"Nomads and their relationship: The Ancient Art and Culture of Kazakhstan" opened on August 15, 2012 at the Smithsonian’s Freer Sackler Galleries in Washington D.C.
The opening ceremony was attended by senior officials, in particular, Alice Wells, special assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs for the National Security Council and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs James Moore, as well as Members of Congress and representatives from the business and cultural communities.
In his welcome to the guests, director of the Freer Sackler Galleries and prominent scholar Julian Raby said the exhibition marks the first time the U.S. capital city has hosted an exhibition of ancient items that represent the highest level of culture and art of the ancestors of the Kazakhs. According to Raby, the culturally rich discoveries from the mounds in Chilikty and Berel are national treasures of Kazakhstan and tell a story about the nomadic culture and the unique pieces of art it produced. He expressed gratitude to the Government of Kazakhstan for its support in organizing the event and highlighted the work of the Ministry of Culture and Information, Ministry of Education and Science, as well as cultural and historical institutions in Kazakhstan, including the Nazarbayev Center, for their assistance.
“The rich treasures discovered in Kazakhstan’s royal burial mounds tell a story of a nomadic culture that created works of art through their network of exchange with settled communities,” Raby said Wednesday at the exhibition’s opening ceremony which was also attended by a delegation from Kazakhstan, reports Silk Road Newsline.
“This multi-faceted exhibition carries many important messages not only about the sophistication of the great culture of ancient nomads but the importance of cultural communication in the twenty first century as well. Networking, partnering and being together is a road to survival and growth,” said Kazakhstan’s Ambassador to the U.S. Erlan Idrissov.
“This exhibition, which brings BC times to DC streets, will dispel many misperceptions about the nomadic cultures and nomadic societies,” said Ambassador Idrissov. He also noted “This exhibition is about gold. It is very timely right after the Olympics. So this is another bridge between ancient gold of nomads and modern gold of Olympics, where Kazakhstan took 12th place by winning historic 7 gold medals” prompting sincere laughter and applause from the audience.
He also shared his joy over the success of the project and thanked everyone involved in bringing the treasures from Kazakhstan to the US. He particularly pointed out generous contributions from Leon Levy Foundation, thanking its co-founder Shelby White. Also, he expressed his personal appreciation to Jennifer Chi, Exhibitions Director and Chief Curator, who in the words of the Ambassador, “traveled between New York city and Kazakhstan as a true nomad” to bring together the exhibition.
He continued, "because of successful cooperation with our partners, we are able to offer our American friends the beauty, elegance and sophistication of the work done by my Kazakh ancestors who made such a great, yet unsung contribution to the development of civilization."
Idrissov helped bring the exhibition to the Smithsonian, the world’s largest museum and research complex, with 19 museums, 9 research centers and more than 150 affiliate museums around the world.
Paul Taylor, Director of the Asian Cultural History Program for the Smithsonian, highlighted the importance of the exhibition as critical to understanding the evolvement of world civilization in an interview with "Silk Road Newsline". As an expert who worked on a number of Kazakhstan related projects, including a virtual exhibition "Discover Kazakhstan: the Expeditions of Chokan Valikhanov", he expressed his confidence that this kind of project would usher in a new level of cultural cooperation between our countries.
“I know that the Ambassador Idrissov was very anxious to have it come here and I know that Dr. Raby, the director of the Freer and Sackler Galleries, considers Kazakhstan an important part of their overall mission,” Taylor told Silk Road Newsline in an interview.
According to Alexander Nagel, assistant curator of Ancient Near Eastern Art at the Freer and Sackler Galleries and in-house curator of the exhibition, it was conceptualized, developed, and organized by New York University’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World in collaboration with the Ministries of Culture and Information and of Science and Education, Republic of Kazakhstan, and four major national museums in Kazakhstan and the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Washington, DC. “We will complement it with related special programming including gallery talks, lectures, a concert, ImaginAsia family programs, and films,” Nagel said.
He continued, “A country four times bigger than Texas and almost the size of India, Kazakhstan is rich with history and home to wild tulips, oil, nomads who still hunt with golden eagles, and more than one hundred nationalities. Bordering Russia to the north and China to the east, Kazakhstan is today the world’s ninth largest country and has emerged as one of the most fascinating places in Central Asia.”
“The exhibition dispels the notion that nomadic societies were less developed than sedentary ones. Rather, they are revealed to have been highly sophisticated, with strategic migratory routes and active networks of communication and cultural exchange with their neighbors,” according to a press release by the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) that hosted the exhibition from March 7 to June 3 in New York.
The exhibition is accompanied by a 200-page catalogue titled "Nomads and Networks: The Ancient Art and Culture of Kazakhstan" with 220 color illustrations published by the Princeton University Press. With essays by nine international scholars, the catalogue provides an unparalleled introduction to the ancient nomadic culture of Kazakhstan, exploring its distinctive but little-known patterns of life, the ISAW said. It is available at amazon.com for $38.48, ISBN-10: 0691154805.
The exhibition is on view in the Sackler Washington through November 2012. The video of the exhibition opening ceremony can be viewed at YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6xHJ6Cs9MY
Video of the exhibition is here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olB2Bq1Gve0&feature=related
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