Aga Khan Blues

I may have mentioned that I went up to the Aga Khan Museum right after it opened.  It is a decent museum, focusing on Islamic art with most of the space given over to rotating exhibits.  (It is a bit odd that they did not plan it out for a bit more space for the permanent collection.)

I am not really that upset that the founder is attempting to get tax-exempt status, which is in line with most of the other museums in Toronto.  What does bum me out is that the price is really out of line for what you actually see on any particular visit.  It is $20 for adults and $15 for children -- way out of line.  Wednesday evenings it is free (or perhaps pay what you can), and I have thought about trying to make it up there, as opposed to the AGO, which also has its free evening on Wednesday.  However, I have been pretty busy these past few weeks and not able to get away at all, and certainly not a couple of hours early, which is what it would take to catch the subway and then the bus to get to the museum.

I had kind of forgotten about the whole thing until I saw that the Pape-Danforth Library often has passes to the Aga Khan Library (I should have investigated this sooner).  But in what I think it really an unreasonable restriction, the passes are not valid during the holiday break.  The current exhibit, which is the only one I really want to see, ends on Jan. 3, and the passes aren't valid until Jan. 5.  So even though the museum is open tomorrow (one of the few things that is), I'll take a pass, since I know I won't consider it worth spending $20.  Even though the next exhibit isn't quite as interesting, I'll take the kids one weekend in Feb. or early March before the pass expires.  (The sweet spot might be between Feb. 6 and 14 when the Istanbul exhibit has opened and they are playing Kiarostami's Five in a different part of the museum, though I know I won't be able to watch the whole thing, particularly with the kids in tow.)

The Aga Khan Museum has decided to celebrate Abbas Kiarostami with a retrospective that runs from Jan. 28 Feb. 25 to March 27 April 3.  Actually, now that I have read this more carefully, it looks like this is a retrospective at the TIFF Lightbox downtown, which makes it vastly more appealing to me.  Apparently, the details are still being worked out, and it might even shift by a few days here and there.  I might be persuaded to go see The Traveler, Kiarostami's first feature and one not easily available.  I'm not sure about the others, since they are generally not that hard to rent on DVD and most of them don't seem to require the big-screen treatment and indeed might even benefit from being seen in a more intimate setting.  I'll see how I am feeling in Feb. and March and what else I am doing before I commit to getting any tickets.

Edit: It took TIFF a while to update their information, but they have some interesting pairings here, which is more definitive than the link just above.  I'm away for much of March, but I'll certainly consider seeing The Traveler on March 24.  There's a small to moderate chance I will decide to see Like Someone in Love on April 3.