Manuel Rabaté and Hissa Al Dhaheri Appointed Directors of Louvre Abu Dhabi

Manuel Rabaté and Hissa Al Dhaheri have been named director and deputy director of the Louvre Abu Dhabi, respectively, as announced by the Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority. Rabaté, former CEO of Agence France-Muséums—the entity created to support the intergovernmental project between Abu Dhabi and France—will lead the museum. Al Dhaheri, a UAE national, previously headed the Louvre Abu Dhabi project within TCA Abu Dhabi, the authority responsible for cultural heritage and tourism development. Both have worked on the project for over eight and six years, respectively. The museum, born from a 2007 intergovernmental agreement, is designed by Jean Nouvel as a "city-museum" of 55 buildings inspired by traditional Arabic architecture, using high-performance ultra-concrete. It will house a permanent collection and loans from French institutions across 23 galleries, aiming to be a cathedral of intercultural exchange. The opening is slated for late 2016.