Cultural Season One ended on 11 June 1996 and the season was a success by every measure and by mid-April people were already asking when the next series would start. The big question was could Cultural Season Two live up to its predecessor?

Of course, the answer was “yes”. Cultural Season Two started on 4 November and before the end of the year, eight prominent scholars from some of the world’s leading academic and cultural organisations had held the podium at the DAI.

In addition, special events were organised to supplement the Cultural Season programme. A multi-media presentation created by the DAI, Images of Kuwait, was held at the Kuwait Airport. Then, in March, Professor Annemarie Schimmel gave a lecture on calligraphy and calligraphers that inspired the audience to search for more information on this topic.

While noted scholars were coming to Kuwait to lecture, Sheikha Hussah Sabah al-Salem al-Sabah was speaking abroad. The Kuwait Cultural Centre in London hosted her lecture on “Islamic Art in War and Peace” and at the American University of Beirut, in Lebanon, she spoke on “Artistic Genesis in Wood and Stone: Objects from the Kuwait Museum of Islamic Art.” In April, calligrapher Ali al-Bidah represented the DAI at the Inscription as Art in the World of Islam exhibition at Hofstra University Museum in New York.

DAI objects were also representing the organization in Europe and the United States. Islamic Art and Patronage: Treasures from Kuwait was on display at the Museum für Kunsthandwerk, in Frankfurt, Germany. Africa: The Art of a Continent, which included loans from the collection, started the year at The Royal Academy of Arts, London, before moving to the Martin Gropius Bau, in Berlin, Germany. From mid-November, additional pieces from the DAI were on view for ten weeks at the L’Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France, as part of the A l’Ombre d’Avicenne, les Siècles Arabes exhibition.

Two issues Hadeeth ad-Dar came out in 1996. The long awaited Al-Murshid (Volume 4, part 2) by Abdullah el-Tayib was published to great reviews.

In 1996 in Kuwait and abroad, people were talking to the DAI and about the DAI.