A delegation of Smithsonian Institution paid a visit to Uzbekistan at the invitation of Culture and Art Development Foundation under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
The delegation arrived to study the activities and infrastructure of Uzbek museums and conduct training workshops for local professionals.
As part of their stay in Uzbekistan, American scientists held talks and meetings with Uzbek colleagues, studied the activities and infrastructure of four museums: the State Museum of Art, the State Museum of Applied Art, the Igor Savitsky State Museum in Nukus and the Oybek Memorial House Museum.
Also, training seminars were held with the participation of local experts and specialists in the field of museum and art. Educational trainings were held at the Center for Contemporary Art for two days on the following topics: Supervision, Audience engagement and Collection management.
Timur Kamalov, head of the program implementation and strategic development department of Culture and Art Development Foundation, said: “The arrival of the delegation of the Smithsonian Institution is of great importance. We are pleased that guests from the United States were able to visit our cities and get acquainted with our museums. We hope that together we can improve the working conditions and infrastructure of our museums. Following the visit, the delegation will be given recommendations, work plans and roadmaps, according to which the four museums mentioned above can begin to improve both the technical conditions of the museums and plans to develop new concepts to attract visitors of different ages. ”
Aviva Rosenthal, Deputy Director of the Office of International Relations, noted: “A great honor for us was the visit of the President of Uzbekistan to our Freer Art Gallery. Within the framework of the signed Memorandum of Cooperation, we hope for active cooperation with Uzbekistan. For more than a week, as we are here, I would like to note that we were very impressed with the collections and exhibits of the museums of Uzbekistan, as well as the preparation of guides, who gave extended answers to all our questions both on the collections and on the history of the artists. We communicated a lot with the staff of museums, revealed moments that need improvement and a modern approach. Each museum has potential and, I am sure, the development of new projects for the development of museums is not far off. During our visits to museums, we talked about our experience of working in our museums, showed vividly the concepts of activities of museums and galleries in Washington, answered questions from colleagues from Uzbekistan. Today we can note that for the museums of Uzbekistan it is worth considering the possibility of developing special programs for certain groups of visitors, namely, children, families, students. How to implement and what to do for this – we discussed in detail with the staff of the museums and shared our experience how this is implemented in our homeland. Such experience gives good results in increasing the attendance of museums and galleries. ”
Simon Rettig, curator of Islamic art, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, also said: “I express great gratitude to our colleagues, the Ministry of Culture, and The Foundation for the Development of Culture and Art at the Ministry of Culture for the warm welcome and willingness to cooperate. During our stay, we were not only able to share our experience in museum activities, but we also learned a lot of interesting things from the museums of Uzbekistan. We are already discussing several projects that can be implemented here in Washington, the ideas of which came to us precisely here, in Uzbekistan. We were pleased with the Center for Contemporary Art. The very emergence of such a Center suggests that there is a platform for contemporary artists where they can display their creative thinking, give inspiration, and also exhibit their work on international platforms of contemporary art. I also want to add that I admire the talent and works of Uzbek artists. ”
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