Aga Khan Museum to open Sept. 18

Fannie Sunshine

The Brazilian granite gleams under the hot September sun, the 45-degree angled building reflecting and absorbing light as it casts a shadow on itself.

Rows of mature trees line the parkland, designed by landscape architect Vladimir Djurovic, where water slowly flows from four giant pools. A number of benches allow for those seeking quiet tranquility to take in the vast green space.

The doors will publicly open to the Aga Khan Museum Thursday, Sept. 18 on Wynford Drive, after breaking ground in May 2010.

The 17-acre, $300-million development in the Don Mills Road and Eglinton Avenue area, which also includes the Ismaili Centre Toronto, is the site of the former Bata Shoe headquarters. The museum will be the first in North America dedicated to Islamic arts and cultures.

On a recent tour of the 10,000-square-metre museum, designed by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, workers were busy putting final touches on the auditorium and galleries, and grounds keepers were focused on perfecting the park.

The heart of the museum – the courtyard – provides enough light to keep the immediate area bright all day long, with a modern interpretation of patterned wooden screens known as mashrabiya lining the glass walls.

Across from the courtyard is a ceramics gallery that tells the evolution of ceramics in different geographical regions, said Ruba Kana’an, who looks after the museum’s education and scholarly programs. A reading alcove will be full of art books, with book cases from the 16th to 19th centuries.

The permanent gallery will house some 1,000 pieces of art belonging to the Aga Khan and his family, including portraits, textiles, miniatures, manuscripts, ceramics, tiles, medical texts books and musical instruments representing more than 10 centuries of human history and a geographic area stretching from the Iberian Peninsula to China.

A world map on the wall will allow visitors to better understand where the art comes from, Kana’an said, adding pieces reflect the types of stories the museum wanted to tell.

One of the pieces is a 15th century water fountain from Egypt, which was likely used in an upper-middle-class home or palace as a natural air conditioner.

“You could imagine this in the middle of a household with a raised roof and windows,” she said.

Blue and white 14th century jars from either Egypt or Syria used to transport medicinal herbs and spices are in the company of other ceramics from that era. The Iranian ceramics were clay based, as only China had access to porcelain back then, Kana’an said.

“(Muslims) were fascinated by something they didn’t have,” she said. “There was always a back and forth between the Muslim world and China. China played a big role because of the trade.”

And the earliest surviving manuscript of the Qanun of Ibn Sina, an encyclopedia of medieval medical knowledge taught in European medical schools until the 18th century, will be available for viewing.

Kana’an said the museum has been in talks with Ontario school boards to see how its teachings can be used in the curriculum, adding teacher training by the museum will be offered several times annually.

The 350-seat auditorium will be used for various cultural events, said Azim Alibhai, chief communications consultant for the Aga Khan Museum.

Standing in the North York park, surrounded by hundreds of new trees and shrubs, Alibhai explained why the neighbourhood was chosen for the large development.

“We wouldn’t have a beautiful park if it was downtown,” he said. “It’s an accessible space and the land was available. Toronto made sense because of its diversity and pluralism. The most fascinating thing, is it allows the discovery of things we didn’t know, or weren’t sure of. The idea is to make the arts of Islam better known. There is always a need for information on any topic, this just happens to be art.”

The museum shares its site with the Ismaili Centre Toronto, which will include a place for prayer, a library, youth lounge and public spaces for cultural activities.

Designed by Indian architect Charles Correa, the Ismaili Centre Toronto is the second in Canada, behind the site built in Burnaby, British Columbia in 1985.

Other Ismaili centres have been built in London, Lisbon, Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Dushanbe.

Since 2007, temporary exhibitions of major works of art from the Aga Khan Museum collection have been showcased in France, Russia, Portugal, Germany, Turkey, Malaysia and Singapore.

Visit www.akdn.org/museum for more information.