Virtual Gallery Guides

Date: Updated on November 15, 2021

Elevate your Museum experience with our new digital gallery guides. Use the links below or scan the QR codes in the galleries, to access fascinating object labels and self-guided gallery tours on your smartphone or tablet.

The Museum’s digital gallery guides are free. Here’s how to access them:

1. Connect to the Aga Khan Museum’s public WiFi or use your own cellular connection.
2. Use your smartphone or tablet to scan the QR code of the guide you wish to view. Alternatively, you can type the URL into your internet browser, or click on one of the linked tours below. (If scanning the QR code doesn’t launch the digital gallery guide, you may need to visit your app store to download a QR code scanning application.) 

Available Gallery Guides

Audio Guides

Listen to curator tours that explore objects relating to themes of Interconnectedness, Diversity, Achievement and Creativity.

Diversity Tour
Islamic art encompasses works produced in a vast array of techniques, materials, forms, and styles over 1,400 years of history. The artists who produced these works, and those who used and treasured them, have come from a variety of ethnic, religious, and class backgrounds. This audio guide has been designed to highlight objects that illustrate how such diversity has fundamentally shaped the arts of the Islamic world. Link: agakhanmuseum.org/diversity

Interconnectedness Tour
One way to look at Islamic art is as a layering of cultural bonds. Beyond sharing religious ties, the many geographic regions represented in the Museum were connected by a shared heritage of literature, art, the sciences, and music. On this audio tour, discover five objects representing moments of Interconnectedness between different parts of the Islamic world. Link:  agakhanmuseum.org/interconnected 

Creativity Tour
Discover how artists from the diverse world of Islamic art pioneered new ideas and techniques — and adapted existing ones — to impressive effect. Their influence shines through in architecture, manuscripts, and a range of portable objects. This audio tour is designed to highlight the impact of some of these creative contributions on the Islamic world and beyond. Link: agakhanmuseum.org/creativity

Achievements Tours
Every artwork deserves a closer look! When you focus in on the materials and techniques used in the making of an artifact, you uncover new connections between artworks and better appreciate the achievements of the artists who created them. Highlighting the contributions of Muslim civilizations to world cultural heritage, this audio guide will take you through a selection of artworks in our Museum Collection. You will hear fascinating stories about advancements in water technology, shiny ceramics, and exotic pigments and discover why Ibn Sina is often referred to as the “Father of Modern Medicine.” Link: agakhanmuseum.org/achievement

Bellerive Room

Bellerive Room Digital Labels
Welcome to the Bellerive Room, our homage to the late Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan (1933-2003) and his widow, Princess Catherine Aga Khan, whose collection of Islamic art forms the core of the Aga Khan Museum’s holdings. This room is decorated like the “Salon Persan” in the couple’s Château de Bellerive in Switzerland and features ceramics representing the breadth and depth of production from the Islamic world.

Find out more about each object through our online digital labels tour. Objects in the tour are arranged in viewing order, starting with Case 1 on the left side of the room, and moving from top to bottom, left to right within each case. Link: agakhanmuseum.org/belleriveroom

Galleries and Exhibitions

Sound and Music Trail

Embark on a sonic journey back in time as you absorb marvellous sights and stories from the Aga Khan Museum’s Collection. As you tour the main-floor gallery, you will encounter paintings and artifacts evoking soundscapes of medinas and ateliers from centuries past, the sublime poetry of music, and humanity’s relationship to our sense of hearing. Use the colour-coded floor plan to find the artworks, discover interesting facts about them, and embark on related activities. Link: agakhanmuseum.org/SoundTrail

Fantastic Creatures Family Trail 

The Fantastic Creatures Family Trail invites you to step into the awesome world of animals and creatures in the collection of the Aga Khan Museum. It offers a scavenger hunt around the Bellerive Room and Collection Gallery, along with interesting facts about the objects and engaging questions to discuss and explore. Link: agakhanmuseum.org/FantasticCreaturesFamilyTrail