Culture ministry to reorganise museums, restore Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts
The museum venue will receive much-needed attention for its structural integrity, renovation and safeguarding of exhibits. Photo via Georgian National Museum.
Tweet 
Share
Georgia's newly appointed Minister of Culture, Sport and Youth Thea Tsulukiani has revealed her ministry's plans to restore the Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts as part of a reorganisation of the Georgian National Museum network.
The venue, housing some of the major exhibits including early Medieval religious iconography and accessories, items of historical architecture and monumental painting, will receive some much-needed attention 100 years after the founding of its original predecessor and seven decades after it found home in its current building in Tbilisi.
Speaking at a press conference at the museum on Tuesday, Tsulukiani called the announcement a "significant day for the culture ministry" and the project a "major generational endeavour". The minister's unveiling of the plan came as part of her announcement of a reshuffle of museums across the country.
'The Nativity', dated back to the 1090s from the Ateni Sion in East Georgia. Copy by S. Mirzashvili from 1936. Photo via Georgian National Museum.
Closed over the recent years due to the need of a major renovation, the move to restore its vaults will take "very significant human and financial effort", Tsulukiani told the press briefing while noting the scope of the venue in its past capacity of up to 140 thousand exhibits.
While the building housing the items will be the central point of the project - a "thorough study" of its structural sustainability is in the plan - its famous exhibits will also need to be verified by local and foreign professionals to determine if they can be moved safely.
The culture minister told local press UNESCO experts would visit Georgia before June to assess some of the most valuable historical icons from the vaults of the museum for effects of corrosion and other risks.
'Abstract Composition', a 1927 work by painter David Kakabadze found in vaults of the museum. Photo via Georgian National Museum.
Named after art historian and scientist Shalva Amiranashvili, the museum is part of the Georgian National Museum (GNM) network and houses exhibits of Georgian, Russian, European and Oriental culture, works of Georgian painters, items of jewellery craft and embroidery, and more.
As part of Tsulukiani's announcement of its reorganisation, the GNM will be split into four museum groups, with the Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts, the National Gallery and the Sighnaghi Museum of History and Ethnography forming one of the clusters.
The Museum of Sports and the Giorgi Chitaia Museum of Ethnography will be organised separately, with the rest of the venues under GNM aegis grouped with the Simon Janashia Museum of Georgia.
A four-person directorate will manage the new formations, with their work coordinated by the GNM Director General.
Georgia's former justice minister Thea Tsulukiani has been appointed Minister of Culture, Sport and Youth and will lead the reorganised state body after its separation from the Ministry of Education and Science.
If you are in Tbilisi, you are invited to learn about pioneers of 20th century Georgian art and see some of their most fascinating works at the Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts starting tomorrow.
Tbilisi's Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts invites art enthusiasts to celebrate the legacy of 20th Century Georgian and foreign avant-garde artists within International Museum Day celebrations today.
An unknown painting of famous Georgian self-educated artist Niko Pirosmani is now on display for the first time in Georgia.
Over the next week, venues of the Georgian National Museum network will open their doors to the public with an array of tours, book presentations, talks, displays and educational programmes to mark the latest Georgian National Museum Fest.
The restoration of Shalva Amiranashvili Fine Arts Museum in Tbilisi will involve State Academy of Arts students, while the venue will also see artwork removed from its collections in 2010 returned to its vaults, following initiatives of the culture ministry under the recently appointed minister Thea Tsulukiani.
Georgian-based theatre companies and cultural collectives aiming to bring performances and initiatives to the country's regions can enter grant competitions unveiled by the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Youth and benefit from financing for their ideas.
Researching and preserving monuments of cultural heritage in Georgia and abroad, developing a structured cultural education, and supporting artists and institutions of creative industries with programmes were revealed as part of plans of the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Youth for the next decade, presented by minister Thea Tsulukiani in Tbilisi on Wednesday.
The Ministry of Culture, Sport and Youth has denied media reports on a possibility of the long-neglected Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts, a major cultural venue in central Tbilisi, being demolished, after an opposition-minded TV channel and social media rumours indicated nefarious plans in place for removing the building.
A protest in central Tbilisi involving activists, artists and citizens on Thursday demanded publication of culture ministry's plans for the Fine Arts Museum collections, transparency around the venue's fate and professional involvement in its restoration.
Georgia's nine-time Summer Olympic Games participant and three-time Olympic medal winner Nino Salukvadze will head the planned Museum of Georgian Sport, with the Minister of Culture, Sport and Youth, Thea Tsulukiani, announcing the appointment along with other details on the museum project on Wednesday.
The Ministry of Culture, Sport and Youth of Georgia has revealed a brand-new space designated to house the upcoming Museum of Georgian Sport, with minister Thea Tsulukiani unveiling the location selected for displaying historical exhibits in capital Tbilisi on Wednesday.
A group of citizens and culture field professionals gathered outside the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Youth of Georgia on Friday to demand resignation of minister Thea Tsulukiani and end to "Bolshevik purges" at culture institutions, following layoffs from the Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts and a recent spat between the ministry and the Literature Museum over a newly published poetry collection.
The Georgian Culture Ministry on Tuesday announced it had returned four paintings by Georgian artists to the country from the Georgian Embassy in Iran, and said 11 other pieces were "missing" from a group of works moved out of the country in the 1990s.
Social Justice Center and Georgian Young Lawyers Association, two Georgian non-governmental organisations, will represent Georgian National Museum employees who have been recently relieved of jobs or demoted in positions in cases the NGOs claim show prejudice.
Three international bodies of cultural heritage monuments and museums have questioned the culture ministry's plans for evacuating precious exhibits of the Tbilisi-based Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts, as well as what they see as a lack of participation of relevant professionals in the planned rehabilitation of the major venue.