Museum openings around the world

October 14, 2014

New museums are opening around the world at present. North America recently gained its first museum dedicated to Islamic Art with the opening of the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Canada. The museum, which aims to contribute to a better understanding of the people of Islam in all their religious, ethnic, linguistic and social diversity, has more than 1,000 works of art on display. Many pieces come from the Aga Khan family collection, which represents Islam from Spain to China. Although just one textile, an 8th-11th century silk robe is on show, there are many rare Qur’an folios from the 7th and 8th centuries and miniatures from the 16th-17th century.

Due to open on 31 October 2014 is the new ethnographic museum in Geneva, Musée d’ethnographie de Genève (MEG). The new building will not only house 80,000 objects from around the world but will also run a research programme in anthropology, history and archaeology. The Museo delle Culture in Milan will also open its doors this October. It contains some 7,000 artefacts from the Middle East, the Far East, South America, Southeast Asia, Oceania and Africa.

In August 2014, the much-delayed Azerbaijan State Museum of Carpets in Baku finally opened, having been six years in the making. Designed by Austrian architect Franz Janz, the five-storey structure resembles a rolled carpet, and houses mainly 19th and 20th century Kuba, Baku, Shirvan, Kazak, Karabagh and Tabriz carpets. Contemporary Azeri art in a traditional style will also be on show, as will a copy of Victoria & Albert Museum’s Sheikh Safi Ardabil carpet.