Participation in the “Oimo” Festival and Conference: On July 2, 2025, the Aigine Cultural Research Center (Aigine CRC) team participated in the 19th International Festival of Traditional Culture and Crafts “Oimo” and the conference “Safeguarding Traditional Culture and Developing Creative Industries Based on Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH)” held in Karakol. Aigine CRC serves as a national partner of the festival and facilitated the participation of seven craftspeople from Kyrgyzstan’s southern regions. During the festival, the team documented traditional craft workshops, recorded various practices, household items, and musical instruments, and presented video materials dedicated to the national ICH database. At the conference, Aigine CRC presented two projects: “A Digital Journey into the World of Kyrgyzstan’s Cultural Heritage,” introduced by Cholponai Usubalieva, head of Aigine’s project department; “Development of a National Crafts Database in Kyrgyzstan,” presented by Aiza Abdyrahmanova, project coordinator at Aigine CRC. This year’s festival honored the memory of its founder Dinara Chochunbaeva, a longstanding partner of Aigine. At the conference, the Aigine team shared updates and interim results of these projects. The craftspeople who joined the team were recommended by field researchers active in the southern regions.

Exhibition of the 1925 “Erkin Too” Newspapers: On July 1, 2025, an exhibition featuring transliterated issues of the 1925 Erkin Too newspaper opened at the M. V. Frunze Museum. The exhibition includes 13 panels, each showcasing materials from various editions of the newspaper from that year. Each display is double-sided: one side features original articles printed in Arabic script, and the other provides their transliteration into Cyrillic. The exhibition was organized with support from the Pawanka Fund and in partnership with Soltek LLC. Professional assistance in designing and arranging the exhibition materials was provided by Asel Daniyarova.

Experience Exchange with Pawanka Fund: This week, the Aigine CRC team held an online meeting with representatives of the Pawanka Fund, exchanging experiences on team approaches and strategic planning. Pawanka representatives specifically commended Aigine’s internal division of responsibilities and requested sharing this practice with other partners of the fund.