The Aga Khan Museum Builds on its Ontario Top Attraction Win with a Bold Season of Creativity, Collaboration, and Connection
The 2026 season brings together exhibitions, performances, festivals, and learning initiatives that invite audiences to engage in meaningful encounters across cultures and generations
TORONTO, March 4, 2026 /CNW/ - Following its recognition as Attraction Ontario's 2025 Top Attraction, awarded entirely by public vote, the Aga Khan Museum is excited to announce its 2026 lineup of exhibitions, performing arts programs, and educational offerings. From thought-provoking exhibitions to dynamic performances and learning experiences, the Museum continues to set the standard for cultural destinations. This recognition affirms what visitors have experienced for the past decade -- the Museum is not just a place to see art, but a welcoming space to encounter ideas, cultures, and one another in meaningful ways.
From exhibitions that ignite curiosity to performances brimming with sound, movement, and the energy of the city, the Museum builds on this momentum with experiences that are immersive, dynamic, and beautifully charged. This year's offerings reflect the openness and dialogue that earned the Museum this distinction, while amplifying art's power to bring communities together across differences through moments that are participatory and vividly alive, creating encounters that feel immediate, joyful, and unforgettable.
Exhibitions and Public Programs
Opening on April 3, 2026, Game On! invites visitors to explore the art, culture, and spirit of games and sports across time and geography. Featuring works from the Aga Khan Museum's collections alongside loans from world-renowned institutions, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the exhibition reveals how sports and games function as a universal language -- connecting people, transmitting ideas, and reflecting creativity across cultures and generations. In a year marked by vibrant global sporting events, Game On! offers a timely exploration of the values at the heart of play, from collaboration and strategy to creativity and joy that bring people together.
Complementing the exhibition, the Great Canadian Jersey, part of Rogers' This Is Our Game campaign, will be on view this summer. Created from patches donated by fans across every province and territory and handcrafted by designer and former OHL player Cameron Lizotte, the patchwork jersey celebrates the diversity of Canada's hockey community in a single, unifying emblem of the game.
This fall, an immersive exhibition by multi-disciplinary artist and award-winning creative director Saks Afridi transforms the Museum's Temporary Exhibitions Gallery into a para-fictional narrative. SpaceMosque, which debuted at Aicon Contemporary in New York (2019) and later travelled to the Weltmuseum Wien in Vienna (2023) and the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center in Vermont (2024), presents fragments from a speculative, forgotten global event at the turn of the millennium. Drawing on recovered artifacts, sound, and narrative traces, the work centres on the appearance of a mysterious and otherworldly vessel which took on many forms, one of which resembled a futuristic mosque. It hovered over cities around the world and functioned as a spiritually conscious prayer gateway.
Season 5 of the Aga Khan Museum's This Being Human podcast launches in April 2026 with Mai Habib as host, bringing a fresh perspective and renewed alignment with the Museum's mission. The season features 12 episodes with artists, thinkers, and collaborators connected to the Museum, and for the first time will be available in full video on YouTube as well as across podcast platforms -- offering new ways for audiences to engage with ideas, creativity, and the human experience.
"All of our programs are shaped by the conviction that art creates powerful opportunities for connection between people -- across cultures, disciplines, and lived experiences," said Dr. Sascha Priewe, Director of Collections and Public Programs at the Aga Khan Museum. "The 2026 program invites visitors to engage with ideas that have deep historical roots and that continue to resonate into the present and future. In our current challenging times, the Museum provides a place to engage through play, contemplation, and imagination to shape a more hopeful world together."
Education
The Museum continues to expand its educational reach with programs designed to foster creativity and meaningful engagement across generations. Alongside the Game On! exhibition, the Museum will feature a series of workshops and learning opportunities that explore games and traditional artistic techniques from across Muslim cultures, as well as talks and expert-led programs that offer insight into artistic practices and contemporary perspectives.
The Museum will also relaunch its seniors' program, expanded and under a new name, Thrive: Seniors Creating Together, to boost engagement through ongoing sessions. In October, the Museum will celebrate Islamic Heritage Month with a series of school, community, and public programs developed with artists and organizations, showcasing the richness and diversity of Muslim cultures and histories.
Performing Arts
The Museum's 2026 Performing Arts program continues its focus on showcasing internationally acclaimed artists, developing emerging voices, and fostering collaboration with cultural organizations and collectives.
“This season’s performing arts program is guided by the idea that the sacred and the everyday are not separate worlds but deeply intertwined,” says Amirali Alibhai, Head of Performing Arts at the Aga Khan Museum. “Through sound, movement, and ritual, the artists we are presenting reveal how devotion, memory, labour, and joy are carried through artistic practice across cultures and traditions. These performances invite audiences to encounter the sacred within shared human experience. This idea extends to our Game On! exhibition as well, especially when we think of games as originating in ritualized behaviour and rules of play — which become sacred frameworks for engagement.”
Highlights for this year include:
- MĪZĀN -- The Sound of Measure, a contemporary dance and live music performance by Sashar Zarif, with music by Pirouz Yousefian, exploring measure, balance, and deep listening through movement and improvisation rooted in Persian and Turkic traditions.
- The continuation of the Museum's partnership with Raag-Mala Toronto, which celebrates classical Indian music through performances that showcase lineage, improvisation, and cross-cultural exchange. This year's lineup includes Vidushi Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, Uday Bawalkar, and Alam Khan.
- The highly anticipated Rhythms of Canada festival, which brings together artists whose practices reflect the rich musical traditions shaping Canada, alongside a series of watch parties designed to unite communities and visitors across the city for the international soccer event set to define the summer.
- Duende International Flamenco Festival returns for another year of fiery performances and masterclasses led by some of the world's most acclaimed flamenco artists.
The Museum's Performing Arts programming is generously supported by the Nanji Family Foundation.
To learn more about the Museum's upcoming programs, visit agakhanmuseum.org/whatson.
Game On! is supported by Presenting Sponsor Sunray Group. It is financially assisted by the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, a program of the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming, administered by the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund Corporation. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
We would like to acknowledge funding support from the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, the Government of Ontario, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Government of Canada.
About the Aga Khan Museum
The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Canada, has been established and developed by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), which is an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). Through permanent and temporary exhibitions, educational activities and performing arts, the Museum's mission is to spark wonder, curiosity, and understanding of Muslim cultures and their connection with other cultures through the arts. Designed by architect Fumihiko Maki, the Museum shares a 6.8-hectare site with Toronto's Ismaili Centre, which was designed by architect Charles Correa. The surrounding landscaped park was designed by landscape architect Vladimir Djurovic.
About the Canada Council for the Arts
The Canada Council for the Arts mandate is to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts. Through its grants, services, prizes, initiatives, and payments, the Canada Council supports a dynamic and diverse arts and literary scene. These activities generate a meaningful cultural, social and economic impact for over 2,000 communities in all parts of the country and beyond. The investments and leadership of the Council help advance public engagement in the arts from coast to coast to coast while also contributing to the international recognition of artists and arts organizations from Canada.
SOURCE Aga Khan Museum
FOR PRESS INQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT: Eric Tang, Front Street Partners, [email protected], 416.822.0541; Kelly Frances, Director, Marketing and Communications, Aga Khan Museum, [email protected], 416.858.8735
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