Department of Art History

Since 2009, the department has opened a postgraduate program in the specialty: 17.00.02 Musical art. 

Since 2011, the department has been providing professional training in a multi-level system: bachelor's degree, specialty, postgraduate studies. In accordance with the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard for Higher Education, the department provides teaching and carries out educational, methodological and research work in the disciplines of the basic and variable parts of the 1st block in all areas of ASICS training, in particular, "Culture and Art of the peoples of the Arctic".

1. Research in the field of musical culture of the peoples of North Asia
2. Research of the material and spiritual culture of the peoples of Yakutia
3. Music pedagogy

In the framework of realization of the Academic Leadership Program of AGIKI «Priority-2030. Far East» on November 9-10, 2023, the Department of Art History together with the Museum and the Center of Khomus of the Peoples of the World held the All-Russian scientific and practical conference «Cultural code of khomus (vargan) in the historical, socio-cultural space». The main purpose of the conference was a comprehensive discussion of the problems of cultural and art history comprehension of the role of khomus (wargan) in traditional and modern culture, formation of new scientific views and ideas about khomus (wargan) and khomus (wargan) music in the context of development of creative industry of Yakutia. The conference was attended by leading specialists from different branches of sciences: ethnographers, historians, philologists, musicologists, art historians, cultural scientists, teachers, medical workers, as well as masters and representatives of various cultural and educational institutions of RS(Ya) and the Russian Federation. The geography of the participants is represented by the regions: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Goryachiy Klyuch of Krasnodar region, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky of Kamchatka region, Dudinka of Krasnoyarsk region, Kyzyl of the Republic of Tyva and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

From February to December 2024, Varvara Dyakonova, Associate Professor, and Nadezhda Varlamova, postgraduate student in the framework of the Priority 2030 program. The Far East"according to the project "Musical heritage of the northern Sakha: exploratory field research, fixation and creative promotion" participated in expeditions to the Abysky, Verkhoyansky and Ust-Yansky uluses of Yakutia. The project manager is O.E. Dobzhanskaya, professor. The project was aimed at studying the musical heritage of the northern Sakha people living in the Arctic villages of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia); Abyysky, Verkhoyansky and Ust-Yansky uluses.

During the expeditions, audio, photo and video recording of the ethnocultural heritage, collection of folklore material, career guidance work with schoolchildren, shooting of photo and video material from master classes and video recording of carriers of traditional culture of the peoples of the North were carried out. The project also included master classes on traditional and innovative techniques of playing the khomus; advanced training courses on Computer music programs; Sibelius music editor; and the musical heritage of the Northern Sakha: ceremonial tunes of Taҥalai yryat, khabarҕa yryat, murun yryat, hoҥsuo yry; republican competition of Yakut musical instrument makers «Legacy of Prokopy Egorovich Sleptsov » Oyuun Borokupai» Round table dedicated to the memory of the bearer of the traditional musical culture of Sakha, the master of making Yakut musical instruments Prokopy Egorovich Sleptsova - Oyuun Borokupai.

On December 16, 2024, as part of the project "Priority 2030", the digitalization of the cultural heritage of the peoples of the North and the Arctic and the scientific school of Professor Yu.I. Sheikin by the department together with the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography named after Peter the Great (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences held an All-Russian scientific and practical conference with international participation in memory of the musicologist, researcher of musical folklore of the peoples of North Asia, Professor Yu.I. Sheikin. The conference was held at the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. Peter the Great (Kunstkamera) (St. Petersburg). At the conference, the problems of studying and preserving the intangible cultural heritage of the peoples of North Asia, Siberia and the Far East were discussed, Yu.I. Sheikin's scientific contribution to Russian and world Siberian studies was comprehended, and prospects for further activities were identified. The conference was attended by art historians (musicologists, ethnomusicologists), researchers in the field of philology, folklore studies, ethnography, archeology, cultural studies, teachers, information technology specialists, and other scientists from the city of Anadyr, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Astrakhan, Blagoveshchensk, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Saint Petersburg, Saratov, Ulan-Ude, Yakutsk. In addition, foreign researchers from Berkeley (USA), Kanoes (France) and Leeuwarden (the Netherlands) took part.

Since 2021, together with the National Library of the RS(Ya), the Institute for Humanitarian Studies and Problems of the Indigenous Peoples of the North, the department has been working within the framework of the project on digitalization of the cultural heritage of the indigenous peoples of the North of the North "Territory of sustainable development". The project is based on the digitalization of a collection of audio recordings, magnetic tapes, and cassettes about the musical heritage of the peoples of the North by Yuri Ilyich Sheikin. The project is designed to preserve this colossal heritage, which began to be collected back in the 1960s. The second part of the collection consists of musical instruments. A Museum of musical instruments of the peoples of Northern Asia has been created on the basis of ASHIKA. The collection of Yuri Sheikin, where a small part of a huge collection consisting of almost 200 instruments is presented. The staff of the department is currently working on compiling a catalog of musical instruments of the peoples of North Asia. In 2024, the staff of the department received two certificates for the State registration of the database. Within the framework of the REC "North" is the territory of sustainable development.; the database "Collection of musical instruments of the peoples of Northern Asia by Professor Yuri Sheikin: harps" has been registered (Dyakonova V.E., Ignatieva T.I., Sleptsova M.V. Database "Collection of musical instruments of the peoples of Northern Asia by Professor Yuri Sheikin: harps". Certificate of registration of the database RU 2024622434, 06/04/2024. Application dated 05/24/2024). Database of the musical heritage of the Northern Sakha: Verkhoyansky ulus (district) Yakutia" (Dyakonova V.E., Varlamova N.N., Neustroev P.S., Nikiforova V.S., Cherkashin V.V. Database of the musical heritage of the Northern Sakha: Verkhoyansky ulus (district) Yakutia". Certificate of registration of the database RU 2024623340, 07/26/2024. The application dated 07/15/2024) was prepared and registered within the framework of Priority 2030. The Far East.

In order to develop regional musicology and music pedagogy, the department annually holds a scientific and practical conference of young scientists "Postgraduate readings" (since 2012) and a student scientific and practical conference "Current issues of contemporary art studies and Music Pedagogy: problems and prospects" (since 2014). Since 2024, the student scientific and practical conference "Current issues of modern art studies and music pedagogy: problems and prospects"; It acquired the status of a regional interuniversity conference with the participation of the Kurmangazy Kazakh National Conservatory, the Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University, the Altai State Institute of Culture, and the Niyazaly Osh State Music College. In 2025, the conference proceedings were published under the general editorship of Ph.D. V.E. Kholmogorova. 

On February 21, 2025, the XII Regional Interuniversity Student Scientific and Practical Conference with international participation "Topical issues of modern art studies, cultural studies and music pedagogy: problems and prospects" was held at ASHI. The conference was organized and hosted by the Department of Art History of the Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts, Altai State Institute of Culture, Kazakh National Pedagogical University named after Abai, Kazakh National Conservatory named after Kurmangazy and Kazakh National Academy of Arts named after Temirbek Zhurgenov.A total of 39 students and expert teachers from Kazakhstan, the Altai Territory, and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) took part in the conference. The experts of the conference were teachers from Kazakhstan, the Altai Territory and the Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts. For students in the field of Musicology and Applied Music, the annual conference is a traditional scientific platform for testing the topics of coursework and graduation papers on music pedagogy, considering the issues of the regional component in music lessons, as well as presenting their own practical experience. At the conference. Held on February 20, 2025. Students of the direction "Painting"; and "Graphics" turned to the analysis of the work of artists and sculptors and their individual works.

In the scientific research of a student studying in the field of "Library and Information Activities", the topic "The functionality of deities associated with music" was considered, in which she turned to images from ancient, Russian, and Yakut mythology. The student of the Vocal Art direction examined the work of the Yakut graphic artist A. Munkhalov from the point of view of reflecting musical means of expression in it. The report of a student from Barnaul was devoted to the organization of family musical holidays in the Preschool educational Institution. A student of the Kazakh National Pedagogical University named after Abai introduced the conference participants to the work of the modern composer of Kazakhstan Almas Serkebayev. A very detailed and interesting report was given by a student of the Kurmangazy Kazakh National Conservatory, which highlighted the genre of comic opera in Kazakhstan.

A separate block was made by members of the AGICA Student Scientific Society, who presented interesting reports within the framework of the project "Scientific Duets", which brought together students from 1st to 4th years of different specialties and fields of study.

Many of the presentations were highly appreciated by the experts and organizers of the conference, as the scientific papers presented have a high degree of relevance and novelty. Thus, expert T.U. Ospanova from Kazakhstan received a review, which noted the high level of organization of the conference, the variety of topics of presentations, the interest of students, which is an indicator of the development of science and the gradual formation of the scientific potential of the younger generation, as well as the originality of approaches to the problems under consideration. The expert commission assessed the relevance of the research, the completeness of the topic disclosure, the degree of mastery of the material and its presentation, and the answers to questions. According to the results of the conference, the students who presented the best reports were identified. Their works were awarded diplomas of I, II, III degrees. A collection of materials will be released based on the results of the conference.

In the period from 2014 to 2016, the staff of the department, together with the staff of the Institute for Humanitarian Studies and Problems of Indigenous Peoples of Siberia, participated in the activities of the Laboratory for Integrated Geocultural Research of the Arctic (LCGIA), established under a grant from the Russian Science Foundation under project No. 14-38-00031 (project leader D.N. Zamyatin, head of the Laboratory E.N. Romanova). As part of the LKGIA's activities, field studies were conducted in the Magadan Region, Khanty-Mansiysk, Chukotka, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrugs, Taimyr Dolgano-Nenets Municipal District of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Verkhoyansky, Oleneksky districts of Yakutia. An international conference "Geocultural Images of the Arctic" (Yakutsk, 2015) was held. Arctic Art Biennale (Yakutsk, 2016). Scientific publications have been published: "Laboratory of Integrated Geocultural Research of the Arctic: a road project" (Yakutsk, 2014), the first issue of the series "Letters in the Snow"; "Sacred songs of the Kazim Khanty Bear Festival" (Yakutsk, 2016) and a fundamental collective monograph "Geocultural images of the Arctic: a view from the Pole of Cold" and a collection of materials from the International Conference "Geocultural Images of the Arctic" have been prepared. In 2017, the results of the research activities of the Integrated Geocultural Research Laboratory of the Arctic were published in the collective scientific monograph "Geocultures of the Arctic: methodology of analysis and Applied Research" (under the general editorship of D.N. Zamyatin, E.N. Romanova). In 2020 A collective monograph by scientists from the Géocultures Laboratory has been published in Canada (University of Quebec, Montreal). Méthodologies russes sur l’Arctique="GEOCULTURES: Russian methods in the Arctic" (Montréal, Imaginaire Nord, coll. "Isberg", 2020 (in French language), which reveals different discourses of understanding the North and the Arctic. The monograph includes articles by the foreign researcher D. Chartier "Une méthodologie arctique intégrée venue du froid : l’apport de la Yakoutie"; (Integrated Arctic Methodology of Cold: contribution of Yakutia) and Russian scientists D.N. Zamyatin «L’ontologie du froid, les images culturelles et les représentiments de paysages culturels des villes du Nord et de l’Arctique» (Ontology of cold, cultural images and representations of cultural landscapes of northern and Arctic cities), E.N. Romanova and O.E. Dobzhanskaya "Les gens qui s’endorment pour l’hiver". "tude du chronotope mythopo"tique : vers une anthropologie du froid" (People who fall asleep for the winter. The Study of the Mythopoeic Chronotope: towards the Anthropology of Cold) and O.A. Lavrenova «Paysages culturels de l’Arctique. Inversion de l’axe axiologique du monde occidental» (Cultural landscapes of the Arctic. Inversion of the axiological axis of the Western world).

In order to promote the main ideas and methodology in the scientific community of the RS(Ya), the staff of the Laboratory of Integrated Geocultural Research of the Arctic Dobzhanskaya O.E. together with the chief researcher of IGIiPMNS SB RAS, Doctor of Historical Sciences E.N. Romanova, gave an open lecture "Anthropology of cold: methodology, concepts, images (in Russian the example of the cultural traditions of the indigenous peoples of the North and the Arctic)» (National Library of the RS(Ya), 02/19/2020, face-to-face + online broadcast on YouTube)).

During the pandemic, the faculty of the department actively worked on the development and conduct of online lectures. This is how online lectures by Z.I. Ivanova-Unarova "Culture and decorative arts of the peoples of the Arctic" (10/15/2020, AGIKI), "Clothing and jewelry of the peoples of Beringia: Inuit, Tlingit, Aleut" (02/12/21; https://youtu.be/1shQ8zwGIl0 ); O.E. Dobzhanskaya "Musical folklore of the small peoples of the Arctic as an intangible cultural heritage of Russia" (02/11/2021; https://youtu.be/EPQ8QhVxQrU ); T.I. Ignatieva «Song traditions of Tundra and taiga Yukaghirs» (12/29/2020, AKMNS), V.E. Dyakonova «Harps of the peoples of the World: Varieties and Classification» (11/17/2020, Khomus Museum of the Peoples of the World), by N.I. Sanyakhova, "Zakhar Stepanov's Lullaby Opera" (03.11.20), "Zakhar Stepanov: Music for the Theater" (06.11.20), etc.

Within the framework of the republican projects "Music for All" in the Republic of Korea and "Epoch and Music" of the National Library of the Republic of Korea, teachers and graduate students of the department also conducted online lectures: O.E. Dobzhanskaya "Musical folklore of Nganasan" a unique a cultural phenomenon of Arctic deer hunters (Taimyr)» (02/20/21); Sanyakhova N.I.««Create for the people…» (10/22/20); «Yarkhadan» (04/05/20), V.G. Kolesova «Music by Vladimir Ksenofontov in the repertoire of the National Dance Theater named after S.A. Zvereva-Kyl Wola; (03/20/21), L.I.Kardashevskaya "Sounds of the Arctic in song folklore and in the voices of birds and animals" (12/13/21), "Evenki Bakaldyn holiday" (11/09/12). In 2022, the cycle of educational online lectures was continued by graduate students A.N. Sleptsov with a lecture "On piano works of N.S. Berestov" (02/05-22), Lebedev S.I. "The history of the first music school" (02/26-22), Vdovenko S.V. "The art of the concertmaster: history, performance" (04/23-22), "Outstanding figures of Yakut professional music: pianists-Concertmasters" (18.03.23)