2009—Agreements and further goals

In January 2009, Sean McAllister and Arezou Azad went on a fact-finding mission to Kabul. Meetings took place with Director Masoudi and representatives of the Ministry of Culture and Information to work out an agreement as to the future status of the University of Vienna–Kabul Museum programs. A bilingual document establishing the goals of this project was drawn up under Director Masoudi’s guidance. Deborah Klimburg-Salter met again with Director Masoudi in Kabul to discuss the current programs.

New acquisitions to the museum offered an important focus for the capacity building program during the visit by Klimburg-Salter and Dr. Luke Treadwell (Oxford University). Rescue archaeology began in 2009 at the major Buddhist site of Mes Aynak, southeast of Kabul, and the objects that could not be left at the site were transferred to the National Museum. Dr. Treadwell also reviewed and discussed the recent acquisitions to the Islamic and numismatic collections with their respective curators in the National Museum. With Dr. Treadwell’s assistance, the capacity building program expanded to include early Islamic numismatics.

The program was also extended to include training on exhibition design and management (online format). In the course of this work, Kabul Museum curators worked together with the Vienna team on creating small exhibitions for display in the Kabul Museum. English classes continued at the museum, instructed by Mr. Wahid.