At the time of her Shangri La residency, Dr. Akbarnia was the Executive Director of the Iran Heritage Foundation (London) and the Hagop Kevorkian Associate Curator of Islamic Art at the Brooklyn Museum (New York). She is an expert on Persian art, and spent her time in Honolulu consulting on a research project to determine the possibility of a travelling exhibition of later Iranian art from the Shangri La collection. This included a review of architectural elements, paintings, textiles, glass and ceramic artworks primarily from the Safavid and Qajar periods, and a recommendation for education and public programs to accompany the exhibition.