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Bring the calming energy of mindfulness meditation to other parts of your life with the first Museum/YMCA Mindfulness and Education Session of 2022. The same experiences that have become possible through mindfulness meditation can be extended to and observed in relationships. We start with acknowledging a spectrum of relationship challenges that address our own insecurities and aspirations. By applying mindfulness principles and ...

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Humans have sought protection from pain, harm, and negative forces since time immemorial. In Muslim lands, invocations to God and verses from the Qur'an are believed to be especially protective, and so appear on various objects over the centuries. In this fascinating video by University of Michigan art historian Dr. Christiane Gruber, discover two such amulets held in the Aga Khan Museum ...

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Dr. Michael Chagnon's latest Curator's Pick for the #MuseumWithoutWalls puts the viewer "at the very edge of a psychological and artistic drama." The 16th-century single-sheet painting he highlights is a daring and unorthodox depiction of Shirin, the tragic heroine of poet Nizami's love story Khusraw and Shirin. With Dr. Chagnon as your guide, discover what makes this take on the lovers' first encounter ...

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Sit back, relax, and smile as Museum Favourite Maryem Hassan Tollar serenades you with two upbeat folk songs from Egypt. Accompanying herself on the riq, a kind of tambourine, the JUNO-nominated singer-songwriter pays tribute to her country of birth with lilting ballads that call to mind passionate love and Egypt's stunning geography. This performance was delivered in February 2021 as part of the ...

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Listen to this raga performed by Azalea Ray, a Toronto-based artist. What do you feel when you listen to this piece? Does it evoke a sense of swinging? The Museum commissioned Ray to create a new raga inspired by a painting in our collection. The painting, from a Ragamala series, evokes what a person would feel when hearing the Hindola Raga, ​a musical ...

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Aga Khan Museum Assistant Curator Bita Pourvash takes you behind the scenes, giving you an insider's view into the preservation, documentation, and presentation of objects in the Museum's Collection. You will also get a sneak peek into our next Museum Collection rotation, this one featuring artifacts that inspire you to listen while you look. This session, part of the YMCA-Aga Khan Museum ...

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Why is a 11th-century gold filigree bead from Egypt or Syria one of volunteer Educator Shirin Jetha's favourite artifacts in the Museum's Collection? The intricately detailed pendant is dazzlingly beautiful to look at, of course. But to Shirin, it also echoes a message of tolerance, peace, and hope passed down from her beloved grandmother. To learn more about this object in the ...

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Anissa Helou is an award-winning cookbook author, whose books include Lebanese Cuisine, Mediterranean Street Food and Feast: Food of the Islamic World. She talks about why she actively avoided cooking for much of her life, her dramatic and unlikely path to her current profession, and why she undertook the massive project of trying to capture the food of Muslim societies all around the ...

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Kevork Mourad is an Armenian-Syrian artist who collaborates with musicians, creating visual art in front of live audiences. He has worked with some of the most celebrated performers in classical music including Yo-Yo Ma, violist Kim Kashkashian and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. He talks about growing up as an Armenian in Syria, developing his unique practice, the thrill of creating art ...

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Ginella Massa is the host of Canada Tonight on CBC, making her the first national news anchor who wears a hijab in Canada. She talks about her upbringing in a Catholic Afro-Latina family, growing up as an immigrant in Toronto and how she ended up in TV news. Learn more about This Being Human: ...

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Tanya Muneera Williams is a poet and member of the hip-hop duo Poetic Pilgrimage. She talks about her childhood in Bristol, England, the city's rich music scene, and the spiritual journey she took from her mother's church to her conversion to Islam. Learn more about This Being Human: ...

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Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi is a member of the ruling family of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, and the founder of the Barjeel Art Foundation. He talks about the personal toll of tweeting through the Arab Spring, the power of art as an agent of diplomacy, and why he opens up his home to strangers for his regular cultural 'majlis' or ...

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Shahzia Sikander is a visual artist who revolutionized miniature painting, and is now widely credited for creating the neo-miniaturist movement. She looks back on her life and her thirty-year career in the arts. A retrospective of Shahzia Sikander's work, called Extraordinary Realities, is currently on display at The Morgan Library and Museum. Learn more about This Being Human: ...

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Shireen Ahmed is a sports journalist and advocate. She's a go-to voice for TSN and The Guardian and co-hosts the podcast Burn It All Down. Shireen was an outspoken critic of FIFA's seven-year hijab ban. She talks about how that ban affected her personally, her childhood in a Pakistani household in Halifax, and breaking into the world of mainstream sports broadcasting. Learn more ...

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In spring of 2020, when America was first grappling with COVID-19, Dr. Craig Considine wrote an article for NewsWeek about what the Prophet Muhammad had to say about living through a pandemic. He found a lot that still resonates today. He talks about those lessons and others, what the current state of the world could mean for interfaith dialogue and how, as ...

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Dr. Ayesha Khanna is a global leader in artificial intelligence and an advocate for good governance in the tech sector. As the co-founder and CEO of ADDO AI, she has helped develop projects like smart cities and financial innovations. She talks about why she believes the world should look east for models of tech governance, the ethical struggles involved in AI and ...

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Asad Ali Jafri spent his early childhood in Kuwait, but found himself in the suburbs of Chicago after the outbreak of war. Hip hop became his entry point to American culture, quickly taking over his life and leading him down a path to the arts and community organizing. He started DJing under the name Man-O-Wax, staged major festivals, and became a visionary ...

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The latest meditation in the Aga Khan Museum/YMCA Mindfulness and Education series is about calming down and focusing in. Based on current science on the sleeplessness epidemic and other indications of information overload (in the general population), the discussion focuses on subjective experiences of excess arousal (wired) and insufficient restoration (tired). Mindfulness meditation provides a means of "resting the mind" while "letting go" ...

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Why was a gold Qur'an case in the Aga Khan Museum's Collection made to be so small? The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Courtney Stewart investigates in our latest Peer Perspective video for the #MuseumWithoutWalls. A senior research assistant with The Met's Department of Islamic Art, Stewart pores over the intricate detailing on this 4.7 cm-by-3.9 cm wonder from 11th-century Egypt. As you'll ...

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How does the natural world inform your ideas of home and belonging? Photographer Gohar Dashti offers her unique perspective on the question in a new instalment of the Museum's REIMAGINE: Global Conversation series. In her wide-ranging discussion with Aga Khan Museum Special Projects Curator Marianne Fenton, the Iranian-born artist explores the inspiration behind the Museum exhibition Land/s, which features a selection of Dashti's ...

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The Aga Khan Museum proudly presents the 2021 Lapis Digital Benefit: Journey Beyond. Enjoy eye-opening stories based on masterpieces in the Museum's Collection, to stellar performances and intimate talks by eight artists from North America, East and South Asia, the Middle East and the Iberian Peninsula. If you enjoy the broadcast, please consider a donation in support of the Museum. Scan the ...

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A new display at the Aga Khan Museum investigates how people develop social bonds, emotional resilience, and well-being through play. In this talk, Special Projects Curator Marianne Fenton will introduce the ideas around the creation of State of Play, explore the universality of its theme, and reveal how play crosses cultures while informing our place in society. This session, part of the YMCA-Aga ...

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The Aga Khan Museum proudly presents the 2021 Lapis Digital Benefit: Journey Beyond, a spectacular event that celebrates the arts and connects communities across the world. Join us on an exciting journey of art beyond borders, from eye-opening stories based on masterpieces in the Museum collections, to stellar performances and intimate talks by eight artists from North America, East and South Asia, the ...

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What can a rarely displayed 18th-century manuscript of the Shahnameh tell us about the region of Kashmir's connections to other stopping points on the Silk Roads? The Museum's Dr. Marika Sardar investigates clues threaded directly into the book's binding in her latest Curator's Pick video for the #MuseumWithoutWalls. Bringing online Museum experiences to you is part of our mission to connect cultures and ...

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Explore the Aga Khan Museum on an online tour led by none other than the Toronto landmark's Director and CEO, Dr. Ulrike Al-Khamis. During your virtual visit, Dr. Al-Khamis will guide you through the Museum's airy Atrium, its cozy but elegant Bellerive Room, and the Collection Gallery, highlighting notable objects and architectural features along the way. This session, part of the YMCA-Aga ...

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The University of Michigan's Michelle Al-Ferzly investigates the multiple purposes of silver-inlaid bronze inkwell in the Museum's Collection. This 800-year-old Iranian marvel is engraved with a list of blessings and symbols representing the 12 signs of the zodiac -- suggesting that the inkwell was much more than just a useful instrument in a medieval scribe's toolkit. To learn more about this object ...

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With the introduction of some of India's next-generation musicians, the final episode in our three-part docu-series grapples with the question of how to carry on and preserve a centuries-old oral and musical tradition. We meet Lakha Khan's son, Dane, who not long ago was driving a truck and showed little interest in following in his father's footsteps. Now, Dane has joined forces ...

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The second meditation in the Aga Khan Museum/YMCA Mindfulness and Education series focuses on searching for inner truth through meditation. While most counselling and contemplation approaches assist individuals with more clearly understanding their own thoughts and emotions, mindfulness meditation applies a unique method that combines 'probing for inner truth' with physical relaxation (mindfulness-of-breath). This combination helps one "make peace" with the spontaneous unfolding of mental ...

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The latest meditation in the Aga Khan Museum/YMCA Mindfulness and Education series is about overcoming perfectionism. Based on the perspective that mindfulness meditation is inherently anti-perfectionist, emphasis is placed on the acknowledgment of error and related positive outcomes (of acknowledgment) in everyday life. Whereas perfectionism establishes unrealistic expectations for performance and associated tendencies to deny and cover up errors, mindfulness meditation assists ...

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A fearsome battle between two mounted warriors is the focus of MET curator emerita Dr. Sheila Canby's latest Peer Perspective video for the #MuseumWithoutWalls. From the Shahnameh (Book of Kings) of Shah Tahmasp, the 16th-century painting she features illustrates the first of 11 jousts between champions or "rooks" from Iran and their foes, the Turanians. On the Iranian side of the first ...

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Art lover, traveller, and Museum volunteer educator Kristina LaRocca's favourite object in our Collection is as practical as it is beautiful. It also speaks to one of the central goals of the Museum: highlighting marvellous interconnections between the world's major religious traditions. The object she selected for her The Public Curates video for the #MuseumWithoutWalls is an astrolabe from 14th-century Spain. Astrolabes ...

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The Aga Khan Museum's collaboration with the YMCA of Greater Toronto kicks off with a mindfulness meditation. The YMCA's Slobodan Stojanovic leads the session, which was hosted in the Aga Khan Park on July 28, 2021 and recorded on Zoom. Before the soothing meditation started, Aga Khan Museum Director and CEO Dr. Ulrike Al-Khamis and YMCA of Greater Toronto Vice-President/Central YMCA General Manager ...

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