Museum Saturday

I still haven’t made it to the national zoo after two years since I thought about it. Soon, I hope.

But I went to the Islamic Arts Museum with my brother on Saturday. We went to take my car for its third scheduled service in the morning, and decided that the day was too beautiful to just go straight home after that. After considering our options, we decided on the Islamic Arts Museum.

There is a special exhibition themed Faith & Power: Women in Islam running till July 4. My mother said that it’s all over the television, but I knew about it from curator Lucien de Guise’s article in the NST. Anyway, it wasn’t the reason we went on Saturday. I’ve always thought about going to the museum, just like I’ve always thought about going to the zoo. I’d like to say that I generally like museums, or at least the idea of museums, although I haven’t been to any of the local museums since primary school. Relatively recently, I went to the Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Science (twice), John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, and USS Constitution Museum in Boston; the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, and the Imperial War Museum in London.

I really liked what I saw at the Islamic Arts Museum. It seems to be very well managed and maintained, unlike the state of the state-run museums I remember (they could be different now, however; I’ll have to check them out). Apart from the exhibits, there are beautiful, intricately designed domes inside the museum building. Cameras are not allowed in the exhibition galleries, but I really wished that I had my camera with me. The museum also has an excellent shop I’ll definitely remember whenever the next time I need to buy someone a gift.

The RM12 entrance fee was definitely worth it. There weren't many visitors when we were there apart from some foreign tourists and a noisy group of school children. I really recommend everyone to visit the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur.