As the Sun Appears from Beyond: Twenty Years of the Al Burda Award Illuminates the Aga Khan Museum This Summer

Following a successful opening at the 18th Al Burda Award ceremony, hosted at the Louvre Abu Dhabi in December 2024, As the Sun Appears from Beyond: Twenty Years of the Al Burda Award makes its North American debut at the Aga Khan Museum on 14 June, 2025. Marking a historic first, the exhibition is the result of a unique Memorandum of Understanding between the Aga Khan Museum and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ministry of Culture. Featuring more than 60 spectacular artworks from the Al Burda Award collection, the exhibition places these contemporary pieces in dialogue with historical masterpieces from the Aga Khan Museum Collections. “The collaboration with the UAE Ministry of Culture and its three exceptional Al Burda Fellows has been an honour and a joy. Working on such a prestigious project together, across and beyond cultural differences, has been a truly enriching and inspiring experience for the Museum,” says Dr. Ulrike Al-Khamis, Director and CEO of the Aga Khan Museum. “Together, we have opened up a new world of intercultural artistic appreciation, dialogue, and understanding. To that end, our storytelling approach is not only factual but also allows for empathetic, inclusive engagement. Striving for the art to be presented in a way that transcends cultural differences, the exhibition invites aesthetic appreciation, engenders conversation, and serves as a creative resource for intercultural learning.”