Russian Art in Retrospective - Summer 2005
The Hermitage Student Center and Rhode Island School of Design (RISD): annual joint program in Painting and Art History. Introduction and schedules.

Every June-July the Hermitage Student Center runs a six-week/ six credit Art History and Painting course in partnership with Rhode Island School of Design, a leading private art university in the USA.

The program is intensive. It includes walking, bus and boat tours of St. Petersburg's architecture, museum tutorials, daylong trips outside of the city, visits to contemporary artists' studios, painting and drawing classes and meetings with Russian art students.

As guests of the Hermitage, the students have privileged access to its treasures. They investigate the architecture of the museum, explore the art of Scythian nomads in the Gold Treasury and nearby galleries and spend long hours with old Master paintings. They study the immensely rich collections of French art of the 19th - 20th centuries. Almost daily visits to the Hermitage make the American visitors feel at home in the labyrinth of museum halls.

Time is divided equally between the academic program and the studio. Many studio classes are held in the open air, with the young artists sketching in the Summer Gardens, in the courtyard of the St. Peter and Paul Fortress, in the streets of the city and - a unique and exciting privilege - on the roof of the Winter Palace. Students are also granted permission to make sketches inside the Hermitage.

The culmination of the course is an exhibition of the students' work held at the Hermitage Student Center.

The program is supervised by Dr. G.V. Vilinbakhov, the Hermitage vice-director and Dr. Sophia Kudriavceva, the Head of the Youth Center.

RISD team is represented by Craig Hill, painting instructor, and Dr. Elena Varshavskaya, formerly researcher at the Hermitage and now art history instructor and this program coordinator at RISD.

COURSE STRUCTURE

Regular classes: Tuesday - Thursday
Museum visits, city tours, studio 10AM-1PM or 2:30 -5 PM
Day trips - all day
Friday: all day studio
Monday: independent studio/research day

Weekends are free; however, during all-free days we offer optional programs, including field trips to other cities, Moscow among them, as well as theater/concert visits.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS, JUNE 6 - JULY 15, 2005

FIRST WEEK of June 6th
Monday: Orientation and welcome dinner
Tuesday: Bus tour of St. Petersburg. Studio class
Wednesday: Introduction to the Hermitage Museum: buildings and the interiors, history of the collection. Studio class
Thursday: Russian icons at the Russian Museum. Introduction to the Orthodox iconography and icon painting technique. Studio class
Friday: All day trip to Novgorod, one of the oldest Russian cities. Introduction to defensive, ecclesiastical and civic architecture of Old Russia. Visits to the Kremlin, St. Sophia Cathedral. Visit to the Museum of Wooden Architecture.

SECOND WEEK of June 13th
Monday: Independent studio and library research
Tuesday: St. Petersburg of Peter I: foundation of the city and its earliest architectural monuments. Visit to Peter and Paul Fortress. Typical interior decorations of the period: visit to the Menshikov Palace /Peter I Summer Palace/ Peter I Winter Palace. Studio class
Wednesday: All-day trip to Peterhof, Peter I palace-and-fountain park ensemble, and to Oranienbaum: creative appropriation of the European artistic achievements.
Thursday: Before the Slavs: archaeological collections at the Hermitage, gold of Scythian nomads. Studio class
Friday: All-day studio class

THIRD WEEK of June 20th
Monday: Independent studio and library research
Tuesday: Russian art of the 18th - 19th centuries in the Russian Museum. Studio class
Wednesday: All-day trip to Tsar's Village (Tsarskoe Selo, Pushkin): palace-and-park ensembles of Baroque and Classicism
Thursday: Old Masters in the Hermitage collections: tutorial. Studio class
Friday: Class in a restoration lab of the Hermitage Museum. Studio class

FOURTH WEEK of June 27th
Monday: Independent studio and library research
Tuesday: All-day trip to Pavlovsk-and-park ensemble. Palladian style in Russia
Wednesday: Bus and walking tour of the classical St. Petersburg. Studio class
Thursday: French art at the Hermitage: tutorial. Studio class
Friday: All-day studio class

FIFTH WEEK of July 4th
Monday: Independent studio and library research
Tuesday: Visit to contemporary artists' studios. Studio class
Wednesday: Russian avant-garde at the Russian Museum. Studio class
Thursday: Russian Museum of Ethnography: realities of everyday life in traditional Russia. Studio: Russian traditional wood painting
Friday: All-day studio class

SIXTH WEEK of July 11th
Monday: Independent studio and library research
Tuesday: Russian Interior: exhibitions in the General Staff Building. Art work for the final show ready.
Wednesday: Exhibition opening
Thursday: Jewelry at the Hermitage Museum: tutorial
Friday: Art History Exam and Good-bye banquet