The institute was established in 1934 in Almaty city under the name Kazakh Research Institute of National Culture. Initially, it united several scientific and cultural institutions, including the Kazakh Central Archive, the Regional Museum, the State Library, and the Local History Bureau. The institute operated sectors of history and archaeology, literature and folklore, linguistic studies, visual arts, music, theatre, and choreography.
The institute’s historians conducted research on the archaeological monuments of Zhetysu and carried out systematic collection of sources on the history of Kazakhstan. In 1934–1935, they collected and prepared for publication more than 100 versions of the Kazakh heroic epic, 230 fairy tales, and about 4,500 proverbs and sayings, as well as other examples of oral folk literature. At the same time, Abai studies began to develop, and a special commission worked on preparing the Academic Dictionary of the Kazakh Language.
In the Visual Arts Sector, more than 300 types of Kazakh national ornament were collected and studied by the institute’s scholars. On 15 September 1935, the institute was entrusted with organizing the National Art Gallery.
The institute published its Proceedings and a number of literary collections, including the book The Past of Kazakhstan in Sources and Materials. Prominent scholars and public figures such as S. Mendeshev, T. Zhurgenov, S. Asfendiyarov, S. Seifullin, and S. Amanzholov actively participated in organizing the institute’s scientific activities.
On 25 August 1936, the institute was reorganized into the Sector of History, Kazakh Language and Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR. On its basis, several research institutes were later established: the Institute of National Culture and the Institute of Language and Literature (1942; today the A. Baitursynov Institute of Linguistics and the M.O. Auezov Institute of Literature and Art), as well as the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography (1945; today the Ch.Ch. Valikhanov Institute of History and Ethnology, the A.Kh. Margulan Institute of Archaeology, and the R.B. Suleimenov Institute of Oriental Studies).
In 1939, the institute was transformed into the Republican Center of Folk Art. In 1974, it was renamed the Republican Scientific and Methodological Center of Folk Art and Cultural-Educational Work, and in 1994 it became the Republican Center for Cultural Studies.
In 1998, the center regained the status of a research institute and was reorganized into the Kazakh Research Institute of Culture and Art Studies. In 2005, it was renamed the Institute of Cultural Policy and Art Studies. In 2012, the Kazakh Research Institute for the Study of Nomadic Cultural Heritage was merged with it, and the unified institution was named the Kazakh Research Institute of Culture.
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