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Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar (VCUarts Qatar) has partnered with Doha Design Biennial (DDB) to create a collaborative platform that bridges disciplines, cultures, and communities through design.
“This partnership demonstrates the power of design as a connective language that expands how knowledge is shared and experienced,” said Amir Berbić, Dean of VCUarts Qatar. “By working across institutions and sectors, VCUarts Qatar continues to create meaningful opportunities for public dialogue and creative exchange that strengthen Doha’s evolving cultural landscape.”
Fahad Al Obaidly, Director of Design Doha, said, “Design Doha, Qatar’s premier contemporary design platform, is rooted in supporting the region’s creative community while opening new channels for exchange with designers and institutions internationally.
“Our collaboration with VCUarts Qatar connects the biennial with a generation of students, educators and practitioners whose ideas continue to contribute to Doha’s creative landscape. Through this collaboration, we are creating further connections between education, research and design practice, while giving regional voices a platform within an international conversation.”
Established by Qatar Museums, Design Doha brings together designers, institutions, and creative practitioners from Qatar, the region, and around the world. Its second edition opens November 5–7, 2026, with exhibitions continuing through January 31, 2027. The 2026 biennial will feature more than 15 exhibitions, public installations, and programming in one of Doha’s most significant heritage districts, Fereej Al Asmakh.
The biennial will feature an extensive programme of exhibitions showcasing the work of more than 100 multidisciplinary designers and studios from across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia region (MENASA) and its diasporas.
Design Doha brings designers into conversation with audiences, production networks and international design experts, creating new opportunities for collaboration and professional exchange. It also supports local and regional talent and strengthens connections between Doha and the global design community.
Design Doha 2026 is part of Evolution Nation, a campaign honoring Qatar’s cultural journey over the past 50 years, since the founding of the National Museum of Qatar. Curated by Qatar Creates, the national initiative positions Qatar as a global hub for art, culture, and creativity.
Coinciding with the opening of Design Doha 2026, Tasmeem Doha, VCUarts Qatar’s signature art and design biennial established in 2004, has curated a two-day speaker series hosted at the University’s campus in Education City. Each day will examine a different facet of knowledge transmission – intergenerational knowledge, embodied knowledge and reframing knowledge – in line with the Tasmeem Doha 2026 theme: knowledge is a trust.
At the same time, The Gallery at VCUarts Qatar will present Matter Diplopia at Fereej Al Asmakh from November 5 to January 31, 2027, as a part of DDB’s program. Following its debut at the 2025 London Design Biennale, the exhibition brings together innovative design research exploring how place, materiality, and culture shape, sustain, and inform one another. Faculty, students, and alumni collaborate in five experimental projects integrating traditional modes of making with emergent technologies to examine the interplay between local and global contexts, and between tangible and intangible cultural narratives.
Within VCUarts Qatar’s Institute for Creative Research (ICR), the TypeAraby research lab will also present Beyond the Letters, curated by Basma Hamdy, Professor of Graphic Design at VCUarts Qatar and Principal Investigator of TypeAraby, and Ali Asali, a multidisciplinary designer, visual artist and founder of StudioMetaphor. Featuring contributions from artists and designers across the region, including many VCUarts Qatar alumni, the exhibition explores Arabic and Persian typography beyond its visual form, examining its cultural, spiritual, and performative dimensions in alignment with the lab’s broader commitment to the creation, preservation, and evolution of Arabic typography and type design. It brings together audiovisual installations, live performances, projection mapping, publications, and works spanning textiles, prints, sculpture, jewelry, and wearable art. Beyond the Letters, which was developed through support by VCUarts Qatar (VCUarts Quest Grant, Faculty Research Grant, Research Lab Grant) and Qatar Foundation, will open from November 5, 2026, at MIHAD Gallery in Doha Design District and remain on view through December 31, 2026.
For more information about VCUarts Qatar’s initiatives in partnership with the Doha Design Biennale, visit https://qatar.vcu.edu/ and https://designdoha.org.qa/en/.