There has never been any doubt that Dubai aims high and believes in doing what is difficult. That’s exactly the kind of forward thinking that will be harnessed in building the Museum of the Future on Shaikh Zayed Road. According to plans announced on Wednesday by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the Museum of the Future will open in 2017.
But this futuristic project will be more than just a stunning architectural landmark at Emirates Towers. It is aimed at uniting and unleashing Arab talent onto the world. Yes, it will house exhibits and projects that look forward rather than back, as most conventional museums do. But this is no conventional museum. It looks forward and wonders what can be, not what was; at what is possible, not what we achieved; and what might be, rather than what brought us this far.
The Museum of the Future will be an incubator for innovation — harnessing the minds and talents of a nation and a region, thinking and wondering: what if.
But this is not a plan full of empty promises — it is a challenge for all. In the words of Shaikh Mohammad, “The future belongs to those who can imagine it, design it and execute it”. Certainly, the story of the UAE thus far has been of a unified land where all live in social harmony, building a nation together. And it’s that forward-looking thinking that this institution will harness. Indeed, if there is a challenge, it will be to ensure that the universities and colleges fully participate in the project, offering their brightest and best minds to work actively on projects and technologies that will ensure the UAE continues its remarkable march of progress.
This project is the latest that underlines the UAE’s commitment to innovation. Indeed, whether it is government, its ministries, its officials, innovation has been the keyword, building a nation where all are served by a smart administration that evolves and looks at what can, rather what can’t, be done. That’s what creating the future means.