Culture

After the International Arts Festival held in Lisbon in July 2018, the number of Ismaili artists in Syria has increased, with the offering of intensive training and rehearsals organised by the Ismaili Council. A host of artists came together to perform on the occasion of Imamat Day in 2019.

It’s a cool and damp morning at a school in South Kanarchor, on the outskirts of Dhaka. As the children break for recess, they’re greeted by the sight of six young visitors, approaching the school by boat. The children clamour around the bamboo railings excitedly. Nestled in the heart of South Kanarchor is the Arcadia Education Project, one of the winners of the 2019 cycle of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA). Built on land that floods regularly, the amphibious structure is an innovative solution that responds to climate, context, and community. And that’s exactly what the visitors were there to learn about.

On 18 December 2019, the Aga Khan Master Musicians with special guest Jasser Haj-Youssef delighted an audience at the Ismaili Centre, Lisbon. They highlighted the unity between different countries and continents, and between the present and the past by exploring various forms of classical, folk, jazz, and contemporary music.

Music college graduate and second-generation singer in his family, Chorshanbe Alovatov from Tajikistan won the popular Central Asia’s Got Talent show final on 22 December 2019. The show, which toured four countries in the region, culminated in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

In case you missed the live webcast from Kazan in September, The Ismaili is pleased to publish the full 50-minute Aga Khan Award for Architecture film. Mawlana Hazar Imam presided over the 14th cycle of the award, which is presented every three years to projects that set new standards of excellence in architecture, planning practices, historic preservation, and landscape architecture.