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The new chief curator of Uzbekistan’s Centre for Contemporary Art is bringing insights from London to the youth of Tashkent

Sara Raza has been appointed as the first artistic director and chief curator of Uzbekistan’s Centre for Contemporary Art Tashkent (CCA). Born in London and raised in New York, Raza brings international experience from the Guggenheim Museum and a personal connection to Central Asia, including Uzbek ancestry. The CCA, founded in 2019 and housed in a restored 1912 tram depot, is currently undergoing expansion by French architecture firm Studio KO, with reopening delayed to 2026. Raza has already launched artist residencies in traditional Uzbek mahallas and hired a 19-year-old youth curator to engage the country’s predominantly young population.

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The new chief curator of Uzbekistan’s Centre for Contemporary Art is bringing insights from London to the youth of Tashkent

Sara Raza has been appointed as the first artistic director and chief curator of Uzbekistan’s Centre for Contemporary Art Tashkent (CCA), a restored 1912 tram depot that is currently undergoing expansion by French architecture firm Studio KO. Raza, who was born in London and grew up in New York, is a former curator at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and has curated festivals in Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan. She took up the post in January and has already launched a programme of artist residencies in refurbished traditional Uzbek mahallas, while the CCA’s reopening has been delayed from 2025 to 2026.