Future Almaty modern art museum: big ambitions, high hopes   

At the intersection of Almaty’s two main streets there is a large, busy construction site. For once, it is not yet another commercial development, but an ambitious cultural project – Central Asia’s first museum of modern art. 

Almaty Museum of Art will be the region’s first venue for showcasing its own modern artists and holding high-profile international exhibitions.  

The project has been conceived and is fully funded by businessman Nurlan Smagulov. The two-hectare plot of land for the museum has been provided by the Almaty city authorities.  

The construction is expected to cost 30m US dollars. An additional 70m dollars will be spent on equipment, on creating the museum’s own collection and on holding international exhibitions. 

Smagulov will donate to the museum his private art collection, which includes 20th century Kazhka art, Anselm Kiefer’s installation “These writings, when they are burnt, will finally give some light”, Richard Serra’s sculpture “Intersection”, and Yayoi Kusama’s immersive installations. 

Expected to open next autumn, the museum will meet international standards for displaying and storing objects of art, as well as handling and protecting touring artefacts to make sure it can bring in world masterpieces.  

The building at the intersection of Al Farabi and Nazarbayev avenues will have two L-shaped wings — one symbolising the mountains that surround Almaty, another – the city itself. Between the two wings, there will be Art Street. The premises will cover 8,900 sq.m. The museum’s storage facilities will be able to host up to 5,000 exhibits. 

Designed by British architects Chapman Taylor, the building will be clad in the highly durable Jurassic lime, anodised aluminium and Cor-Ten steel, Smagulov told journalists at a recent press tour.  

“We want the museum to always look as good as on the opening day,” he said. “I want the museum to be there for hundreds of years. We will be gone, but the museum will still be there.” 

It is hoped that the museum will attract international visitors to Almaty. 

Kazakhstan should become more assertive in introducing to the world its own culture, particularly with Russian culture suffering a setback internationally, political observer Dosym Satpayev said.  

“Sooner or later the current geopolitical chaos will end with the establishment of a new order,” he said. “Kazakhstan could become a new cultural centre for the entire Eurasian space, a space that sets new cultural trends for many years to come”. 

Artist Saule Suleymenova said the future modern art museum was “a dream come true for anyone who has anything to do with art” in Kazakhstan. 

Suleymenova, whose works, in various mediums, have been exhibited internationally, said that she and many other Kazakh artists have long been looking beyond Russia in their search for exposure and artistic collaboration.  

The new museum will hopefully give a new impulse to Kazakhstan’s post-independence cultural boom, Suleymenova said.  

“I am very happy. We deserve this new art space,” she said. 

By Gaukhar Satpayeva   

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