The Imagined Museum: Framing Social, Educational and Spatial Roles of Kuwait’s National Museum

Abstract

The Kuwait National Museum (KNM) was one of the first national museums to be opened in the Gulf region in 1957 and re-opened in a new purpose-built building in 1983 as a symbol of modernity and Kuwaiti nationalism. The state planned and imagined the museum as a social, educational, historical and cultural destination. However, more than 60 years after its establishment, during which Kuwait was invaded by Iraq and the KNM was looted, the KNM’s core mission can be at best described as being unclear and vague. The role of a national museum is arguably to represent a country, reinforce national identity, serve as an educational reference for history and act as a social agent that cares about social changes, represents social issues and positively impacts society. Drawing on a detailed case study of KNM, this research explores ‘museum making’ (Macleod et al. 2012) in Kuwait by examining three key roles of a museum in a post-war country: social, educational and spatial (Casey 2003). I deploy Goffman’s framing theory (1986) in relation to museum studies to examine how the museum frames these roles in its communication and curatorial practices and how these impact on individuals’ understandings of the museum. My findings conclude that the museum’s development and practices are defined by ‘absence’: an absence of effective communication strategies, an absence of an engaging educational programme and an absence of a meaningful symbolic design. Applying framing theory revealed that while the three roles are embedded in KNM’s mission and it has the potentials to achieve them, the existent communication and curatorial practices are not effective because of misunderstandings of the social and educational needs of the country and a lack of expertise. The identified ‘absences’ have negatively affected the KNM’s presence as a national narrator and as imagined symbol in the growing cultural scene in contemporary Kuwaiti society. The thesis concludes with suggestions to revive the museum’s presence in Kuwait as a place that actively participates in representing and shaping society.