from council to museum
The museum is the visible result of a programme that has been running since 2015, when the Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council was established under the patronage of Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi. The council set out to revive traditional Emirati crafts practised by women, among them talli braiding, safeefah palm-frond weaving and faroukha embroidery, and to bring them into contemporary design through training, commissions and international partnerships. Over the decade it has also invested in material research, from palm fibres to natural dyes, and placed Emirati craftswomen in collaborations with global design and luxury houses.
Key facts about the programme behind the museum:
- Established: 2015, under the patronage of Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi
- Network: more than 640 craftswomen across 13 countries
- Signature techniques: talli braiding, safeefah palm-frond weaving, faroukha embroidery
- Research lines: palm fibres, natural dyes and other traditional materials
- Museum mandate: preservation, research, education, design innovation and collection development
- Location: Sharjah Creative Quarter, the emirate’s dedicated creative district
Sharjah Creative Quarter and the UNESCO factor
The choice of address is strategic. Sharjah Creative Quarter is the emirate’s purpose-built creative district, designed to gather archives, education and production under one roof: reports on the district name the Qasimi Archives, the Sharjah Fashion Lab and the L’ECOLE School of Jewellery Arts, supported by Van Cleef & Arpels, among its residents, with the House of Wisdom library and the American University of Sharjah nearby. Placing the region’s first contemporary craft museum in this cluster turns a collection into an ecosystem: students, designers and artisans work next door to the institution that documents and exhibits their field.
It also reinforces a title Sharjah already holds. The emirate is a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art, and a permanent museum dedicated to exactly that discipline is the kind of infrastructure that turns a designation into a durable industry. Sharjah has spent decades positioning itself as the UAE’s cultural capital; the Irthi Museum extends that positioning into the design economy, where heritage becomes intellectual property, products and jobs.
Why cultural infrastructure matters for business
A craft museum may look distant from company registration, but cultural infrastructure is a real economic input. It draws tourism beyond beaches and malls, anchors creative-industry talent, and gives an emirate a recognisable brand that helps every business operating there. The UAE is currently building attractions across the spectrum, from mega-resorts such as the Wynn Al Marjan Island resort opening in 2027 to research and heritage institutions like the Irthi Museum. Each project widens the base of visitors, residents and specialists the country can attract, and each one creates demand that flows to private companies.
Sharjah’s angle is cost-effective depth: the emirate combines a strong cultural offer with some of the most affordable business licensing in the UAE through its free zones. For founders in design, media, education or tourism, that combination of a growing creative cluster and low entry costs is worth a serious look. Practical openings around a project like this include:
- Tourism and hospitality: cultural visitors extend stays, feeding hotels, food and beverage venues and tour operators in Sharjah and neighbouring Dubai
- Creative-industry licences: design studios, craft and fashion brands, galleries and content producers gain a natural home market and venue for collaborations
- Trade in artisan products: contemporary craft needs materials, production partners, retail and export channels
- Education and events: workshops, courses and cultural programming around the museum and the wider Creative Quarter
- Professional services: every institution and brand in the cluster needs accounting, marketing, logistics and staffing support
Acting on any of these starts with the standard toolkit: register a company with licence activities matching your plans, open a corporate bank account to invoice and get paid locally, and arrange work visas and residency for founders and staff.
How Atlant Capital can help
Atlant Capital registers and supports companies across the UAE, including Sharjah’s free zones and mainland. If the growth of the emirate’s creative economy makes a design studio, a trading company for craft and design products, a tourism venture or an education business viable for you, we help choose the right jurisdiction and licence activities, complete the registration end to end, open corporate bank accounts with UAE banks and process visas and Emirates ID for owners and employees. We work with clients from Russia, the CIS and beyond, and we structure each setup around the real economics of the business, not just the licence paper.
The bottom line
With the Irthi Museum, announced on 8 August 2026, Sharjah has given the region its first museum of contemporary craft and given a ten-year revival programme a permanent home in Sharjah Creative Quarter. Behind the institution stand more than 640 craftswomen in 13 countries, three signature Emirati techniques and a UNESCO creative-city title that now has physical infrastructure to match. For business, the message is simple: the UAE’s cultural build-out is accelerating, Sharjah is claiming the creative economy, and companies that position early, with the right licence in the right emirate, will be closest to the demand it generates.
