The Qatar Museum Authority (QMA) has announced that the Museum of Islamic Arts in Doha, Qatar, is to open 22 November 2008. Architects I.M Pei, creator of the Pyramide du Louvre in Paris, designed the 3,800 sq ft, 164 ft high, island-based museum which is being built by engineers LERA.

The museum will house works dating from the 18th century and is composed of a five-storey main building for gallery space with a two-storey education wing, connected by a central courtyard. Jean-Michel Wilmotte & Associes designed the gallery’s interior.

In addition to the gallery, the museum features a 200-seat auditorium, a library, a conservation laboratory and presentation areas.

There will be five bridges; two vehicle and one pedestrian that will provide the only access to the museum from the shore and three pedestrian bridges inside the facility.

The QMA has entered into a five-year partnership with the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Louvre in Paris, the Royal Collection in Morocco, Egypt’s Museum of Islamic Arts and the Cartier Collection in France, to provide a programme of exhibitions from their collections.

The opening exhibition titled Beyond Boundaries, Islamic Art Across Cultures will display a collection from 25 countries such as the United States, Italy, Syria, Iran, India and Japan -– each providing one artifact that reflects cultural diversity.