Friends of the Nukus Museum
Want to join a growing and eclectic group of individuals working in international organizations, international financial institutions, NGOs, media, the private sector and just plain and simple cultural stalwarts who are supporting the Savitsky Collection?
If so, please join the Friends of the Nukus Museum (FoNM)!
Set up initially in Tashkent as an informal group during the early 1990s and later registered in Karakalpakstan as a non-governmental organization (NGO) in 2001, the Friends of Nukus Museum (FoNM) is a small, but dedicated international network of advocates and supporters. In 2007, it was re-constituted as the Friends of Nukus Museum Foundation, a Dutch registered charity. The FoNM works with the Museum's Director on a range of practical issues, such as development of the Museum’s long-term development strategy, liaising with donors and other museums to exhibit the Collection abroad, even down to the more mundane, but very essential, translation assistance and marketing advice.
What do Friends receive?
Those joining the Friends will be happy to know that 90% of their membership dues go directly to the Museum to finance practical assistance such as restoration of paintings, items for sale in the bookstore, the mounting of exhibitions, amongst others. In return, Friends receive
- An annual membership card, entitling them to one-year of free entry to the Museum, the world's second largest collection of Russian avant garde
- A Quarterly Newsletter, including an update of Museum activities
- Invitations to occasional events both in Uzbekistan and abroad relating to its activities.
Annual Membership
July 2008 - June 2009: 80 Euros or 100 USD
(download membership application form)
The FoNM's Board
David Pearce, Chairman
Kees Kramer, Deputy Chairman
Rada Lankina, Membership
Richard Dion, Treasurer
Marinika Babanazarova, ex-officio (Museum Director)
The Board has bi-weekly teleconference with the Museum's Director, Mrs. Marinika Babanazarova.
E-mail us for further information.
FoNM Newsletters and Notices
- February 2010
- October 2009
- July 2009
- April 2009
- October 2008
- July 2008
- Karakalpakia 101
- April 2008
- December 2007
- September 2007
- June 2007
The Desert of Forbidden Art
How does art survive in a time of oppression? During the Soviet rule artists who stay true to their vision are executed, sent to mental hospitals or Gulags.
Their plight inspires young Igor Savitsky. He pretends to buy state-approved art but instead daringly rescues 40,000 forbidden fellow artist's works and creates a museum in the desert of Uzbekistan, far from the watchful eyes of the KGB. Though a penniless artist himself, he cajoles the cash to pay for the art from the same authorities who are banning it. Savitsky amasses an eclectic mix of Russian Avant-Garde art. But his greatest discovery is an unknown school of artists who settle in Uzbekistan after the Russian revolution of 1917, encountering a unique Islamic culture, as exotic to them as Tahiti was for Gauguin. They develop a startlingly original style, fusing European modernism with centuries-old Eastern traditions.
Ben Kingsley, Sally Field and Ed Asner voice the diaries and letters of Savitsky and the artists. Intercut with recollections of the artists' children and rare archival footage, the film takes us on a dramatic journey of sacrifice for the sake of creative freedom. Described as "one of the most remarkable collections of 20th century Russian art" and located in one of the world's poorest regions, today these paintings are worth millions, a lucrative target for corrupt bureaucrats and art profiteers. The collection remains as endangered as when Savitsky first created it, posing the question whose responsibility is it to preserve this cultural treasure.
