In February, the Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah hosted three visiting exhibitions from the Netherlands. The Overseas Business of the Dutch, Dutch Cartography, and Kuwait in Early Maps attracted enthusiastic visitors eager to explore the exhibitions but just as eager to help the DAI marked its 10th anniversary. In April, the DAI organised a new exhibition, Flowers from the Ashes, for the Kuwait visit of President George H.W. and First Lady Barbara Bush. The exhibition was held on the grounds of the Kuwait National Museum and ran for six weeks so that people living in Kuwait could also see the objects that survived centuries of war and still retained their beauty and value as representatives of the Islamic world.
Then in November, the 10th IRCICA (International Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture) Governing Council meeting was held in Kuwait, hosted by the Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah.

Sheikha Hussah Sabah al-Salem al-Sabah, director of the DAI and co-owner of The al-Sabah Collection, traded in the role of host for that of speaker a couple of times this year. In February she spoke at the British Council on the DAI and her favourite object. In May she joined Professor Géza Féhervári at the French Cultural Centre for a seminar on the Bahnasa excavations.

Islamic Art and Patronage: Treasures from Kuwait continued to travel, finishing its US tour at the New Orleans Museum of Art in Louisiana and moving on to Europe. From February through May, the exhibition was on display at L’Institut du Monde Arabe, in Paris, France. After France, it moved to the Haags Gemeentemuseum, in The Hague, The Netherlands.

The museum remained unusable, but the DAI was back doing what it did (and does) best: sharing art and culture with appreciative audiences at home and abroad.