Projects

Educational Programmes

Besides its planned educational activities (organizing lectures, mobile exhibitions, meetings with artists and other creative persons, master-classes) the museum additionally implements still more large scale projects, such as described below.

Five items of the Folk and Applied Art as five steps on the way toward perceiving the Beauty (About one of educational projects of the Karakalpak State Museum of Art named after I.V.Savitskiy)

Scottish mathematician and physicist James Maxwell told that “The best way to instill knowledge into the mind is by means of presenting it in as much diversified form as possible”. Assignment teaching techniques, various interactive forms are becoming vital not only in school classes, but also for museums. For example, famous Nukus Museum named after I.V.Savitskiy has been involved in painstaking work on implementation of educational projects over a period of last 15 years. In summer of 2013, employees of the Museum led by director of the Museum – Marinika Babanazarova conducted “Interactive classes with exhibition of five items of the Folk and Applied Art”. The below is our detailed account on objectives and tasks of the project.

Details of the project:

Museum on Wheels

During the 2003-2006 academic years, the State Museum of Arts of the Republic of Karakalpakstan named after I.V.Savitskiy implemented the project of British Council “Museum on Wheels”. 2008 the project was supported by the Swiss Bureau of the Collaboration. The project organized mobile exhibitions in comprehensive schools in the districts located far away from the centre of Karakalpakstan and lectures for middle and senior school children. During a three years period, over thirty thousand students from seven districts of the region got acquainted with folk and applied arts of the Karakalpaks and with the artwork of Karakalpak artists of various generations. About four thousand students attended lectures on different topics and subsequently visited the museum.
Since the early 2010 the project “Museum on wheels” with assistance from the UNESCO and Swiss Bureau of the Collaboration has gone on its work in the remote village schools and summer camps of Karakalpakstan. During the last period the project participants organized mobile exhibitions and quiz games, tours to the museum and ancient historical sites, delivered lectures for countryside school children. The quiz game winners have been rewarded with prizes. The project became very popular. In seven years of its implementation several thousand children have been involved in its activities.

Since September, 2011, an old project of the Savitsky Art Museum “Museum on Wheels” has been renovated with the help of Safarova Guldana, curator of a Centre of Contemporary Culture “Desht-i-Art”. It has begun to be financed by the “Laboratory of Social Development” (Kazakhstan).
According to the project, its participants will conduct interactive lessons for the pupils of countryside schools during three months. The lessons will be devoted to a traditional Karakalpak art. They will show the pupils several objects of the folk art from the museum collection richly decorated with ancient Karakalpak patterns symbolizing some real animals and plants.
The pupil will have to decipher these symbols and to depict them on paper. Moreover, they will think of some fairy-tales about recognized magic personages.
The purpose of the project is to liberate children’s imaginations and to involve them in the process of art. The anticipated results must be their better understanding of the Karakalpak folk art and preservation of its traditions.

Young Art Historian

During the 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 academic years, an educational project by the name of “Young Art Historian” was implemented with financial support of British Council in Tashkent. Forty senior school children in Nukus city joined a club that introduced them to the history of the world art, from antique to the modern. The young art historians were introduced to the collection not only of Avant-Garde art but also the historical sites of ancient Khoresm, through which they were able to connect with their own history and of their forefathers. These classes covered all aspects of museum activity and culminated in exhibitions in the museum premises, curated by the children themselves.

Revival of Traditional Handicrafts

During 1998-1999 the museum implemented a project by the name of “Revival of Traditional Handicrafts”. Within the framework of the project 5 handicraft workshops functioned, including.
one for training in the national Karakalpak embroidery;
wood carving;
making the national Karakalpak musical instruments;
carpet weaving;
producing the Karakalpak yurt.
In the course of the project 20 young participants were trained. They also made a yurt which is now standing in the museum hall.
Since 2000 the project “Revival of Carpet Weaving” under the “Cultural Heritage” Association was implemented, and the experimental carpet-making workshop producing 22 kinds of rugs was established. The workshop designer was A.A.Shpade, who decorated these rugs according to the motifs of traditional Karakalpak ornaments. The similar workshops functioned also in Shumanay and Kegeili districts.