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Hazar Imam waves to the many Ismailis who had gathered at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto for a glimpse of the Imam

The conceptual work by the Ghanian-Canadian artist Ekow Nimako addresses the cultural impact of Kumbi Saleh, the centre of the trans-Saharan trade route

The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto has acquired a colossal sculpture made from 100,000 pieces of Lego by the Ghanian-Canadian artist Ekow Nimako, who is known for his Afrofuturist reimaginings of Black histories built from Lego bricks.

According to the auction house, visionaries, and ahead of their time, Prince Sadruddin and Princess Catherine Aga Khan have been the discreet patrons of many major philanthropic projects, aimed at preserving cultural and natural sites, from Egyptian temples to the Alps.

The remarkable private collection of Sadruddin Aga Khan and his wife, will head to auction on October 1, 2020, global auction house Christie’s announced. The couple are the son and daughter-in-law of Aga Khan III, president of the All-India Muslim League during India’s pre-Independence era.

While museums around the world are shuttered due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Apollo’s usual weekly pick of exhibition openings will be replaced by a selection of digital initiatives providing virtual access to art and culture.

The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto has pulled out all the stops with its online offering. There are so far eight 3D tours available as part of the #MuseumWithoutWalls programme, all created using Matterport 3D scanning technology (which means you can experience the tours in virtual reality, if you have a VR headset).

9 April 2020

Dear Staff and Volunteers,

A Note of Appreciation and Well Wishes

When we opened Don’t Ask Me Where I Am From one month ago, I did not realize how quickly
the measures for containing COVID-19 would come into place and how soon, thereafter, the
Museum would have to close to the public. I feel great sadness that we have had to close after
five and half years of continuous and I believe successful operations. My hope is that this crisis
will pass swiftly.

Our priority at this moment is to contain the virus, and keeping the Museum closed is part of this

What does it mean when you are asked - "where are you from?" This often innocuous question provides information to identify the historical background of a person but, more often than not, also pigeon-holes migrants based on biases and stereotypes.

African stories often left out of western textbooks, writes Henry Kim

The wealthiest person of all time may have been Mansa Musa, the 14th-century ruler of the West African Empire of Mali.

His riches were so famed that a European world map featured a portrait of him, adorned with a golden crown and holding a sceptre and golden ball.

According to accounts, when Mansa Musa made the Hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca he brought with him 8,000 courtiers, 12,000 slaves, and 100 camels, each carrying up to 300 pounds of gold.

The Aga Khan Museum, Toronto turns five-years of age on September 12, 2019

When Hollywood star Rita Hayworth was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1981 at the age of 62, her daughter Princess Yasmin Aga Khan took on the role of her conservator.

In addition to caring for her mother, Princess Yasmin, who is a half-sister of the Ismaili Muslim spiritual leader, the Aga Khan, also became an early spokesperson for those with Alzheimer’s, bringing public attention to a neurodegenerative disease that few openly discussed.

April highlights include jazz sextet, standup comedy, qawwali performance

This April, the Aga Khan Museum celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing with The Moon: A Voyage Through Time. The exhibition, which runs until Aug. 18, explores the moon’s influence on faith, science and the arts across the Muslim world and beyond.

This December, the Aga Khan Museum transforms the perception that museums are only places for dusty artifacts, when its exterior walls become a massive canvas for Light up the Dark: A 3-D Projection Spectacular.

This video show goes beyond the typical holiday light display by using a technology called projection mapping, which will turn the museum’s white granite walls into a 53 m x 13 m screen where art comes to life.

Prince Amyn at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto for the Donors' Appreciation evening being welcomed by Henry S. Kim, Director and CEO, Aga Khan Museum

LISBON (March 16, 2016): In a special ceremony, Prince Amyn Aga Khan presented a check for 200,000 euros to António Filipe Pimentel, the Director of the National Museum of Ancient Art (MNAA) in the presence of Portuguese Minister of Culture, João Soares, towards the crowd-funding campaign “Let’s put Sequeira in the right place” to acquire masterpiece painting by Portuguese artist – Domingos António de Sequeira.

Prince Amyn seen with dignitaries at the Aga Khan Museum Friday September 21, 2018

Kampala — The Speaker of Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, has praised the Aga Khan for preserving works of history and art at a time culture and heritage are being destroyed in other parts of the world.
Speaker Kadaga made the comments during a tour of the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Canada.

Uganda's High Commissioner there, Ms Joy Ruth Acheng, accompanied the Speaker and other high-level Ugandan officials on a tour of the museum, which is an initiative of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

Visitors will gradually transform the exhibit's empty library to a collaborative donation

With its long shelf lined with white-covered books all housed inside a cavernous room, the newest offering at the Aga Khan Museum looks a bit like an empty, sterile library. But the creative force behind the project hopes visitors will fill it with the knowledge contained in thousands of new textbooks.

Toronto, Canada, 11 July 2018 - To mark His Highness the Aga Khan’s Diamond Jubilee Celebrations taking place in Lisbon, the Aga Khan Museum has loaned a special exhibition of 17 artifacts to Portugal’s Assembly of the Republic. The exhibition is titled Ideals of Leadership: Masterpieces from the Aga Khan Museum Collections and includes captivating folios and colourful ceramics as well as exquisitely decorated wood and steel artifacts from Mughal, Ottoman, Persian, and Chinese empires dating from the 10th to the 19th centuries.

The Fatimids created the first alternative Muslim empire to fully challenge the orthodox Sunni Caliphate and ran a highly civilized, assiduously cultured and tolerant outfit.

y Melik Kaylan
March 19, 2018 4:30 p.m. ET

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Toronto

The first of its kind exhibition has been opened at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Canada.

The exhibition is about the Fatimids, an Ismaili Shia Islamic caliphate descended from Prophet Muhammad’s daughter Fatima.

The display, which runs until July 2, consists of luminous ceramics, intricate carvings shaped from rock crystals, and artefacts decorated with Kufic calligraphy and embellished with vines and leaves.

It is intended to showcase the life, times and the cultural expressions of the Fatimids.