Maritime heritage exhibition opens at Kuwaiti Museum

As part of the 21st Qurain Cultural Festival, a maritime heritage exhibition opened at Kuwait National Museum Saturday evening.
The exhibition showcases a collection of relics relating to marine life and professions owned by Nawaf Al-Asfour, Assistant Secretary General of the National Council for Culture, Art and Letters (NCCAL) Shehab Al-Shehab told reporters.
NCCAL, the organizer of Al-Qurain Festival, seeks to encourage owners of relics to show their personal collections at the National Museum, he said.
"The Museum, being visited by nearly 7,000 students a year, will host similar personal exhibitions, including a documentary one by Fahad Al-Azmi," Al-Shehab revealed.
"It is a state strategy to highlight the role of individuals in the conservation of archaeological objects under the recommendations of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)," he noted.
Al-Shehab added that Kuwait is a state party to the International Convention on Protection of Non-Material Cultural Heritage, adopted by the UNESCO General Conference in 2003.
On his part, Al-Asfour said the three-day exhibition shows old artifacts mainly handed down to him from his father and ancestors who were seamen.
"It exhibits maritime relicts I have bought in the recent years; these include tools of fishing, shipbuilding, diving and pearl diving, as well as seabed maps and documents on diving and pearl trading" he pointed out.
"The exhibits also include maquettes of old ships of various types and sizes which were used in pearling, travel and water shipping," Al-Asfour said, noting that he took part in similar overseas exhibitions such as in Qatar in 2011, Saudi Arabia in 2012, and in China last year.
The festival, being held between January 5 and 25, under auspices of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, has a 50-item agenda of literary, cultural and artistic events.