Playing host to the March Meeting conference, an art book fair, year-round exhibitions, an annual photography showcase, a new performance festival and artist and curator residencies, Al-Qasimi’s Sharjah Art Foundation is far from just about the Sharjah Biennial, though that event remains its crowning glory. The COVID-postponed 15th edition, which finally opened in February, was originally supposed to be curated by Okwui Enwezor, who fell ill and died during the process. With his blessing, Al-Qasimi developed his initial ideas under the title Thinking Historically in the Present, bringing together 170 artists, among them Doris Salcedo, Ibrahim Mahama, Cao Fei, Coco Fusco and John Akomfrah, and more than 300 artworks, to exhibit in historic venues across the emirate. It’s an experience that she will take to the Aichi Triennale in 2025, the first non-Japanese appointed as artistic director, and a legacy that Natasha Ginwala, Amal Khalaf, Zeynep Öz, Alia Swastika and Megan Tamati-Quennell will build on as curators of Sharjah Biennial 16.