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TORONTO. Michael Brand, the former J. Paul Getty Museum director who stepped down at the Los Angeles institution earlier this year, has been appointed to a consultancy post at the Aga Khan Development Network, a global Islamic charitable foundation that is currently building an Aga Khan Museum in Toronto. According to sources with knowledge of the hire, the position places Brand — an expert in Asian art — in line to assume the directorship of the Islamic art and culture museum when it opens in a Fumihiko Maki-designed building in 2013.

TORONTO. Michael Brand, the former J. Paul Getty Museum director who stepped down at the Los Angeles institution earlier this year, has been appointed to a consultancy post at the Aga Khan Development Network.

The position places Brand — an expert in Asian art — in line to assume the directorship of the Islamic art and culture museum when it opens in a Fumihiko Maki-designed building in 2013.

A simple, exquisite jewel

The coming of the Aga Khan Islamic Art Museum and an Ismaili Centre in Toronto is a fitting tribute not just to this great city but to Canada — beacon of hope to the world.

Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims has committed to build a poject in Toronto that will showcase the progressive side of Islamic culture to the people.The centre is supposed to built at Eglinton Avenue and Wynford Drive, a part of the city best known for its dreary anonymity.

Mumbai based architect Charles Correa, has been roped in to design the complex.

The intention, is to show the "plurality of Islam," something which North Americans could always be reminded of, said the Aga Khan.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper last week conferred honorary citizenship on the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the Shia Ismaili Muslim community.

The Aga Khan was in the city last week to mark the groundbreaking for the first museum of Islamic art and culture in North America, an Ismaili centre and park.

There are more than 30,000 Ismailis in Toronto alone.