In 2008 the Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah celebrated its 25th anniversary by offering truly international lectures in both Cultural Season 13 and 14 and a full schedule of DAI Music Circle events, a performance-oriented programme started in 2007. Children’s activities were added to the calendar with the launch of the Children’s Art Workshop and Bareed ad-Dar and Hadeeth ad-Dar, each published three times, reached an even broader audience. Archaeological excavations continued, with work being done in al-Sabbiya and Kadhama, Kuwait and, with the Japanese team, in the Raya/al-Tur area in the Sinai Peninsula.The organisation also participated in The Kennedy Center’s Arabesque Festival in Washington, DC, and sent cultural expeditions to Uzbekistan and Damascus, Syria. Finally, the DAI hosted a photography exhibition entitled Architectural Highlights of the Amricani Cultural Centre, which featured work done by students of the Kuwait University College for Women Art and Design Department.

Sheikha Hussah’s calendar was just as full. In addition to participating in the Kuwait-based activities, she travelled to Europe, Asia and the United States for conferences. She was in Madrid, Spain for the First Alliance of Civilizations Forum to attend the “Religions and the Alliance of Civilizations: Advancing Shared Security”, World Conference of Religions for Peace. Spring saw her in Seoul, Korea for the Korean-Arab Relations International Conference to establish the Korea-Arab Society, which included presentations on “Resurrecting the old Silk Road that facilitated exchanges of ideas and culture”. It was off to the States in October, where she spoke on “From Private to Public: The Metamorphosis of The al-Sabah Collection”, at the Historians of Islamic Art Association annual meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and then at the Bard Graduate Center in New York.

Objects from the collection could be found throughout the region and in Europe. Islamic Art and Patronage: Treasures from Kuwait was exhibited at the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization, in Sharjah, UAE and a special catalogue was published for the event. The Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar hosted Beyond Boundaries, a new exhibition that included several objects from The al-Sabah Collection. In Europe, Le Chant du Monde exhibition at the Louvre Museum in Paris continued, with loans from the collection and the Landes Museum Natur Und Mensch, in Oldenburg, Germany included DAI objects in their Frederick II exhibition.

25 years and counting: for the Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, 2008 was a year worth celebrating.