Art, Architecture, and Public Life: The Centre for Contemporary Arts Tashkent First-Year Programme

The Centre for Contemporary Arts Tashkent (CCA) opens to the public on 21 March 2026 as Uzbekistan’s first permanent institution dedicated to contemporary art, research, and community engagement. Founded by Gayane Umerova and led by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF), the CCA is envisioned as an open and inclusive cultural space that connects artists, thinkers, and audiences across Uzbekistan, Central Asia, and the wider international art world.

Located in the heart of Tashkent, the CCA is housed in a 1912 industrial building originally constructed as a diesel station and depot for the city’s first tram line. The building has undergone a careful transformation by acclaimed French architects Studio KO, who have preserved its industrial character while reinterpreting the space through traditional Uzbek materials, light-filtering architectural motifs, and flexible galleries designed to support a wide range of artistic practices and public uses.

Under the artistic leadership of Dr Sara Raza, Artistic Director and Chief Curator, the CCA’s first year establishes a year-round programme of exhibitions, public events, education, and research. Anchoring the opening programme is Hikmah (21 March – 30 June 2026), the Centre’s inaugural exhibition. Curated by Dr Raza, Hikmah—meaning “wisdom” in Uzbek—brings together site-specific works responding to the CCA’s architecture and spatial history. The exhibition features newly commissioned works by Muhannad Shono, Nari Ward, Shokhrukh Rakhimov, and Tarik Kiswanson, alongside works by Kimsooja and Ali Cherri, a loan from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum by Nadia Kaabi-Linke, and historic works from the Savitsky Museum in Nukus by Vladimir Pan, Daribay Saipov, and Bakhtiyar Saipov.

Alongside its programme in Tashkent, the CCA will present international projects that position Uzbek contemporary art within global dialogues. In May 2026, Vyacheslav Akhunov: Instruments of the Mind will open at Palazzo Franchetti in Venice as a collateral project of the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, presenting five decades of the artist’s practice, including previously unrealised and unseen works from the 1970s. Later in the year, Kabakov: The Centre for Cosmic Energy, guest curated by Zelfira Tregulova, will transform the CCA into a speculative, site-specific environment engaging with ideas of imagination, energy, and hope.

Public programming is central to the CCA’s mission as a civic and cultural meeting point. The Centre will open with a Navruz Gala and Festival (21–23 March 2026), followed by a wide-ranging programme including the Architectural Association Visiting School Uzbekistan, a three-year collaboration with the Architectural Association, London. Throughout the summer, Tashkent Summer Days will activate neighbourhoods across the city through a seven-week public art festival, while Tashkent Film Encounters in December 2026 will celebrate and reimagine the legacy of the historic Tashkent International Film Festival.

With free access for all, a library, workshop spaces, artist residencies, and education and professional development opportunities, the Centre for Contemporary Arts Tashkent is conceived as a shared space for dialogue, experimentation, and cultural exchange—supporting artistic practice today while investing in the next generation of cultural practitioners in Uzbekistan and beyond.