The Aga Khan Museum and the Reimagining of Migration Narratives

At the ICOM General Conference in Dubai in November 2025, NACDI Co-founder Sascha Priewe represented the Canadian museum sector in his role as President of ICOM Canada, the Canadian national committee of the International Council of Museums, and presented the following paper: 

The Aga Khan Museum and the Reimagining of Migration Narratives

This paper explores the role of the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto as a case study in the evolving landscape of museums engaged in diaspora and migration narratives, particularly in the context of fine art institutions navigating the dual imperatives of heritage preservation and future-oriented engagement. Amidst a global climate of increasing hostility toward migration, the Aga Khan Museum foregrounds transnational identities, fosters intercultural dialogue, and recontextualizes Islamic art within contemporary global discourses. This paper situates the Aga Khan Museum within a broader museological shift that embraces complexity, hybridity, and community engagement. It examines how the museum’s curatorial strategies complicate fixed geographical and cultural boundaries, instead emphasizing the fluidity of cultural exchange across time and space. Through exhibitions that fuse traditional Islamic art with contemporary practices, and through programming that centers diasporic voices, the museum functions as both a preserver of heritage and a dynamic platform for reimagining belonging. This paper also argues that the Aga Khan Museum exemplifies how fine art institutions can bridge understandings of migration, identity, and cultural continuity. In doing so, it contributes to a growing body of work that redefines what museums can be in an era of geopolitical uncertainty and cultural change.