Qatar Museums Online Collection Grows 60%, Adds New Digital Features

Qatar: Qatar Museums (QM) has expanded its Online Collection platform by 60% since its launch in April 2025, increasing the number of objects featured from approximately 1,000 to more than 1,600. The platform has also introduced a range of new digital features, including artist-created animations, games and quizzes, personalized collections, an interactive timeline and AI-powered recommendations. According to Qatar News Agency, the Online Collection is available in both English and Arabic, providing audiences in Qatar and around the world digital access to artworks and cultural objects from the National Museum of Qatar, Museum of Islamic Art, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum, among other Qatar Museums collections. New objects are consistently added to the platform. The latest enhancements were developed as part of a project sponsored by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT), with Qatar-based digital experience company Applab serving as the d evelopment partner. The platform now allows visitors to create personal accounts, save favorite objects, and organize them into custom collections, simplifying the process of revisiting items of interest. An interactive timeline enables users to explore objects chronologically, spanning periods from 300,000 BCE to the present, while filters allow browsing by museum, material, and other collection details. Each object page provides details including its title, place of production, date, period, material, technique, dimensions, and holding museum. Users can compare objects side by side and explore related information through clickable metadata. The platform's new recommendation tools suggest objects based on shared characteristics such as material, category, and period, while AI-powered visual matching identifies visually similar objects across the collection. Games and quizzes offer an interactive way for audiences to learn more about the objects and their stories. Additionally, the platform features artist -created animated videos by Andrey Zakirzyanov, presenting new visual interpretations of selected works. Zakirzyanov is known for hand-crafted animations that bring iconic paintings to life through motion, with his reinterpretations of works by Vincent van Gogh and Pierre-Auguste Renoir attracting millions of views on social media. The platform includes categories such as paintings, printed and written materials, numismatics, accessories and jewelry, archaeology, textiles and clothing, and machinery and equipment.