The Legacy of an International Partnership: Kazakhstan and the Smithsonian

When asked by the Embassy of Kazakhstan to contribute an article about
the Smithsonian’s partnerships with Kazakhstan (and especially our
recent exhibition and publication with the Kasteyev Museum in Almaty),
for this recently established online publication series for the Abai
Center, I quickly agreed. Our Smithsonian research team has long been
active and interested in Kazakhstan, so we are among the many
Washington-area beneficiaries of this exciting new initiative at The
George Washington University’s Institute for European, Russian, and
Eurasian Studies (IERES), the Abai Center.

The Smithsonian’s Asian Cultural History Program (ACHP), within its
department of Anthropology (National Museum of Natural History), has a
long history of partnerships that have grown out of an original,
long-ago-expired formal agreement between the Museum of Natural History
(Smithsonian) and the Kasteyev State Museum of Art in Almaty,
Kazakhstan. That agreement was set up in 2006, expiring two years later,
within the framework of a temporary program within the American
Association of Museums (AAM), funded by the Department of State, known
as the “International Partnership Among Museums” or IPAM program. “IPAM”
was essentially a small grant program offering seed funds for two
museums, one American and one overseas, to develop some shared goals
then carry out exchange visits between them, during which they could
also explore potential collaborations.1 Though that official program
ended long ago, its good effects continue to resonate and to result in
joint activities up to the present. Here I begin by describing the most
recent joint activity, then return to origins of the partnership in 2006
and review some subsequent developments.2

Kazakhstan’s Crafts and the Smithsonian’s Annual “Craft2Wear” Show in
2019

Most recently, the Smithsonian and the Kasteyev Museum co-organized an
international symposium on “Kazakhstan’s Crafts and Creative Economy,”
held in October 2019 at Washington’s National Building Museum during the
annual Smithsonian “Craft2Wear Show.” This symposium was an important
landmark in cultural and academic relations between Kazakhstan and the
U.S.A. For many years prior to this, our two countries had exchanged
international exhibitions and training programs. Yet the idea of jointly
conducting an international scholarly symposium about the arts and
culture of Kazakhstan in the U.S.A. was, in 2019, still quite an
innovative form of dialogue. The Kasteyev State Museum of Arts, working
with the Smithsonian’s Asian Cultural History Program, thought that an
ideal venue for our joint symposium about Kazakhstan’s craft traditions
would be a major annual event held in Washington each Fall — the
Smithsonian “Craft2Wear Show,” which brings together crafters, makers
and marketers of craft, and craft specialists from around North America
for an annual juried exhibition held in Washington’s National Building
Museum. The internationally known event is organized each year by an
active and experienced group of volunteers, the Smithsonian Women’s
Committee.

Figure 1. Artisans from Kazakhstan, who showed their “wearable craft” art at the Smithsonian Craft2Wear Show, Oct. 3-5. From left: Serik Rysbekov, Ulbossyn Daulenova, Gulmira Terlikbayeva (Gulmira Ualihan), Aizhan Bekkulova (4th from left, head of the Union of Artisans), Talshyn Koken (Talshyn Kokenova), with (6th from left) their and our Washington-based friend Dr. Tokjan Balderston, then (7th from left) Serikkaliy Kokenov (Сериккали Кокенов), Ikramzhan Rafikov (Ikram Rafikov), Dulat Ashimov, Serzhan Bashirov, and (squatting at center, front) Iliya Kazakov. Participating artist (jeweler) Almas Mustafayev (Almas Serikuly) was absent from this photo.

The Craft2Wear Show’s many visitors formed a large potential audience
for teaching about crafts of Kazakhstan, though they would surely also
want to see some examples first-hand, in addition to the images we could
offer within a symposium about those crafts. We were thus very fortunate
that Aizhan Bekkulova, Head of the Union of Artisans of Kazakhstan,
visited Washington in early 2019 and toured the National Building Museum
along with representatives of the Smithsonian Women’s Committee and the
Asian Cultural History Program. Together we envisioned a unique
arrangement for October 2019, in which craft artisans from Kazakhstan
would display their crafts from Kazakhstan in the auditorium area (see
Figure 1), near where the scholarly symposium on Kazakhstan’s Crafts and
Creative Economy would take place. The resulting exhibition presented a
wide range of craft types, beautifully displayed during the four days of
the Show, drawing considerable attention from visitors as well as from
the American craft artists, marketers, and other craft experts who
attended. We received support for this combined scholarly symposium and
craft display from the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan and from
Chevron – which has been a longtime friend of the Smithsonian’s
partnerships with Kazakhstan’s cultural institutions. For this the
organizers expressed thanks to Chevron, to Ambassador and Mrs. Erzhan
Kazyhanov, and to the Embassy staff including AbaI Besken and Zhandos
Imanaliyev. The organizers also thanked the Smithsonian Institution
Women’s Committee (organizers of the Craft2Wear Show), and its
Coordinator, Heidi Austreng.

The October 2019 scholarly symposium was co-organized by Dr. Gulmira
Shalabayeva (director, Kasteyev State Museum of Arts) and Dr. Paul
Michael Taylor (Smithsonian Institution). They went on to become
co-editors of the resulting book. Less than a year later, in September
2020, the full color-illustrated book of proceedings from that
international scholarly symposium – having the same title
Kazakhstan’s Crafts and Creative Economy – was launched in Almaty as
part of the 75^th^ anniversary activities of the Kasteyev Museum (see
Figure 2). Its chapters brought together researchers from both
institutions, the Smithsonian and the Kasteyev State Museum of Arts. The
book is now fully available online
here.

Figure 2. Kazakhstan’s Crafts and Creative Economy: Proceedings of an International Symposium (Taylor and Shalabayeva, 2020).

Our Washington symposium was designed to bring together researchers from
both institutions, with five speakers from each museum presenting, at
the symposium itself, preliminary versions of the papers included within
that volume. As the host institution, the Smithsonian’s role was to
provide the venue for the topical papers from Kazakhstan, and also
introduce the Kazakhstani guests to the Smithsonian. Thus, we decided to
structure the seminar such that the nature of the papers presented by
scholars of the two institutions was quite different, as reflected in
the resulting papers. Each of the five speakers from Kazakhstan at the
October 2019 symposium discussed an important aspect of the topic,
Kazakhstan’s crafts and creative economy. Then, due to the limited
amount of time available, and the great interest on the part of all the
audience in the crafts of Kazakhstan, each Smithsonian speaker served
primarily as “respondent” or “discussant” of the Kasteyev speaker’s
paper. Thus, Smithsonian speakers were given only a few minutes to
discuss and respond at the symposium itself, and were also asked to very
briefly describe (for comparative purposes) the approach to craft
studies that the speaker was applying at the Smithsonian, identifying
common areas of interest and potential future areas of research. This
brief response at the symposium was only later expanded by each
Smithsonian speaker into a full paper in the resulting book.

The five symposium speakers from the Kasteyev State Museum of Arts were:
Prof. Gulmira Shalabayeva, Director; Yekaterina Reznikova; Clara
Isabaeva; Gulaim Zhumabekova; and Oxana Tanskaya – with each paper
surveying important aspects of the craft traditions of Kazakhstan. The
Smithsonian speakers (respondents) and contributors were Paul Michael
Taylor, Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth, Inigo Acosta, Robert Pontsioen, and
Jared M. Koller – each summarizing a particular approach to craft
studies outside of Kazakhstan (in the USA, Thailand, Japan, or
elsewhere), as used in the work of these speakers, considered relevant
to the work of the Kazakhstani participants and presented as part of
their introduction to the Smithsonian and its activities (see Figure 3).
In addition to papers from these ten speakers , the editors later
solicited relevant papers for our topic from six additional authors,
including Aizhan Bekkulova, the above-mentioned head of the Union of
Artisans of Kazakhstan. The other authors contributing important papers
on Kazakhstan’s craft traditions are all from the staff of the Kasteyev
Museum: Nataliya Bazhenova, Amir Jadaibaev, Svetlana Kobzhanova, Galina
Syrlybayeva, Nurzhamal Nurfeizova. The symposium was later made
available online
here.

Figure 3. Scholars gathered for the Kazakhstan’s Crafts and Creative
Economy Symposium at the Smithsonian Craft2Wear Show. Left to right:
[from Smithsonian:] Adam Grode [from Kasteyev:] Katerina
Reznikova, Oxana Tanskaya, Gulaim Zhumabekova, Clara Isabaeva, and
(Director) Gulmira Shalabayeva); [then from SI:] Paul Michael
Taylor, Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth, Robert Pontsioen, Supamas Snitwongse,
Jared Koller, and Evan Wainright.

Participants and visitors to the annual Craft2Wear show could thus not
only attend the symposium on Kazakhstan’s crafts but also see the
accompanying exhibit and craft-making demonstrations. Members of the
Union of Artisans of Kazakhstan who displayed their artworks in
Washington included the head of that Union, felt-maker and felt artist
Aizhan Bekkulova, as well as Serik Rysbekov, Ulbossyn Daulenova, Gulmira
Terlikbayeva (Gulmira Ualihan), Talshyn Kokenova (Talshyn Koken),
Serikkaliy Kokenov, Ikramzhan (Ikram) Rafikov, Dulat Ashimov, Serzhan
Bashirov, Iliya Kazakov, and Almas Mustafayev (Almas Serikuly)3.

The theme of the event (and of our symposium and book), Kazakhstan’s
Crafts and Creative Economy, referred to a very important range of
phenomena, including art historical studies of individual craft forms,
examinations of balancing preservation of traditional crafts with
production of creative transformations of those crafts within today’s
global economy, surveying the importance of crafts as icons of local and
national identity, and even the reflexive realization that this
conference and exhibition constituted examples of how crafts play a role
in cultural diplomacy between nations. The edited book’s authors attempt
to comprehend and preserve traditional values that historically identify
a nation or ethnic group; yet on the other hand they seek to describe
the modifications of those same craft traditions in light of a global
community with varying outlooks and preferences. These intersections and
counterpoints made this symposium and its topic an important forum for
discussion among scholars. The event and resulting book are tangible
results of our serious and continuing cooperative work and a testimony
to this important international museum collaboration, representing the
most recent example of cooperation of the kind begun in 2006, which has
continued from then to the present day.

IPAM: International Partnership Among Museums (2006)

As mentioned above, the long series of cooperative activities with
Kazakhstan’s museums had first been formalized by our joint, successful
application for an IPAM grant in 2006, whose then-expressed aims were
modest but potentially long-lasting:

To develop the capacity, within our respective institutions, for sharing our collections-based research using digital technologies.

To explore the collaborative construction of virtual exhibits, and other means of disseminating information, about the ethnography and material culture of Kazakhstan. The development of such web-based exhibits and educational resource materials would assist educators and students in understanding the ethnography, traditions, and material heritage of Kazakhstan. Alongside other specialized scholarly publications, these products can constitute an important means by which we bring research (and new perspectives) in this relatively little-known field to the public.

Our successful grant application, seeking only the funds for a single
exchange visit of one staff member from each museum to the other’s
museum, mentioned that each museum had a prior exchange visit: myself as
an anthropologist and curator participating in a State Department-funded
Program on Museum Management for the Post Soviet Republics which
included a 1999 visit and seminar in Almaty, and a 2003 “IVLP”
(International Visiting Leaders Program) State Department-sponsored
visit by a Kasteyev staff member among visitors to the Smithsonian. The
two IPAM-funded visits took place in 2007 and 2008, growing to include
many seminars and workshops on the then-new fields of museum
digitization, construction of multi-media databases, and web-based
interface with the public for information about museum collections. Two
Smithsonian researchers (including the author of this paper) and one
network administrator – I.T. specialist, traveled in October 2007 for
seminars, workshops, and museum or historic site visits in Almaty,
Turkestan, Otrar, Shymkent, Astana, Karaganda, and Kokshetau.

This was just one of many regular subsequent “seminar tours” in
Kazakhstan between 2007 and 2018; we long ago stopped thinking of the
dialogs taking place at our seminars and workshops as one-sided
“lectures” but rather as interactions with our Kazakhstani counterparts,
from which we often derive good ideas for follow-up joint activities.

Museum Partnerships and Workshops for the Development of “Flagship
Projects”

After our series of workshops in 2007, regular visits brought workshops
to Pavlodar, Semey (Semipalatinsk), Atyrau, Oral (Uralsk), and other
locations, including such unforgettable historic sites of Kazakhstan’s
recent history such as Alzhir as well as the carefully reconstructed and
preserved site of Chokan Valikhanov’s childhood home in Syrembet. Each
of these places has unique collections and local circumstances that
require specific considerations within the sphere of cultural
preservation and representation of history in museums and monuments.

The seminars and workshops described above, combined with exchange of
staff (Kazakhstani museum staff visiting Washington, and Smithsonian
museum staff visiting museums of Kazakhstan) have been inspirational in
developing specific joint projects. In fact, each of the seminars ends
with a “roundtable” discussion among the program participants
(Smithsonian representatives as well as the participants from museums of
Kazakhstan), as a kind of brainstorming session to discuss ideas for
next steps (Taylor 2009). From these productive exchanges several ideas
for presentations of Kazakhstan’s cultural heritage in the United States
were developed, including “heritage” projects comparable to those
developed for particular community groups (see e.g. Taylor 2004), which
have led to lectures, performances, and short-term exhibitions in
Washington.

One of our follow-up seminar-workshops (after the IPAM-funded exchanges
of 2007-2008) was again held in Almaty (led by myself with Smithsonian
researcher Jared Koller) in 2009. That 2009 “workshop” held at Almaty’s
Kasteyev Museum led directly to a very successful follow-up project, our
2010 publication of a website about the scientific expeditions of Chokan
Valikhanov (see Figure 4). This directly resulted from the fact that, in
our 2009 Almaty workshop, we examined in detail the way I had previously
gone about writing and publishing a major online research resource about
a different scientific expedition – By Aeroplane to Pygmyland (Taylor
2006), an online publication of the collections, notes, and findings of
a 1926 expedition to Western New Guinea (at that time, Dutch New
Guinea). At our roundtable discussion following the presentation of that
web-based research publication, someone suggested preparing a comparable
website about the expeditions of the great Kazakh geographer and
ethnographer, Chokan Valikhanov. That interesting idea was discussed but
set aside for the future – and the future arrived less than a year
later when the opportunity arose to carry out that project.

Presenting the Legacy of Chokan Valikhanov (1835-1865), with
Kazakhstan’s Museums

Though at this writing (2020) a recent removal of research websites from
Smithsonian sites has made our Valikhanov website temporarily
inaccessible (accept in archived form)4, the formation and launch of
the Valikhanov website provides a very good example of a museum
partnership.

This became one of the most publicly visible “flagship project” to
result from these museum seminar-workshops. Because there was
considerable interest among Kazakhstan’s museum scholars in the
application of information technology to museums, we examined this and
other online scholarly works in detail, as various potential models for
development with Kazakh subject-matter, which would allow for
interpretive essays, as well as large amounts of illustrative data, all
in a fully annotated and interconnected multimedia format which would
allow for comparison among multiple sources.

Consequently, we can say that this idea of creating an online
publication and research resource about the “expeditions” of the great
Kazakh ethnographer and geographer Chokan Valikhanov grew out of a 2009
curatorial capacity-building workshop. Yet in this particular case, the
opportunity to actually produce such an important research resource
(rather than just talk about it at a seminar or workshop) materialized
later that year when, thanks to the support of the Smithsonian’s Office
of Policy and Analysis working with the Embassy of Kazakhstan and with
the financial support of Chevron, we were given an unprecedented
opportunity to develop the project and hold a very successful launch
event in Washington during the visit of the President of Kazakhstan to
that city in April 2010.

Figure 4. Homepage (in April 2010) of the online publication, launched
April 10, 2010, Discover Kazakhstan: The Expeditions of Chokan Valikhanov.

Though this online publication has been temporarily archived for
replacement at a new host institution later, it has been a useful
resource for many years. We hope to replace it hosted elsewhere soon,
and continue expanding its content. Since the website itself is intended
for a broad international audience, it prominently includes “Discover
Kazakhstan” in its title – partly because many Americans and others
internationally do not at this time have a clear image or understanding
of Kazakhstan, let alone that country’s important historic figures such
as Valikhanov. Consequently viewers may arrive at the discussion of
Valikhanov’s life from pages of introductory material (“Kazakhstan
Today”) including images of modernist architecture in Astana and a
discussion of contemporary Kazakhstan, and encouragement to read
standard English-language introductory material on the land and its
culture, e.g. Eastep and Kunanbay 2001, Levin and Süzükei 2006; as well
as multimedia materials including Gonopolskii 2006 and Levin 2006.
Without such an introduction, some readers might be left with the
impression that Kazakhstan today is the land Valikhanov depicted in
nineteenth-century drawings.

Other sections of the website then summarize Chokan Valikhanov’s family,
including his great-grandfather Ablai Khan (1711-1781), through Ablai
Khan’s son and successor, Vali Khan, who came to power during a changing
political environment shortly after the death of his father. The Russian
Empire abandoned the Khanship appointments and began a more concentrated
campaign to take political command of the Kazakh territories.

Chingis Valikhan, one of seven males born to Vali Khan, succeeded his
predecessor in accepting appointment with the Russian Empire. In
addition, he was the first in the family line to secure a rank within
the Russian military. His mother Aiganym saw to it that he received a
Russian military education in Omsk, where he became an officer in the
Siberian Line Cossack Army. Around the time of Valikhanov’s birth in
1835 Chingis also achieved the level of senior Sultan (a position he
would hold six times) and was acclaimed by Russian officials as a
positive example for the native people of Kazakhstan. Chingis fathered
six sons. The most famous was Mukhammad-Khanafiia, known commonly as
Chokan Valikhanov.

The section on “Birthplace and Childhood” notes that Chokan was born
November 1835 in the newly developed Aman-Karagaiskii district within
the Kushmurun fort in modern-day Kustanai oblast’, Republic of
Kazakhstan. Chokan was a fourth generation descendant of the great Ablai
Khan.

Chokan spent his youth in Kushmurun in his father’s traditional yurt,
where he learned of Kazakh folklore, food, hunting practices, and
musical customs. Similar to Kazakhs of his time, he drank kumis
(fermented mare’s milk) and grew to appreciate the significance of
Kazakh storytelling traditions. Chingis arranged his son’s early
education, enrolling him in 1842 at age six in a small private school
providing a secular education. It was here that he began his studies of
Arabic script and foreign languages, including Chagatai, which served as
the Kazakh lingua franca of the time. The young Chokan was notably
gifted in art and linguistics, with an interest in oral literature and
the depiction of landscapes. His childhood fascination with oral
histories and map making would follow him throughout his career.

At an early age Chokan moved from his father’s home to the estate of his
paternal grandmother, the powerful Aiganym, in Syrymbet, located within
the present day Kokchetav oblast’. She was greatly influential in
Chokan’s childhood while he lived with her and likely passed on her
strong support of Russia. Chokan spent much of his childhood prior to
his enrollment in the Siberian Cadet Corps with his pro-Russian
grandmother. (Photographs taken in March 2010 at Syrembet by our
Smithsonian team illustrate this component of the online publication.)

Similarly, other biographical sections of the online publication
describe Valikhanov’s period as “The Czarist Cadet” then that intensely
productive period of his short life until he died at the age of 29.
Using the phrase of N.I. Veselovskii, who in 1904 edited an early (and
incomplete) edition of Valikhanov’s works, this section is entitled “The
Meteor Flash.” Veselovskii had compared Valikhanov’s short life to a
“meteor flashing across the field of oriental studies.” These sections
and the subsequent sections on his scientific expeditions introduce
additional bibliographic resources for further study, including e.g.
Valikhanov and Veniukov 1865; Valikhanov 1904; Akhmetov 1998; Belgalin
1976; Futrell 1979; Loewenthal 1984; McKenzie 1989; Millward 2007;
Zabelin 1956; and including Marghulan’s compilation of the collected
works of Valikhanov (Valikhanov et al. 1985).

A different arrangement is used within this publication for the
“Expedition Overviews”; and this divides his expeditions into the First
Expedition (1855-1856) to the region of Lake Issyk-kul where Valikhanov
made the premier ethnographic documentation of the Manas epic; and the
Second Expedition (1858-1859), the expedition to Kashgar that would lead
to his instant fame throughout Europe. Serving as a decoy to the
geo-political intentions of the mission, Valikhanov embarked with a
caravan of 43 men, 101 camels and 65 horses. Following his successful
passage through the Chinese border without suspicion, the caravan
arrived in Kashgar in early October of 1858. Over the course of a
half-year, Valikhanov took meticulous notes regarding major towns,
including maps, the goods in the bazaars, the languages spoken and the
customs practiced. Valikhanov and his caravan left Kashgar and arrived
unharmed at Fort Vornoe (present-day Almaty) on April 12, 1859. In 1861,
Valikhanov published “Sketches of Dzhungaria” and “The Condition of
Altyshar, or The Six Eastern Cities of the Chinese Province of Nan-lu
(Little Bukhara).” These were translated into English by the time of
this great explorer’s untimely death less than four years later.

While an introductory summary of information about Valikhanov is an
important aspect of this online publication, the purpose of such an
introduction is partly just to contextualize the much richer archive of
material that is made available here for the first time online, to which
the authors hope to add over time. This online archive makes available
images of the original artwork by Chokan Valikhanov, along with an
additional “image gallery” of maps, historic photographs, and depictions
of Valikhanov by other artists which substantially supplements materials
produced by Valikhanov himself. Finally, a “credits” page expressed the
appreciation of all the project participants for the assistance provided
by Chevron as the major sponsor, as well as Air Astana which provided
transportation assistance, and the Embassies of the USA in Astana and of
Kazakhstan in Washington.

Thus a scholarly and informative research resource arose out of one
brainstorming session at a museum seminar in Almaty. The resulting
online publication was launched at a major reception on April 10, 2010,
during the visit to Washington of the President of Kazakhstan. Its
launch at a magnificent event in the Smithsonian’s Kogod Courtyard
served also as a launch event for the “Washington Kazakhstan Festival”
– a set of activities which continued through December of that year
(Smithsonian Institution 2010). The event included performances by the
Presidential Orchestra of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Figure 5), the
Kazakh folk-rock band Ulytau, and the “Student’s Big Band” jazz
performers from the Kazakh National Academy of Music. Alongside the
website launch, within the Kogod Courtyard, there were three exhibit
areas, featuring ethnographic art of Kazakhstan; “Gold from the Steppes”
(artist Krym Altynbekov’s reconstructions of ancient gold- and
silver-work), and paintings by the Kazakh painter Marina Sharipova, who
used the artist pseudonym “Maké” (see Sharipova 2009). Thanks to such
highly visible events and activities, as well as the continuing online
publication and seminars, Americans and many other international
audiences have surely developed a much deeper and broader understanding
of and admiration for Kazakhstan’s heritage.

Figure 5. Musicians of the Presidential Orchestra of the Republic of Kazakhstan perform at the Smithsonian Institution’s Kogod Courtyard, Washington, D.C., April 10, 2010, at the launch of the online publication Discover Kazakhstan: The Expeditions of Chokan Valikhanov also celebrating the launch of the Washington Kazakhstan Festival, April 10 – December 31, 2010

Artists of Kazakhstan, and Into the Future.

Long after the “Washington Kazakhstan 2010 Festival” activities ended,
our joint works continued with another publication partnership deriving
in part from discussions held during a seminar for Kazakhstan’s Ministry
of Culture in Astana in 2015. Through that joint activity and in
follow-up correspondence after that, the idea developed to work together
on a publication that became the book Artists of Modern Kazakhstan
(Khazbulatov and Taylor 2018; see Figure 6) Our trilingual book (in
Kazakh, English, and Russian) intended to introduce some of the range
and quality of modern art in Kazakhstan, both to Kazakhstan’s readers
and to a diverse global audience. We attempted do this by presenting a
short biography of each artist alongside a small sampling of artworks
each had created, for our selection of preeminent living artists of
Kazakhstan.

Figure 6. Artists of Modern Kazakhstan (Andrey Khazbulatov.and Paul Michael Taylor,editors, 2018.)

We recognized that any one book of modest size can only include a small
portion of the vast artistic productivity within this rapidly growing
and developing nation. We were very aware that many more artists are
currently active in Kazakhstan, and that no possible selection within a
book of reasonable size could claim to fully represent the variety and
range of art produced.

Yet we were also aware that despite the great recent growth of
Kazakhstan’s museum and art gallery sectors, very little information
about Kazakhstan’s contemporary art is currently available in English
and to international audiences. We felt that many readers would enjoy
the selections we had made, and the range of artists and artistry –
then might want to learn more or visit directly Kazakhstan’s centers of
art production and display. We know that they will find a very active
world of museums, galleries, studios, and creative spaces, often steeped
in traditional Kazakh cultural forms and traditions, yet presented in
many innovative and cosmopolitan media and formats.

The compilation and production of that trilingual 2018 book was part of
a larger national effort within Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Culture, and
particular its Kazakh Research Institute of Culture (KRIC), to enhance
its partnerships with international museums, and to find new ways of
introducing Kazakhstan’s art to a global audience. This process was also
part of a series of activities carried out within the framework of
Kazakhstan’s national cultural policy which aims to rediscover
Kazakhstan’s own national identity based on Kazakh history and culture,
while also finding a uniquely Kazakh inspiration for transformation or
modernization of Kazakhstan’s cultural life.

Scholars and art historians who look back from the future on these
decades of Kazakhstan’s rapid growth and modernization will surely have
much to observe and write about. They will note how the highly diverse
individual artists of Kazakhstan sought out unique ways to integrate
traditional Kazakh motifs, symbols, and themes, within artistic
productions and media for a cosmopolitan art-market or global artistic
forum. Each of the artists we selected for inclusion within that
compilation was inspired both by deep roots in Kazakhstan, and by
contemporary global trends in art production. The impact of the book is
even greater thanks to the permission we received to place it online
(available
here).

Hopefully, by recalling this long line of partnerships with Kazakhstan
on publications and events, we not only set our most recent publications
and symposium on Crafts and Creative Economy in the context of a
longer-term collaboration, but also raise interest in exploring future
partnerships with Kazakhstan’s museums and with other U.S. and
Kazakhstani institutions, including the Abai Center itself.

Acknowledgments: Many thanks to Dr. Robert Pontsioen and Dr. Jared
M. Koller, for their assistance with and comments on an earlier version
of this paper.

References cited

Akhmetov, A.K. History of Kazakhstan. Gylym Press, 1998.

Belgalin, C. Chokan Valikhanov. Detskaya Literatura, Moscow, 1976.

Eastep, Wayne; and Alma Kunanbay. The Soul of Kazakhstan. Eastern
Press, New York, 2001.

Futrell, Michael. Dostoyevsky and Islam. The Slavonic and East
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College London, School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Vol. 57,
No. 1. (Jan., 1979), pp. 16-31.

Gonopolskii, Igor, Director. The Last Prince of the Steppe: Shokan
Ualikhanov. Documentary, ACD Capital Group S.A, Almaty, 2006.

Khazbulatov, Andrey, and Paul Michael Taylor (editors). Artists of
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Levin, Theodore (Exec. Prod.) Tengir-Too: Mountain Music from
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Recordings, 2006.

Levin, Theodore with Valentina Süzükei. Where Rivers and Mountains and
Sing: Sound, Music and Nomadism in Tuva and Beyond. Indiana University
Press, 2006.

Loewenthal, Rudolf. Chokan Chingisovich Valikhanov c.1835 to c.1865. A
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1984.

McKenzie, Kermit E. “Chokan Valikhanov: Kazakh Princeling and
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Taylor, Paul Michael. Sikh Heritage at the Smithsonian. Journal of
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Taylor, Paul Michael. Think Globally, Publish Virtually, Act Locally: A
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Taylor, Paul Michael. Science, Tradition, and Innovation in the
Contemporary Museum: Perspectives from a Museum Partnership Between the
United States of America and Kazakhstan. Pp. 13-18 in: Sovremennyi
Muzei: Nayka. Traditsii. Innovatsii : Materialy Mezhdunarodnoi
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Taylor, Paul Michael. Exploring the Scientific and Artistic Legacy of
Chokan Valikhanov (1835-1865), in Partnership with Kazakhstan’s Museums.
Pp. 25-32 in: K.K. Abyev (ed.) Materials of the International
Scientific Conference “Khan Abylai and Political Independence of
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[2013]. = Abylai khanning 300 zhildyghina arnalghan “Abylai khan
zhene Qazaqstannyng memlekettik teuelcizdigi” Khalyqaralyq
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Abylai khana, 5 Oktiabria. Kokshetau, Kazakhstan: Kokshetau State
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Taylor, Paul Michael. Current Research about the Ethnography of Chokan
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zhyldygyna arnalghan “Shokan Okulary-19” Khalykaralik
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Taylor, Paul Michael. The Presentation of Historical Materials about
Kazakhstan in Online Formats: Observations on the Occasion of the
Celebration of the 550th Anniversary of the Kazakh Khanate. Pp. 13-18
in: “Qazaq khandyghynan tauelsiz Qazaqstangha deiin”: khalyqaralyq
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Kazakhstan: Institute of State History [= Memleket tarikhy instituty],
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Taylor, Paul Michael, and Gulmira Shalabayeva (editors). Kazakhstan’s
Crafts and Creative Economy: Proceedings of an International Symposium.
Almaty, Kazakhstan: A. Kasteyev Museum of Fine Arts, in association with
the Asian Cultural History Program, Smithsonian Institution.

Taylor, Paul Michael, and Gulmira Shalabayeva. Introduction:
Kazakhstan’s Crafts and Creative Economy. Pp. 5-11 in: P.M. Taylor & G.
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Proceedings of an International Symposium. Almaty, Kazakhstan: A.
Kasteyev Museum of Fine Arts, in association with the Asian Cultural
History Program, Smithsonian Institution.

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