文化遗产得到有效保护。新疆现有全国文物保护单位113处、自治区级文物保护单位550处、文物藏品128894件(套)。“丝绸之路：长安—天山廊道的路网”项目入选“世界文化遗产名录”。高昌故城、交河故城、北庭故城遗址、克孜尔尕哈烽燧、克孜尔石窟、苏巴什佛寺遗址成为新疆首批世界文化遗产。搜集、登记少数民族古籍11194册(件)，整理出版140种。66部少数民族古籍被列入《国家珍贵古籍名录》。以维吾尔文和汉文分别翻译、出版濒于失传的喀喇汗王朝鸿篇巨制《福乐智慧》和《突厥语大词典》。2009年，启动维吾尔族历史文化保护工程——喀什市老城区危旧房改造。截至2014年，该项目获得补助资金累计30亿元，改造危旧房3.1万户。新疆现有入选联合国教科文组织“人类非物质文化遗产代表作名录”和“急需保护的非物质文化遗产名录”的项目3项，分别是新疆维吾尔木卡姆艺术、玛纳斯、麦西莱甫；入选国家级、自治区级非物质文化遗产代表性项目名录的项目分别有127项、293项；国家级、自治区级非物质文化遗产代表性传承人分别有64位、459位。2010年，《新疆维吾尔自治区维吾尔木卡姆艺术保护条例》颁布实施，这是中国首个保护人类非物质文化遗产代表作的省级地方单项立法。搜集维吾尔、哈萨克、蒙古、柯尔克孜等民族民间长诗700余部。蒙古族史诗《江格尔》、哈萨克族阿依特斯、回族花儿、塔吉克族鹰舞、锡伯族西迁节等一批民族传统文化瑰宝得到积极保护。

　　文学艺术事业繁荣发展。自治区成立后，新疆民间文学、古典文学得到搜集、整理、翻译、出版和研究，各民族作家、诗人、翻译家、剧作家、表演艺术家和文学评论家迅速成长，逐步形成一支多民族的文学艺术创作、表演和研究队伍。创作出杂技剧《你好，阿凡提》、话剧《大巴扎》、歌剧《艾力甫与赛乃姆》、音乐剧《冰山上的来客》、歌舞剧《情暖天山》、木卡姆乐舞《木卡姆的春天》等艺术精品。一批文学艺术作品获国家“五个一工程奖”“鲁迅文学奖”“全国少数民族文艺会演金奖”“国家舞台艺术精品工程”“文华奖”“荷花奖”“中国杂技金菊奖”“骏马奖”“天山文艺奖”等国家和自治区级奖项。

Cultural heritage has been effectively protected. Xinjiang has 113 cultural relic sites under state protection, and 550 under autonomous regional protection. The region boasts 128,894 individual items or sets of cultural relics. "Silk Roads: The Routes Network of Chang' an-Tianshan Corridor" has been designated as a World Heritage Site. Gaochang Ancient City Ruins, Jiaohe Ancient City Ruins, Beiting Ancient City Site, Kizilgaha Beacon Tower, Kizil Grottoes and Subashi Buddhist Temple Ruins are the first group to be listed in the World Heritage Sites in Xinjiang. The autonomous region has collected and registered 11,194 copies of ancient ethnic minority books, and edited and published 140 of them. Sixty-six ancient ethnic minority titles have been included in the Catalogue of National Rare Ancient Books. Kutadgu Bilig and A Comprehensive Turkic Dictionary, masterpieces of the Karahan Kingdom, which were almost lost to posterity, have been translated into and published in both Uygur and Han Chinese. In 2009, the autonomous region launched the Uygur Historic and Cultural Preservation Project - Renovation of Dilapidated Buildings in the Old Kashi City Proper. By 2014, this project had received grants amounting to RMB3 billion, and old and dilapidated buildings for 31,000 households had been renovated.

Currently, Xinjiang has three projects on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List and the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding - The Art of Xinjiang Uygur Muqam, the Epic of Manas, and the Meshrep, in addition to 127 items of intangible cultural heritage of state class and 293 items of the autonomous regional class, as well as 64 representative trustees of intangible cultural heritages at state level and 459 at autonomous regional level. In 2010, Regulations of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on the Preservation of the Art of Uygur Muqam was promulgated, which was China' s first separate regulations at provincial level designed to protect intangible cultural heritage. The autonomous region has collected more than 700 long folk poems of the Uygur, Kazak, Mongol, Kirgiz and other ethnic groups. Vigorous efforts have been made to preserve traditional ethnic cultural treasures, such as the Mongolian epic Janger, the Kazak' s ballad singing Aytes, the Hui folk song Hua' er, the Tajik' s Eagle Dance and the Xibe' s West Moving Festival.

Literature and arts are prospering. Since the founding of the autonomous region, Xinjiang' s folk and classical literature has been collected, collated, translated, published and studied. Writers, poets, translators, playwrights, performing artists, literary critics of all ethnic minority origins have rapidly matured, forming a multiethnic literary writing, performing and research contingent. Works of excellence have been staged, including Hello, Apandi (acrobatic show), Grand Bazaar (drama), Gherip-Senem (opera), Visitors on the Icy Mountain (musical), Love over the Tianshan Mountains (musical), and The Spring of Muqam (song and dance drama). A group of literary and art works have won the Best Works Award, the Lu Xun Literary Prize, the Gold Award of the National Ethnic Minority Theatrical Festival, Splendor Award and Lotus Award for Stage Arts of Excellence (the former for theatrical artworks and the latter for dance), the China Acrobatic Golden Chrysanthemum Award, the Steed Award (for ethnic minority writers), the Tianshan Literary Prize, and other national and autonomous regional prizes.