The Almaty Museum of Arts is a museum of modern art that will be built by collector and philanthropist Nurlan Smagulov. The basis of the exposition will be made of the 20th century works of Kazakh and world art from Mr. Smagulov’s personal collection.

"We are building the museum in order to provide all the people with an opportunity to see the works of Central Asian and world artists and to popularize modern art. I would like to say thank you to the akimat represented by Bakytzhan Abdirovich for their support and for the land plot allocated to the museum in the very heart of Almaty,” Nurlan Smagulov said.

The museum will be located on the crossing of Al-Farabi and N. Nazarbayev Avenues, on an area of 1.7 ha that was provided by the akimat of Almaty. The architectural design of the Almaty Museum of Arts was prepared by Chapman Taylor, a UK bureau with a large experience of designing public and cultural facilities.

The architects' principal task was to create a space for exhibiting different works of art and a new architectural sightseeing attraction of Almaty. The museum will consist of two crossing L-shaped buildings symbolizing the Mountains and the City, which create a covered inner space and connect the main entrance to the museum from N. Nazarbayev Avenue and the entrance on the side of the new Ballet Theater. This space, which evokes an image of a mountain gorge, is the museum’s main "thoroughfare.” The building with a total area of 10,400 sq. m will host halls for permanent and temporary expositions, a library, a site for stage performances and concerts, premises to hold educational programs for children and adults, a café, a restaurant, and, of course, a professional repository for works of art.

The Almaty Museum of Arts was designed by Chapman Taylor in cooperation with Lord Cultural Resources, a global company offering design services for museums, art galleries, and other cultural institutions. Lord Cultural Resources worked on San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Museum of Islamic Art of Qatar in Doha, Pompidou Center and Louvre in Paris. Engineering advice was provided by Buro Happold, an international company with 40 years of experience in designing engineering solutions for museums. The company developed engineering systems for Louvre Abu Dhabi, the British Museum in London, and LACMA in Los Angeles.

The exhibition halls of the Almaty Museum of Arts will meet all the requirements of world museums, so that Almaty will be able to host their exhibitions. For instance, the temporary exhibition hall will have an area of 1,000 sq. m, and the ceiling height of 12 m will allow for displaying monumental exhibits.

The construction of the museum will start in November 2021, and the opening is expected in 2023. The Almaty Museum of Arts will meet all international criteria, and will be able to host well-known exhibitions and works of the world art.