Conclusion of Garage Training Course for Guides with Migration Experience: About the Program, Participants, and Graduate Tours

Participants of a training course for guides with migration experience, launched by Garage in 2022, conducted tours in their native languages ​​at Moscow’s major museums.

In February 2022, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art launched a training course for guides with migration experience. Participants attended museum studies and art history lectures and seminars, learned the legal and psychological aspects of working as a guide, and the nuances of interaction with various cultural institutions. During the training process, the future guides also visited different Moscow museums, allowing them to get acquainted with the current exhibitions and see how the museum operates from the institutional point of view.

Inter-museum cooperation played an important role in the preparation of guides with migration experience, with two of the three art history modules held at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and the State Tretyakov Gallery. Lectures were also held at the State Museum of Oriental Art, Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve, GES-2, the Museum of Russian Impressionism, and the Museum of Moscow.

The course ended with public guided tours delivered in Armenian, Dari, Karakalpak, Kyrgyz, and Uzbek languages, which were independently prepared by the program graduates with the support of the museums’ staff. Garage Museum of Contemporary Art would like to thank the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Museum of Oriental Art, Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve, and GROUND Solyanka Gallery for their assistance with the participants’ practical work.

About the participants

Aigerim Zhusupova was born in Naryn, Kyrgyzstan. She is a third-year BA student of the correspondence department of the Faculty of Russian Philology at Osh State Pedagogical University. She combines her studies with work in a bakery in Moscow. She is fluent in Kyrgyz and Russian and studies English and German. After graduation she plans to work as a teacher of Russian language and literature.

As part of the course, she prepared and conducted the children's tour Russian Fairy Tales in the Work of Viktor Vasnetsov at the State Tretyakov Gallery.

Alla Ilyina was born in Odessa, Ukraine. She graduated from the Faculty of Political Science of Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, worked as a freelance correspondent for Izvestia newspaper and did an internship at Gazeta.ru. She currently works as an administrator in a sports center. Alla has been doing photography for five years, specializing in portraits. She speaks Ukrainian, Russian, English, and Spanish.

As part of the course, she prepared a mediator's tour in Russian around the exhibition Subtle Citizens at Moscow Museum of Modern Art.

Asipa Zhumalieva was born in Naryn, Kyrgyzstan. She graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Michurinsk State Pedagogical Institute and received her PhD in Linguistics at Arabaev Kyrgyz State Pedagogical University. With many years of teaching experience to her name, she is an advisor to the Women's Dialogue International Public Peace Movement. In 2021, she collaborated with Garage as an interpreter of guided tours into Kyrgyz.

As part of the course, Asipa prepared and conducted the tour Ivan Morozov and the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Collections in Kyrgyz at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

Begam Karaeva was born in Guzar, Uzbekistan. She is associate professor at Uzbek State University of World Languages, teaches Uzbek at Moscow State Linguistic University, and is the director of Moscow State Linguistic University’s Center for Uzbek Language and Culture. She is fond of art, literature, and literary translation. She speaks Uzbek, Russian, English, and Persian.

As part of the course, Begam prepared and conducted a tour of Tsaritsyno State Museum-Reserve in Uzbek.

Gulnara Khudaibergenova was born in Chimbay, the Republic of Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan. She graduated from the Faculty of Engineering of Peoples' Friendship University of Russia and received her master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University’s Academy of Engineering. She works in the field of pharmaceutical logistics, while also volunteering for the Civil Assistance Committee (included by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in the register of NGO-foreign agents). She speaks Karakalpak, Uzbek, Russian, and English.

As part of the course, Gulnara prepared and conducted the tour Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Artists with Migration Experience. The Trace of Migration in Art in Karakalpak at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

Marie Martirosyan was born in Yerevan, Armenia. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees in Philology (Teacher of English Language and Literature) at Yerevan State University. She is fluent in Armenian, Russian, English, and Spanish. Marie is an English teacher, a volunteer at GROUND Solyanka Gallery, and co-author of a collage workshop for children. She writes poetry in Armenian (she is the author of the collection of poems Inside Four Colors) and hosts the Art with an Accent Telegram channel about contemporary art.

As part of the course, Marie prepared and conducted a mediator’s tour in Armenian for the exhibition and performance Point. 55.754630, 37.638530 at GROUND Solyanka Gallery.

Tabasomm Mohamad Kazim was born and raised in Afghanistan. She has been living with her family in Moscow for five years. In Russia, Tabasomm began to study Russian on her own and in 2021 entered university. She is a second-year student at the Faculty of International Relations of Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. In 2020, she participated as a volunteer translator in the Polytechnic Museum project Clouds of Different Sizes and Colors for children with migration experience.

As part of the course, Tabasomm prepared a tour about the culture of Afghanistan and the countries of Central Asia in Dari at the State Museum of Oriental Art.

Khurshed Saydumarov was born and raised in the Darvaz region of Tajikistan. He graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Tajik National University in Dushanbe in 2012 and the Faculty of Philology of Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (RUDN) in 2014. He has lived in Russia since 2012. Khurshed owns a translation agency and works as a translator. He knows Tajik, Persian, and Dari. In 2021, he collaborated with Garage as a translator.

Ykbal Tarykhchieva was born and raised in Kyrgyzstan. She has been living in Moscow and working at a cleaning company for almost six years. In 2021, she worked as a coordinator of guided tours with translation into Kyrgyz at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art.

As part of the course, Ykbal prepared and conducted a tour about the work of the art group The Itinerants in Kyrgyz at the State Tretyakov Gallery.

Yryskeldi Murzakhalilov was born and raised in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. He is a second-year student of the Faculty of International Law at the All-Russian Academy of Foreign Trade. He is fond of literature and cinema, basketball and cybersport tournaments. For Yryskeldi, participation in the course was an opportunity to reflect on the personal experience associated with migration through dialogue with other participants and immersion in art.

As part of the course, Yryskeldi prepared and conducted the tour Central Asia in the Works of Vasily Vereshchagin in Kyrgyz at the State Tretyakov Gallery.

Eliza Shaeva was born in Osh, Kyrgyzstan. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the Faculty of Journalism of the Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University and holds a master’s degree in Journalism from Anadolu University. For three years she has been living in Moscow, working as a commercial manager in a Turkish company. She runs a culinary blog in Kyrgyz.

As part of the course, she prepared and conducted the tour Rejected Masterpieces in Kyrgyz at the State Tretyakov Gallery.

About the organizers

Asel Rashidova (Osh) is a manager in Garage Inclusive Programs Department. As part of her work, Asel implements sociocultural projects for people with migration experience, including the Ilkhom art program for teenagers, the Point of Displacement Festival, and a training course for guides with migration experience. She has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Faculty of International Journalism of Moscow Institute of International Relations and was an intern at RANEPA’s Institute for Social Sciences, where she researched the Kyrgyz information infrastructure in Moscow.

Marina Romanova (Moscow) is the course methodologist and teacher and the manager of public programs in Garage Education Department. She holds a master’s degree in Museum Studies from the Faculty of Art History of Russian State University for the Humanities, specializing in sociocultural projects, and a bachelor's degree in Political Journalism from the Department of Communication, Media and Design of the Higher School of Economics. She is the creator of sociocultural projects dealing with art mediation and podcasts in museums.

Alena Lobyntseva (Moscow) is the course methodologist and teacher and teaches Russian as a foreign language at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art. She is a graduate of Moscow’s Gorky Literary Institute (Yevgeny Rein’s poetry seminar), author of poetry publications, participant in literary forums for young writers, and a radio host. Head and methodologist of the all-Russian shifts in journalism and children's diplomacy at the Orlyonok All-Russian Children's Center. She completed a course on the basics of working with people with migration and forced migration experience at Garage.

Elena Demyanova (Moscow) is the course coordinator, a pedagogue specializing in working with neurodiverse people at Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, and a volunteer on social and cultural projects for neurodiverse people. She is a second-year bachelor’s student on the philosophy program in the Faculty of Humanities at the Higher School of Economics. She completed the course Various Concepts of Inclusion and Their Implementation in Education and Culture, a collaboration project of Garage and Moscow State Linguistic University.