CIE–Centre for International
Legacy programme · 2006–2014
A Programme for Culture and Development
CIE began working in Afghanistan in 2006. The documented programme phase centred on the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul and the Bagh-e Jehan Nama Palace and garden in Kholm, bringing conservation, museum development, education, craft training and public participation into one framework.
Capacity building and Afghan ownership were the programme’s guiding principles. Physical rehabilitation mattered, but so did the ability of Afghan professionals, craftspeople, teachers, young people and communities to decide how heritage would be cared for, interpreted and shared.
The programme was developed with the Ministry of Information and Culture, the Ministry of Education, the National Museum of Afghanistan, New AFIR Architects and other Afghan and international partners, with support from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Two connected places
Each site addressed a different scale of cultural life, while sharing the same commitment to access, professional capacity and local responsibility.
The programme supported structural and security improvements, collection care, exhibitions, museum management and public awareness. School and university visits helped reconnect younger generations with Afghanistan’s diverse histories.
Explore the museum project ↗The damaged nineteenth-century palace and garden were reimagined as Afghanistan’s first regional ethnographic museum, a learning site and a renewed public meeting place rooted in local memory.
Explore the palace project ↗Museum staff, architects, curators, teachers, guards, gardeners, carpenters, masons and apprentices carried the work. Their experiences are central to the programme publications.
Meet the voices in the publications ↗Programme approach
The 2010 programme publication described a step-by-step model that joined physical rehabilitation to organisational and public development.
Safer buildings, storage, access and security-management training.
Inventory, recovery, conservation and better access to dispersed or damaged collections.
Temporary and permanent exhibitions presenting Afghanistan’s plural and connected histories.
Professional structures, staff development, planning and accountable financial systems.
Publications, museum shops, travelling exhibitions and other routes towards institutional resilience.
Education, school visits, events and media that make museum knowledge part of everyday public life.
Programme publications
A practical programme overview, a portrait book centred on Afghan voices and a later reflective study preserve different layers of the programme.
The National Museum rehabilitation and the renovation of the Bagh-e Jehan Nama Palace and garden.
Open publication ↗
Fourteen Afghans and one Dutch participant reflect on cultural heritage, work, identity and the country’s future. Photographs by Dilip Banerjee and contributors.
Open portrait book ↗
Robert Parthesius and Umayya Abu-Hanna reflect on unity, diversity, ownership and heritage practice across global, national and local scales.
View publication page ↗Programme journey
Long-term relationships allowed practical work, learning and public storytelling to develop together.
CIE joins Afghan partners in a multi-year collaboration focused on museum rehabilitation, cultural development and professional capacity.
Work begins to revive the Bagh-e Jehan Nama Palace and garden through local consultation, design and craft knowledge.
The programme overview and Another Afghan Story document the sites, methods and people carrying the work.
A National Museum exhibition opens a public route through Afghanistan’s plural past and supports museum learning.
New interpretation brings archaeological knowledge into a public museum setting and connects Afghanistan to wider historical routes.
Children’s education and community photography in Kholm culminate in a public exhibition, while A Changing World records lessons from the programme.
Events and public moments
These linked entries are preserved in CIE’s dated event archive alongside the annual reports that document them.
Teachers in Kholm explored ways to connect local heritage, the palace and school learning.
Open event record ↗A National Museum exhibition made religious and artistic diversity visible to a broad public.
Open event record ↗An exhibition connected archaeological research with public interpretation at the National Museum.
Open event record ↗Photographs and local stories were brought together in an exhibition around Bagh-e Jehan Nama.
Open event record ↗Living programme connections
The earlier programme now sits within CIE’s wider archive while its methods and questions continue across current clusters.
Plural histories, re-emerging pasts and the right of communities to shape public memory.
Explore Dhakira Centre ↗Turning project experience, museum practice and public dialogue into accessible learning resources.
Explore Heritage EduHub ↗Preserving project processes, community voices and connected records for future use.
Explore HeritageLab ↗