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Children of Beslan: A Hermitage Program From 31 October to 6 November 2004 a group of Beslan schoolchildren who were victims of the September terrorist acts were in St Petersburg at the invitation of the State Hermitage. Thirty children of different ages were accompanied by a number of adults: parents and doctors from the Pravoberezhnaya Hospital, which was the first to receive those wounded during the seizure of the Beslan school. The Hermitage museum was the initiator and organizer of a special program of art therapy. Its partner in this innovative undertaking has been the Interros Holding Company. The main objective of the program has been to help quickly mitigate the psychological consequences of what happened in Beslan. For precisely this reason it constituted not only of visits to museums, the Mariinsky Theater, and the circus but also included time with specialists of the department of remedial teaching at the Herzen Pedagogic University The guests from Beslan began their acquaintance with the Hermitage on Monday, when the museum is normally closed to the public. They were taken on guided tours, visited the Internet Cafe, and spent time with specialists from the School Center of the State Hermitage, as well as with psychologists from the Herzen Pedagogic University and with doctors from the Institute of Further Education of Specialist Doctors. The days which followed were devoted to visits to other museums. Just like the Hermitage, the State Russian Museum specially opened its doors to the Beslan children on its day off. The children were shown the collections of the Ethnographic Museum and visited St Isaac’s Cathedral. An entire day was spent in Tsarskoye Selo, where they were taken on a guided tour of the Catherine Palace and the Lycee and had a chance to stroll through the park. In one of the halls of the Lycee, a concert was organized for the visitors by students of the Rostropovich Music School. The activities provided by the Herzen Pedagogic University were very interesting. The children took part in psycho-therapeutic games designed to reduce stress and phobias, while adults received individual counseling. Moreover, there was a two-hour session of lectures and games organized by Zoo staff, who have developed their own "zoo therapy". The main roles in this unusual therapy were acted by porcupine, a fox, a mongoose, a python and other animals. On Saturday, on the eve of their departure for Beslan, the schoolchildren and adults visited the Treasure Rooms of the Hermitage and met in the Hermitage Theater with museum director Mikhail Piotrovsky During their school holiday in Petersburg, the children were joined by staff from the State Hermitage’s Educational Center and Security Service on all their strolls, day trips and guided tours. |
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