Hear the ballads of long-ago kings and queens and the weddings songs of everyday people as ethnomusicologist and singer Dr. Judith Cohen delves into the music of Moroccan Jews. Although Morocco has been home to Jewish communities for some 2,000 years, around the time of the 1492 Alhambra Decree, which banished Jews from Spain, Jews began arriving in Morocco from the Iberian ...
Majd Sekkar is a Syrian clarinetist based in Toronto, Canada. In addition to being an active member of the Canadian Arabic Orchestra, he is currently in the Music program at Humber College. In addition to holding a certificat of commercial jazz (from Humber), he is a prolific musician in the Toronto global music community, performing in various ensembles including Moskitto Bar and ...
Paromita Kar holds a PhD in Dance Studies from York University (2014), and is the first to complete a doctoral degree in dance in Canada. She is a professional classical Indian Odissi dancer, as a student of Guru Durgacharan Ranbir of Odisha, India. Paromita also professionally performs dances of Central Asian dances, including Afghan, Iranian and Uyghur dances as well as Middle ...
Join Co-Curator Marianne Fenton as she shows pieces from the Aga Khan Museum exhibition Don't Ask Me Where I'm From. In this innovative collaboration between the Aga Khan Museum and the Luciano Benetton Foundation's Imago Mundi, 15 artists from around the world navigate their blended identities and act as emissaries between the cultures they inhabit. All the artists use their chosen art forms ...
Syrian-Armenian artist Kevork Mourad has painted stunning masterpieces in front of live audiences at the Aga Khan Museum. Now, he's spreading a message of hope in this new video he created for the Museum community. Hear what Mourad has to say about the role of art in lifting our spirits --and watch him transform a blank page into an exuberant scene of bodies in ...
Welcome to the first of our original pre-recorded Aga Khan Museum Pocket Performances. Toronto-based artist Fethi Nadjem performs music by Algerian composers. Born in Algeria where he grew up in a family of musicians, Fethi began playing guitar and oud at a young age, eventually learning to also play both violin and mandole. Active in the Toronto music scene, he is a key ...
Make a do-it-yourself woven rug this Family Sunday. This family-friendly activity is inspired by the Museum's Sanctuary exhibition, a collection of traditionally woven rugs featuring designs by leading global artists. Watch the video to learn how to weave a miniature carpet, and then make one of your own. For more #MuseumWithoutWalls activities for kids, go to . ...
Discover a transcendent space where musical boundaries dissolve with this special archival concert by critically acclaimed trumpeter and composer Amir ElSaffar and his Two Rivers sextet. The openers for the show were Spiral Modes, who formed in 2017 following a jam session at the Museum with members of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble. Spiral Roads' performance is presented by TD Bank Group. This ...
The concert was originally to be hosted at the Museum, co-produced with the Kabir Center for Arts & Culture and sponsored by the Gulshan and Pyarali G. Nanji Family Foundation, with support from the Ontario Arts Council. ...
Dr. Maryam Ekhtiar, Persian art specialist from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, introduces the art of lacquer painting in Iran: its history, unique technique, and rich range of subject matter. ...
In this talk, the Art Gallery of Ontario's Assistant Curator of European Art, Adam Harris Levine, delves into how the African elephant captured the imagination of medieval European society, and the artworks that were a product of their fascination. ...
Using examples from the Aga Khan Museum Collection, Assistant Curator Bita Pourvash explores various decorative techniques used in the art of bookbinding with a focus on Iranian bindings of the 15th to early 19th centuries. ...
Considered the greatest poet in the history of Sufism, Persian poet Rumi and his passionate writings are explored by University of Toronto's Reza Tabandeh in this special introductory talk. ...
Anna Beselin, Senior Conservator at the Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin, discusses how carpet fragments can tell stories and shares strategies for their display in exhibitions. ...
In this talk, discover the details behind the award-winning architecture of the Aga Khan Museum with Shamez Mohamed of Imara (Wynford Drive) Ltd. ...
"I think that not only with visual art, but with food, there are stories that are often told. And (...) my exhibit, it's about that cross-cultural experience that happened so long ago." In this video, Building Black artist, Ekow Nimako, and Diwan restaurant's Chef Shen Ousmand, sit to discuss Jollof Rice and enjoy the power of food! ...
Artist Ekow Nimako reveals the inspiration behind his artworks made out of Lego© pieces, featured in the exhibition Building Black: Civilizations. From West African symbolism to comic books and Afrofuturism, Nimako delves into the varied influences from his childhood to his life today. ...
Curator Dr. Kathleen Bickford Berzock from Northwestern's Block Museum of Art introduces the exhibition Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time. Through a look at new archeological discoveries and iconic works of medieval art, Dr. Berzock delves into the movement of people, culture, and religious beliefs throughout western African during the middle ages. ...
Examining some of the masterworks from the exhibition Caravans of Gold, Aga Khan Museum Curator Dr. Michael Chagnon discusses the interconnected world of the medieval era and the powerful role of western Africa within it. ...
Dr. Augustus Casely-Hayford, Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, draws on the rich material heritage on display in the exhibition Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time to reveal how art has carved out history and empires. ...
Dr. Mariam Rosser-Owen, Curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, explores the cross-cultural relationships that produced some of the most beautiful objects of the medieval period. ...
Canada's Parliamentary Poet Laureate (2016-2017) George Elliott Clarke discusses the apparent tensions around recognizing the presence of "Afro-Métis" in the First Nations and multiculturalism contexts. ...
Renowned Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum and winner of the Jameel Prize 5 and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, discusses how climate, land, culture, and community engagement have inspired the evolution of her designs. This talk was presented as part of the 2019 Design TO Festival. ...
In this illustrated talk, Walter B. Denny, Distinguished Professor of Art History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, explores various facets of the wide spectrum of Ottoman-Italian cultural contact. ...
Orhan Pamuk, novelist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (2006) presents the Aga Khan Museum's third Annual Lecture. Pamuk discusses his manifesto and the making of his own Museum of Innocence in Istanbul. ...
Photographer Rick Allred shares his inspiring journey initiating In the Folds of Peace, a global project with the goal of bringing people together and starting conversations about our hopes for our families, communities, and the world. Following the talk, Allred led a workshop at the Aga Khan Museum inviting visitors to fold colourful paper cranes to contribute to his project, with the goal ...
In this illustrated talk, Walter B. Denny, Distinguished Professor of Art History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, explores various facets of the wide spectrum of Ottoman-Italian cultural contact. ...
The Museum's fifth annual lecture celebrates the world-shaping stories of Africa as we welcome to our stage Deborah Ahenkorah, a Ghanaian social entrepreneur and activist - and one of the winners of the 2019 Global Pluralism Award, which recognizes pluralism in action. Join us for an inspiring afternoon as Ahenkorah, co-founder and CEO of Golden Baobab, a social enterprise that aims to promote ...
Look and listen as ethnomusicologists Dr. Annette Sanger and Dr. James Kippen introduce the percussion orchestras known as "gamelan," which accompany Indonesia's famed shadow puppet plays, and perform some well-known pieces. ...
On September 28-29, 2019, Patrons' Circle supporters of the Aga Khan Museum came from around the world to attend our third annual Patrons' Appreciation Days. During these two days, Patrons participated in a number of exclusive activities and events, including a keynote panel with special guests facilitated by our Director and CEO, Henry Kim (Five Years of Impact), an excursion to the ...
On September 27, 2019, we were joined by 350 enthusiastic supporters and sponsors from around the world for the Aga Khan Museum's third annual Lapis Ball gala, in celebration of the Museum's fifth anniversary. Guests shared a remarkable evening of art, architecture, and music that demonstrated just how powerful the Museum's mission to connect cultures through the arts can be. Through the generous ...
