The British Council has launched a tri-lingual web-site for the museums of Kazakhstan www.kazakhstan-museums.com, within the framework of its 3-year ”Modernisation of Museums” project.

To enhance her international profile and her image abroad and to attract tourists, Kazakhstan needs to make information in English available online and in print form. This is particularly relevant to the promotion of its unique cultural and historic heritage, accumulated in Kazakhstan’s museums.

The first year the project, called “Month in Museums”, engaged Kazakhstani students of the English language from Almaty Universities and British students of the Russian language from UK Universities. They worked for one month, over their summer holidays, to translate labels and museum guidebooks from Russian and Kazakh into English. The second year - “Museums Online” was dedicated to the 20th anniversary of Kazakhstan’s Independence and engaged students of IT departments, to come up with the design for an online catalogue of museums.

Furthermore, the British Council saw the development of a web-site for the country’s museums as an opportunity to engage young creative Kazakh graphic designers and artists to determine how Kazakhstan should be promoted online. A national competition for visual design of the web-site for museums attracted contemporary and fresh designs. The winning design can be seen on www.kazakhstan-museums.com which is up and running as from 2012.

Web-site visitors can view the museum brochures online, or download, while picture gallery will give a sneak preview of unique exhibits and artefacts from various museums.

By the end of 2012 fifty museums, from all over Kazakhstan, will have English Language brochures, and an on-line presence, for many this will be the first time in their histories.  These are indispensible resources for anyone interested in Central Asia’s remarkable history.  

You may see photos from the website presentation here.