Year 2018: Country’s significant achievements in cultural field

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Last year was marked by big achievements in the cultural field and mainly in the museum activities.

Collections of museums, which are the storage places of the country's historical cultural heritage, were enriched, numerous international events were organized. At the same time, international relations of country`s museums were expanded.

House-museums of prominent personalities were created, museum buildings were reconstructed.

The opening ceremony of the house-museum of public figure, prominent playwright, literary critic, public figure Bakhtiyar Vahabzade was held in Sheki in August. The museum exposition includes books, manuscripts, photos and archives, personal belongings presented by the poet's family. Totally over 700 exhibits are displayed there.

A new exposition opened in Shamakhi Regional History and Ethnography Museum within the framework of Nasimi Festival of Poetry, Arts, and Spirituality. At present, the museum has more than 7,000 exhibits.

In addition, three engravings from the 17th century, which depict Shamakhi were donated to the museum by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation.

These art works were obtained from European countries and brought to Azerbaijan. The engravings belong to famous German traveler and geographer Adam Olearia (1603-1671), Dutch traveler Jan Jansen Streis (1630-1694) and German book publisher Olfert Dapper.

In accordance with the decree of President Ilham Aliyev, the 100th anniversary of the great composer, USSR People's Artist Gara Garayev was celebrated with gala events. The opening ceremony of the great musician's house-museum was held at Nizami street in October. The world-renowned composer spent his youth in this house and created his first works, including the famous "Seven Beauties" ballet.

Moreover, the third building of the Azerbaijan National Art Museum opened after major overhaul and reconstruction. 

Expositional halls were expanded and the seismic durability of the building was increased. More than 2,000 exhibits are presented to the public in the third building of the National Art Museum. Overall, the museum collection includes about 18,000 exhibits.

During the last year, numerous exhibitions and events were held at the National Museum of Art, Baku Museum Center, National Carpet Museum, as well as Azerbaijan State Museum of Musical Culture.

An exhibition dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Caucasian-Islamic Army, jointly launched by the Republic Hall and Turkish Embassy in Azerbaijan and Yunus Emre Institute in Baku solemnly opened at the National Museum of Independence. The exhibitions and lectures devoted to the 100th anniversary of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic were held.

Collections of the Carpet Museum were renewed, and the number of visitors increased. In 2017, the number of the museum visitors was 85,000 people, but last year this figure reached up to 110,000.

In addition, two unique carpets of the 17th century "Khatai" dragon carpet and "Nakhchivan" carpet were presented to the museum by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation.

The museum collection was also enriched by the 19th century Guba carpet "Hajiqameb" presented by Italian collector Mirko Kattai.

Besides, Guba group carpet “Sirt-Chichi" and Baku group carpet "Khila-buta" were also included in the museum's collection.

The 3rd International Symposium of Common Languages of Turkic World – Patterns and Decorative Art and Interior Conference were held in the Carpet Museum.

Today Azerbaijan possesses a great cultural legacy. The country is further expected to continue the implementation of numerous projects in this field, enrich the collections and restore the buildings of the museums.