Omar Kholeif joins Sharjah Art Foundation as Director of Collections and Senior Curator

Omar Kholeif, whose previous stints include being Director of Global Initiatives at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA), has recently joined Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF) as Director of Collections and Senior Curator. The announcement was made in June at the end of the Sharjah Biennial 14, where Kholeif was a co-curator. In this new role, he will oversee the foundation’s acquisition programme – there are over 1,000 works in its art collection to date – develop exhibitions and handle international partnerships. “It is increasingly one of the most important collections in the region,” Kholeif said in a statement. Working closely with Hoor Al Qasimi, President and Director of Sharjah Art Foundation, he will also help develop the Jurainah Art Space, a new community venue (slated to open in 2022) that is intended to be the site of SAF’s installations drawn from the collection, as well symposia and an archive of every Sharjah Biennial from 1993.