Data art, infographics, 2026
Meerim Emil kyzy
The work is based on data on the gender ratio of museum workers from its founding to the present. The visualization shows the historical transformation of the professional environment: how the ratio has changed depending on historical and economic events in the country. How war, economic crisis, and independence provoke social changes that are invisible in everyday life but so clearly visible in numbers. We see a clear predominance of women in almost every year except the 1930s. Why? How did Khrushchev’s reforms influence employees’ attitudes toward museum work? How did museum workers survive the transitional period of the 1990s, and how did independence affect the gender ratio? In this infographic, we provide answers to these questions in figures. The work is based on data taken from the archives of the G. Aitiev Kyrgyz National Museum of Fine Arts and the Central State Archives of the Kyrgyz Republic.
“It always feels like the museum is just a temple that is standing there, was standing there, and will be standing there throughout—like we will be gone and the museum will still be here. It always feels like that because it has this kind of timeless feeling. But in reality, we are not an exception from the outside world, and we can clearly see it in numbers.
So in 1939, we clearly see that it’s just one woman among five men, and the distinction is very visible, especially if you look at the data. At that time, the museum work was primarily a male job, just because it was considered political work, and that’s why it was very, very well paid. But then, when we move on to 1945, we see that the number of men drastically drops because of the war. There are mostly women working there. And then we see this tendency throughout all the years that the museum has existed. But, for example, in 1963, that’s the only year when we have an equal amount of men and women. And it’s understandable why it’s so, because it’s already the post-war years.”
🎧 Meerim Emil kyzy
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