Ambassador Khan Visits the USC Pacific Asia Museum
By Perveen Ali
Photos by Annie Athar
During his recent visit to Southern California, Pakistan Ambassador to the US DrAsadMajeed Khan visited the USC Pacific Asia Museum for a tour arranged by the Pakistan Arts Council which was followed by a lunch at Caltech’s Athenaeum Library in Pasadena.
His Excellency was accompanied by Consul General JabbarMemon and Deputy Consul ShoaibSarwar.
The Museum is one of only four institutions in the US dedicated exclusively to the arts and culture of Asia and the Pacific Islands. The Pakistan Arts Council has been part of the Museum since 1990 and has facilitated many art exhibitions, musical performances, author talks, movie screenings and live plays in the Greater Los Angeles area.
The Museum’s Curator, Dr Rebecca Hall, gave him a tour of the galleries and showed him the Pakistani art that is in the Museum’s collection. Ambassador Khan, who has studied in Japan and was also Ambassador to Japan recently, showed quite an interest in the current exhibition at the Museum of Japan’s leading contemporary artist “TsuruyaKōkei: Modern Kabuki Prints Revised and Revisted”. Interestingly, some of the prints in the exhibition were loaned by the Founding President of the Pakistan Arts Council, Dr Aziz Khan, an avid art collector.
The tour was followed by a lunch and discussion at the Athenaeum Library of Caltech with the Board of the Arts Council. The Ambassador was welcomed to Caltech by Michael Alexander, the Director of Campus Events of the Office of Strategic Communications. Also attending the lunch were Mari Riddle and Leigh Ann Hahn of Grand Performances. It was a very hands on lunch with the board being introduced and the projects that the Arts Council has in the planning stages being discussed. The Ambassador was very open to his office collaborating with the Arts Council on future projects.
The Pakistan Arts Council is very appreciative and thanks Consul General Memon for facilitating the Ambassador’s visit to the USC Pacific Asia Museum.
