Today the DAI has both the al-Maidan Cultural Centre and the Amricani Cultural Centre to use for plays, lectures, concerts, exhibitions and more. The DAI looked at both spaces and thought “we can make them work again.” The al-Maidan Cultural Centre underwent a complete face lift this year and rehabilitation efforts began at the American Mission Hospitals.

But these weren’t the only new efforts undertaken by the Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah this year. In March, the film Al-Muhallab, co-sponsored by the DAI, made its premier. Four months later, friend of the DAI got to see a preview of The Travels of Ibn Battuta, a live action multi-media production created by the DAI. In November, Aziza Ya Kuwait!, also produced by the DAI, premiered. In addition to these new, theatrical events, the organization launched its “Tour of Old Kuwait”, a walking tour of Kuwait City’s past. The DAI also participated, for the first time, in the “Introduction to Kuwait” event organized by the British Embassy. Finally, the DAI was pleased to support the publication of three new books: Environmental Design: European Houses in the Islamic Countries, Journal of the Islamic Environmental Design Research Centre, Attilio Petruccioli, editor; the Arabic book Al-Nujum al-Zahirah of Ibn Tagriberdi by Ahmad Issa, as well as its own publication Bareed ad-Dar, the DAI newsletter which is still published 3 – 4 times per year.

It is important that the established activities aren’t overshadowed by the new ones. The 3rd cultural season concluded in June and Cultural Season 4 started a month earlier than usual, on 12 October. The DAI Islamic art and history was offered again and was immediately full. Sheikha Hussah represented the DAI at two prestigious venues, speaking on the “Formation of an Islamic Art Collection: the Kuwaiti Experience”, at Sotheby’s Geneva, in Switzerland and on the “Metamorphosis of Private Collection into Public Institution” at Harvard University, in the USA.

DAI objects were also travelling. From Portugal, Islamic Art and Patronage: Treasures from Kuwait moved to the Brunei Gallery, at SOAS, London University in London. Collection objects continued to be part of exhibitions around the world, including Flowers Underfoot: Indian Carpets from the Mughals at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Trésors Fatimide du Caire at the L’Institut du Monde Arabe, in Paris, and Schätze der Kalifen, Islamische at the Kunst zur Kunsthistorisches Museum (Künstlerhaus) in Vienna, Austria.

In 1998, the DAI flourished: existing programmes were expanded and new ones embraced. Those actions, taken in 1998, serve the Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah well today.