Yuldasheva Manzura Borikhodzhaevna
Yuldasheva Manzura Borikhodzhaevna is a leader in the field of museum management in Uzbekistan. She cites the British Council’s support as a key driver for the field’s development in the country.
Manzura is a professor at Uzbekistan's State Institute of Arts and Culture's Department of Organization and Management of Cultural and Art Institutions. Her cooperation with the British Council began in 2016 when she participated in the Art Management project. Later, between 2018 and 2020, she took part in the Museum Management project.
This initiative was developed in collaboration with the British Council and Goldsmiths, University of London. It was launched with support from the Foundation for the Development of Culture and Art, an arm of Uzbekistan's Ministry of Culture. The long-term museum management program was delivered through a series of five-day seminars at Uzbekistan's State Institute of Culture.
The training guided participants through lessons on why people visit museums, visitor expectations, identifying and analyzing potential audiences, and developing a strategy for increasing visitor numbers, as well as sessions on events, interpretation, marketing, and communications.
“In recent years, it has become obvious that museum activities in Uzbekistan are acquiring more and more sociocultural significance. This is a rising role for museums in maintaining and interpreting cultural heritage, including in the complex processes of social adaptation associated with cultural identification, as well as in the development of education and the organisation of recreational activities,” - said Manzura.
“Contemporary museums in Uzbekistan are becoming centres of education, communication of cultural information, and creative innovation. Museums are faced with such an urgent task to attract a new audience to their halls,” - added Manzura.
To seize this moment, museums in Uzbekistan needed to adopt new management approaches and engage in the development and implementation of long-term growth strategies that would create a sustainable financial model for the museums. Throughout the program, "issues about personnel training and mastering museum administration tasks surfaced." The project launched by the British Council helped to develop and improve our houses of culture and history,” - stated Manzura.
Manzura and her team saw the British Council initiative as an opportunity to develop new museum management skills and think critically about how the public should interact with the museum. Additionally, the experience of studying from Goldsmith's teachers equipped Manzura and her colleagues with new abilities they could use while teaching their pupils in Uzbekistan.
Manzura has continued to engage with British Council projects. In February 2021, she participated in two webinars entitled “Empowering Women and Girls in Creative Education and the Creative Industry” and "Gender Equality and Momentum for the Development of the Creative Industry.” These classes prompted Manzura to consider how gender discrimination has persisted as a problem in museum settings and in the classroom. The webinars provided methods that could be used to help instructors empower female students while raising awareness of their rights and the importance of seizing opportunities.
Manzura also took advantage of the support provided by the British Council through the Creative Spark project. She and her team developed a curriculum for Creative Entrepreneurship to be included in the project and introduced to the Institute of Culture and Art. This year, the institute won two prizes in a nationwide contest focused on recognising entrepreneurial universities due to initiatives like those led by Manzura.
As the British Council marks its 25th year of activities in Uzbekistan, Manzura is eager to express her gratitude to the organisation. “I would like to express my optimism for our continued collaboration with the British Council on culture and art to foster the growth of creative entrepreneurship in Uzbekistan. Together, we can scale far greater heights,” - she concluded.