Art Station in Samarkand

Art Station

Ipak Yo'li San'at Galereyasi
Established	2022
Location	Samarkand, Uzbekistan
Type	Contemporary art gallery and residency
Founder	Aziz Abdukhakimov
Director	Dona Kulmatova
Website	artstation.uz

Art Station is an art cluster in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, comprising two distinct spaces: an art gallery and an art residency. Art Station combines the role of exhibition space, multifunctional educational space, art residency, and research institution. Starting as a public-private partnership, Art Station became an important art cluster in Uzbekistan. The organization involves international artists and cultural experts from Central Asia, European Union, UK, UAE and Switzerland, empowering creative professionals from Uzbekistan to work internationally. The organization sees itself as a showcase and role model for a new generation of cultural practitioners in Central Asia with a high standard of cultural management, implementing Leave No One Behind (LNOB) and community-based approaches to peaceful coexistence.

Since its inception, Art Station Residency has made a significant impact by organizing numerous exhibitions, projects, and events that bring together diverse creative voices. Within its first year, Art Station developed a strong foundation of international and local partnerships, fostering an environment of cross-cultural collaboration. It provides young artists with a platform to express themselves, collaborate with peers, and gain valuable experience in a supportive setting.

Art Station consists of two primary spaces:

• Art Gallery Space – a 300m² exhibition hall near the Samarkand railway station designed to showcase contemporary artworks
• Art Residency Space – a 3500 m² in the Samarkand city centre with fully equipped exhibition spaces, classes for educational activities, workshop rooms for artists-in-residence work

Additionally, Art Station provides services such as cultural mapping, art curatorship, event management, and research in heritage and community development.

The Art Station was established in 2022 with the initiative of the Minister of Ecology, Environmental Protection, and Climate Change of the Republic of Uzbekistan Aziz Abduhakimov, by the Silk Road International University of Tourism and Cultural Heritage. The gallery and residency spaces were revitalized with the consulting of Uzbekistan architect Dona Kulmatova, who became the first director of the Art Station cluster. She is an architecture and environment designer, deeply committed to the preservation of Central Asia's architectural heritage. She earned her master's degree in building preservation and heritage conservation at the University of Applied Sciences, Potsdam, Germany. Her research focused on the architecture of the palaces of the Bukhara Emirs from the late 19th to early 20th century, utilizing inventory and typological comparisons to develop preservation concepts.^[1]