Kabul · museum rehabilitation and development
National Museum of Afghanistan.
The project in context
From emergency recovery to a sustainable museum.
After decades of conflict, the National Museum in Kabul faced severe damage to its building, losses from its collection and the long interruption of ordinary museum work. CIE became closely involved with the museum from 2006 as part of the Afghanistan Programme for Culture and Development.
The first programme activities centred on a temporary exhibition about the historic bazaar of Tashqurghan. Preparing the exhibition created a practical route for upgrading the museum interior, renovating the central hall and improving exhibition rooms. Structural and security surveys then supported a broader rehabilitation plan developed with Afghan partners.
The project did not treat the building as an isolated monument. Its aim was to strengthen the museum as a public institution: a safer home for collections, a workplace in which Afghan professionals could lead, and a place where people could encounter the country’s plural histories.
Integrated museum development
Six connected routes
The programme translated a wider rehabilitation framework into six practical areas. Together they connected immediate repairs to institutional sustainability.
Structure & security
Building improvements, safer storage and access, surveys, security planning and staff training.
Collection care
Inventory, conservation, recovery and improved access to collections damaged, dispersed or looted during conflict.
Exhibitions
Temporary displays and preparation for future interpretation of Afghanistan’s rich and diverse histories.
Management
Organisational planning, professional development and stronger financial and operational systems.
Institutional resilience
Publications, a museum shop and international exhibitions were considered as routes towards a more sustainable institution.
Public awareness
School and university visits, education and public communication made the museum part of cultural life in Kabul.
Public value
A museum for a new generation.
The programme record describes thousands of schoolchildren and students from Kabul University visiting the museum and learning directly from its curators. This mattered in a country where many young people had grown up without sustained access to cultural or historical education.
The museum’s ethnographic collections were understood not simply as objects from the past, but as resources through which Afghans—including people who had lived abroad as refugees—could encounter the country’s cultural diversity.
A permanent exhibition remained a longer-term direction. CIE’s documented contribution was to help establish the conditions for it: improved rooms, surveys, professional networks, training, practical planning and a clearer relationship between collections and audiences.
Project record
Read the sources
This summary brings the former CIE project account into the current website and is grounded in CIE’s programme publications and annual-report archive.
Continue through the archive
Related routes
Afghanistan Culture & Development
The connected programme of museums, conservation, education, craft training and public participation.
Open programme overview ↗Bagh-e Jehan Nama Palace
A regional museum, restored garden, learning site and renewed community meeting place.
Open palace project ↗Museum exhibitions
Buddhist Heritage of Afghanistan and 1000 Cities of Bactria brought research into public interpretation.
Explore the event archive ↗