Celebrating Muslim culture
It was a night of celebration as Prince Amyn Aga Khan and Henry Kim, director and CE O of the Aga Khan Museum hosted the first anniversary of the opening of the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto.
The Aga Khan Museum is a museum of Islamic art, Iranian art and Muslim culture in Toronto. The museum is an initiative of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKND). Guests enjoyed an evening of gourmet dinner served by Mark McEwan and a special performance by the Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma.
“The Aga Khan Museum is not a conventional museum. It is ‘extra-ordinary’ in the true sense of the word,” said Prince Amyn Aga Khan. “This museum hopes to show how intimately the performing arts are connected to the visual and material arts of Muslim civilizations, how poetry and the word, music and sound, smell and taste relate to pictures and drawings, sculpture and architecture since the arts are the children of our senses and, like the senses they are, and should be, inter-related …
“Visiting this museum must engage all the senses of our visitors. That forms part of the breadth of this museum’s educational role and the great diversity that characterizes many of the arts that it presents.”
Bright lights lending support included Naguib Kheraj, senior adviser to AKDN and board member at Standard Chartered Bank; Shabin Mohamed, trustee of the board for the Art Gallery of Ontario and AKM board member; Amin Lalji, CEO of Larco Group and AKM board member; Huguette Labelle, former president of CIDA and former chancellor of the University of Ottawa; Sultana Mangalji, arts philanthropist and community activist; and Malik Talib, CE O of Talmont Group and president of the Ismaili Council for Canada.
With the help of the National Alliance of Trade Associations, the lead sponsor and live auction sponsor, more than $500,000 was raised to support youth outreach initiatives at the museum.