Following the Foundation Ceremony of the Ismaili Centre, the Aga Khan Museum and their Park in Toronto last week, two new web-based resources have been launched that promise to be useful and informative both within and outside the Jamat.
The Aga Khan Development Network has launched a site on AKDN.org that profiles the Aga Khan Museum and its Collection, and TheIsmaili.org recently added an Ismaili Centre, Toronto page to the Ismaili Centres section of its website.
Due to open in 2013, the Museum is dedicated to the acquisition, preservation and display of artefacts relating to the intellectual, cultural, artistic and religious heritage of Islamic communities. Its permanent collection is made up of over 1 000 pieces that span the geographies of the Muslim world and 1,400 years of its history.
Acquired over several decades by Mawlana Hazar Imam and members of his family, the objects include ceramics, metalwork, ivory, stone and wood, textiles and carpets, glass and rock crystal, parchment and illustrated paintings on paper. Parts of the Collection have been travelling across Europe since 2007, with exhibitions appearing in Parma, London, Paris, Lisbon, Toledo, Madrid, and Barcelona. Items from the Collection are currently on display at Berlin's Martin-Gropius-Bau, and another exhibition is set to be in Istanbul between October 2010 – January 2011.
The website features a searchable database of artefacts in the Collection that is rich in images and contains detailed information about each item. It also includes information about past and future travelling exhibitions of the Aga Khan Museum Collection, as well as a number of multimedia resources and the promise of more to come.
Like the pages about the five other Ismaili Centres around the world, the Ismaili Centre, Toronto page will be a focal point for the new Centre, its architecture, the activities it hosts and the ways in which it represents the Jamat in Toronto and the broader region. The new page currently features a video and two photo galleries about the Centre, the Museum and their Park, as well as speeches and stories from the Foundation Ceremony.
