Souraya Noujaim Appointed as New Director of Louvre Abu Dhabi Ahead of 10th Anniversary

Souraya Noujaim has been appointed as the new director of Louvre Abu Dhabi, returning to the museum where she previously spent five years managing its curatorial and collections work. The Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi announced her appointment as the institution prepares to celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2027. Noujaim succeeds Manuel Rabate, who led Louvre Abu Dhabi from 2016 through its opening year.

An art historian and curator specializing in Islamic art history and archaeology, Noujaim most recently served as the director of the Department of Islamic Arts at the Louvre Museum in Paris and chief of the French Grand Department of Islamic Art Heritage, overseeing a collection of 18,000 Islamic artworks. Her history with Louvre Abu Dhabi predates its opening on Saadiyat Island in November 2017, having helped shape its initial intellectual and curatorial vision. She previously served as the museum's first scientific, curatorial and collections management director from February 2018 until April 2023.

In her new role, Noujaim will direct the museum's collections, exhibitions, research, conservation, educational programs, and visitor experience, alongside its overarching institutional strategy. Expressing her connection to the institution, Noujaim stated that she looks forward to leading the museum into its next chapter, expanding its collection, and deepening community engagement. Her appointment was facilitated through the partnership framework between Abu Dhabi and France, according to the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi.

Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of DCT Abu Dhabi, praised Noujaim's long-standing involvement with the museum's development, expressing confidence that her leadership will further solidify the institution's regional and global status as it approaches its milestone anniversary.

Since opening in November 2017 under an intergovernmental agreement between the UAE and France, the Jean Nouvel-designed Louvre Abu Dhabi has welcomed more than eight million visitors, hosted 22 temporary exhibitions, and held multiple editions of Art Here and Children's Museum exhibitions. The museum's permanent collection has also evolved significantly; while roughly 30 percent of the displayed works were borrowed from French museums and regional lenders at launch, nearly two-thirds of the works currently shown across the four chronological sections now belong directly to Louvre Abu Dhabi. Noujaim will now guide the universal museum into its second decade of cultural exchange, research, and conservation.