Past engagements in sustainability education and public art — the evidence behind the practice.
ArnaLab has run its youth sustainability and heritage camp twice, entirely in English. The first cohort, in 2023, took place at Dom36, an independent creative-industries space in Almaty, where six children explored Kazakh ornamentation, traditional art, and national musical instruments. When the Dom36 building was repurposed for commercial use, the program moved to Yurt39, and in 2024 grew into a full applied-learning experience for nine children aged 8–14: actor masterclasses in a real theatre covering communication and physical expression, music lessons, vegetarian cooking in a professional kitchen, and carpentry — repairing and restoring real furniture. Each discipline served as a lens for a sustainability principle: reuse, craft, resourcefulness, and cultural continuity.
Outcome: Two cohorts, 15 children total, ages 8–14, across two venues — from cultural arts at Dom36 (2023) to full hands-on applied learning at Yurt39 (theatre, music, culinary, carpentry) in 2024.
An installation by Madina Khamitova and Anastasia Vasilkiotti, built from toilet paper rolls and repurposed banners, forming a vibrant landscape across two 2.5m × 2.5m canvases of reclaimed wood and chicken wire. The piece portrays Almaty's peaks bare in summer — a deliberate departure from the snow caps they once held year-round — using the fragility of the landscape to comment on visible climate change in the mountains that frame the city.
Full case study narrative pending — this is the condensed Programs-page description used as a placeholder.
A real-ram-sized sculpture on wheels, built entirely from upcycled waste materials and designed to move through a public parade. Commissioned for Almaty's city-organized Earth Day march, the piece uses discarded industrial and household waste to surface questions of environmental neglect and urban pollution in public space.
Full case study narrative pending — this is the condensed Programs-page description used as a placeholder.
A participatory gallery installation for Women's Day, inviting visitors to write and post notes of kindness and experiences of abuse on colorful sticky notes, collectively forming a community-made artwork addressing social injustice in a public setting. Follow-up focus groups with 20 participants — interviews and circle discussions — explored how the experience affected them.
For the first time in many years I felt empowered by sharing my messages, and I saw that I wasn't alone, but reading the acts of random kindness on the walls were a breath of fresh air I really needed. — Focus group participant
