PRESS RELEASE Contact: Kris Tanahara, Senior Account Executive Stryker Weiner & Yokota 808.523.8802 x 23 tanahara@strykerweiner.com For Immediate Release
AMY LANDAU TO JOIN SHANGRI LA AS CURATOR IN NOVEMBER
Honolulu, Hawai‛i, September, 2006. The Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art
announced today that Amy Landau will join the foundation’s staff on November 27 as Curator of Shangri La, Doris Duke’s Honolulu estate with extensive collections of Islamic art housed in late 1930s architecture and surrounded by tropical gardens. Ms Landau holds a Master of Studies (M.St.) with Distinction in Islamic Art and Archaeology from the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford (1999) and an M.A. in Near and Middle Eastern Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London (1997). Prior to assuming her post at Shangri La, Landau will conduct research in Armenia from September to November. She will be defending her D.Phil. dissertation on the arts of late 17th-century Iran at the University of Oxford in January 2007. Landau also holds a Diploma in Jewish Studies, University of Oxford (1998), and a B.A. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures and Fine Arts from New York University, where she was a University Honors Scholar and received the Albert Borgman Prize for Best Honors Thesis in the Humanities (1995). In 2005-2006 Landau served as a Research Assistant to the Chief Curator at the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. “Amy Landau is a wonderful addition to our staff,” said Deborah Pope, Executive Director of Shangri La. “At a time when we are planning to expand our programs and outreach, Amy brings both distinguished academic training and expertise and a passion for engaging the public in dynamic and creative programs that enhance our understanding of Islamic arts and cultures.”
Owned and supported by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art 4055 Papu Circle, Honolulu, HI 96816 T: (808) 734-1941 F: (808) 732-4361
At the Freer and Sackler, Landau assisted Dr Massumeh Farhad with an upcoming exhibition and worked on the Freer’s permanent collection of Islamic Art. Her previous experience includes research and writing for the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar; Research Assistant at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; and internships at the Metropolitan Museum’s Department of Islamic Art and the Brooklyn Museum’s Department of Asian Art. She has had pre-doctoral fellowships at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2004-2005) and the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (2003-2004), as well as the Albin Salton Research Fellowship at The Warburg Institute, University of London (2003). At the University of Oxford, Landau was awarded a Graduate Scholarship from Somerville College and a Graduate Studentship from the Oriental Institute. She has also received grants from the British Institute for Persian Studies and the American Institute of Iranian Studies, for language study in Tehran and research in Isfahan. In 2000, Landau was awarded the Nubar Pasha Prize for Classical Armenian. At Shangri La, Landau will be responsible for the research, interpretation and display of Shangri La’s collection, which includes more than 2,500 pieces of Islamic art. She will also oversee the development of an interdisciplinary program designed to enhance Shangri La’s functions as a museum and a center for scholarly research and exchange, by means of guided tours, exhibitions, residencies for artists and scholars, symposia and a publications series. Shangri La is a five-acre site with three historic buildings designed by architect Marion Sims Wyeth (1889 - 1992) and built between 1936 – 1938 as a seasonal home for philanthropist and collector Doris Duke (1912 – 1993). Shangri La borrows architectural elements and artistic sensibilities from regions of the Islamic world, and blends them with a distinctly Hawaiian landscape that features sweeping ocean views and exotic gardens. First opened to the public in November 2002, Shangri La offers small guided tours and other educational programs including periodic symposia and residencies for artists and scholars. It is owned and supported by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, which Doris Duke created in her will to promote the study, understanding, and preservation of Islamic art and culture. For more information, visit www.shangrilahawaii.org # # #
Owned and supported by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art 4055 Papu Circle, Honolulu, HI 96816 T: (808) 734-1941 F: (808) 732-4361