Famous Museums of Kyrgyzstan
Famous Museums of Kyrgzstan are places for collecting, collecting, displaying, and researching physical objects representing natural and human cultural heritage, and categorizing those items of scientific, historical, or artistic value, providing cultural education for the public with knowledge, education and appreciation , Buildings, places, or public institutions.
Museums are non-profit, permanent institutions that are open to the public and provide services for social development, with the purpose of learning, education, and entertainment.
Kyrgyzstan State Historical Museum use to be called the Lenin Museum - and some older residents still refer to it as such. The ground floor houses temporary exhibits but the permanent exhibits depict the natural and political history of the country and the Soviet heritage. There is a statue of Lenin leading the revolutionary masses and a ceiling mural of a wedding party attended by the melting pot of the nationalities of the Soviet Union. The historical museum began life in 1926 in the "boyhood home" of Mikhail Frunze, now preserved as the Frunze Museum - in 1937 it was transferred to what is now the Friendship building (see Zoological Museum) before moving to it's present home in the 1980's.
Exhibits include stones with petroglyphs from Saimaly-Tash; armor and everyday objects dating from the Bronze Age; discoveries from archaeological excavations such as early nomadic adornments dating from the 1st to the 5th centuries (AD) - including golden artifacts from the Chui Valley's Shamshyn tomb; a Turkic stone culture collection; Talas stones with runic lettering; ceramic, glass and metal articles; and numerous ancient coins.
The museum has rich ethnographic collections of objects from the late 19th and early 20th centuries which include articles made of felt, wool, chuy, leather and wood made by Kyrgyz artisans; and collections of traditional Kyrgyz embroidery, fleecy and non-fleecy weaving, national dress, original women's adornments, and highly artistic horse harnesses. Many visitors also find of great interest materials from the Soviet period such as the collections of documents, photographs, paintings, drawings, sculptures, and gifts presented to the Kyrgyz Republic by foreign governments.
The Museum of Fine Arts dedicated to Kyrgyz folk and applied arts; Russian and Soviet Art - the museum began as the State Picture Gallery and was located in St. Nicholas Church in Oak Park. The Church now houses the Gallery of the Soviet Artists' Union.
The present building was built in 1974 as one of the projects in the grand scheme for improving the capital and features a yurt and a permanent exhibition of shyrdaks and other traditional crafts. The full collection numbers some 17,500 works of art: paintings, drawings, sculptures and examples of traditional decorative and applied arts. There are also several galleries of paintings from the Soviet period, a room of replicas of Egyptian, Greek and classical Western sculptures, and a collection of linocuts by Hertzen based on the Manas epic. The museum also houses temporary exihibits.
Frunze Museum traces the life and career of Mikhail Frunze - and what is supposed to be the house in which he was born and brought up is preserved on the ground floor (although there is some doubt whether this is the right house - it is typical of the period) - and there is an exhibition of the achievements of the city and Kyrgyz Republic during the Soviet period.