The National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan Astana

The state supports museums as the most important cluster of the country's cultural policy. Systematic measures are being taken to preserve, update, and replenish museum funds in museums at the national and local levels.

In 2024, three leading museums of the country will be awarded national status: the Central State Museum of Almaty; the A. Kasteev State Museum of Art of Almaty; the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Astana.

Each museum is a multifunctional institute that combines various types of activities: scientific and stock, exposition and exhibition, research, cultural and educational.

Currently, there are 271 state museums in Kazakhstan (including branches and divisions) with different directions depending on the profile, including 9 museums and 12 museums-reserves of national importance.

The Central State Museum of Almaty

The largest number of museums in the Turkestan region is 27, followed by 20 museums in the Aktobe region, there are 19 museums in the cities of Almaty and the West Kazakhstan region. Of these, 48 are historical, 109 are local history, 65 are memorial, 14 are nature reserve museums, 11 are art history, etc.

Only 4 museums are private, the rest are state–owned. The total number of exhibits in museums is 2.6 million units.

Recently, visitors have been particularly interested in thematic museums of various industries, such as the National Military-Patriotic Center of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Nur Alem Museum of Future Energy, the Atameken ethno-memorial Complex, the Museum of the Institute of Archaeology, the Paleolithic Museum of Kazakhstan, the Museum of Fine Arts in Shymkent and others. New forms of museumification are emerging, an open-air museum, and the practice of creating museums at educational institutions is developing.

Monuments of ancient Otrar

The leading museums of the country have implemented 46 scientific projects, published more than 100 scientific papers, among them the fundamental five-volume scientific and ethnographic encyclopedia "The traditional system of ethnographic categories, concepts and names among the Kazakhs. Encyclopedia", which has no analogues in ethnographic science and has been highly appreciated not only by the domestic but also by the international scientific community.

The A. Kasteev State Museum of Art

Museums are working on creating a digital catalog of 3D models of museum exhibits. Currently, 13,657 museum exhibits have been digitized, and 29 sacred objects of Kazakhstan have been translated into 3D format.

The introduction of information technology is a key area of work for the modernization of museums. Automated information systems for accounting of the museum fund are being phased in to all museums of the country. Adopting the experience of foreign museums, domestic museums have become more active in introducing virtual museums and holding online events on social networks. Currently, virtual expositions or 3D tours are available on the websites of 4 republican museums, 11 regional historical and local history museums.

According to the version of the tourist portal "Tourstat.com "The National Museum and the Central State Museum are among the TOP 5 best historical museums of the Commonwealth of Independent States (hereinafter – the CIS).

The impact of the pandemic has contributed to new formats of events. In a short time, it was possible to develop the activity of museums in social networks. In addition, museums have developed a large number of special events launched in order to overcome the difficulties of isolation: games, tests, educational events and a large number of "challenges" covered in the press.

The National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan is working on the inclusion of objects of national cultural heritage of particular importance for the history and culture of the country in the State Register of Objects of National Cultural Heritage.

For several years, the Central State Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, together with regional museums, has been working on the Museologist program, developed within the framework of the World Heritage Network project, funded by the IST Research and Development Program and the European Union under the coordination of UNESCO.

For your information: The number of museum visitors exceeded 6 million last year. This is almost 1 million more than a year earlier. There are 271 state museums in Kazakhstan. Last year, they organized 166,801 excursions.

The number of exhibits of the main museum fund is more than 2.6 million units, of which 350 thousand are especially valuable relics. Over a million exhibits are presented in electronic format. There is also a State catalog of the Museum Fund of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which currently includes over 130 thousand exhibits from 114 state museums. The objects of the national cultural heritage include about 5,000 items from the collections of 61 museums.

"Night at the Museum" at the National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Astana

It should be recalled that since 1977, at the initiative of the International Council of Museums ICOM, the International Museum Day has been celebrated. In honor of this event, various events are held around the world. For example, on May 18, the "Night of the Museum" campaign, in which the museums of Kazakhstan actively participate.