Session of the Hermitage Academic Council

On 10 March 2005 the Hermitage Academic Council met in the Hermitage Theatre in a session devoted mainly to an agenda item entitled The Collegial Organs of the Hermitage and their Relationship with the Academic Council. This discussion followed directly from the topic of the Council's previous session devoted to the functions of the Academic Council in the modern-day Hermitage. As museum director Mikhail Piotrovsky observed: "Over the course of the past ten years, the Hermitage has tried to find its way amidst altered circumstances. Today the Hermitage enjoys a reputation in the world as a dynamic museum. Now the time has come to put the internal functioning of the museum in order."

The structure and management principles of the Hermitage have seen several cardinal changes over the course of its history. Before the Revolution, the Hermitage may have had its own directors, but nonetheless it was inseparably linked to the Office of the Court and it frequently received directives from the tsar himself. In 1917 a Council of the Hermitage appeared; sometimes it was called the Council of Hermitage Curators. This Council met every week and guided all of the museum's work, from the most important strategic questions on research and exhibitions to such workaday things as the vacation schedule or the moving around of exhibit items. Beginning in 1927 the Council of the Hermitage began to be called the Academic Council. Since this time the Academic Council as a rule has not gotten involved in the petty details of life at the Hermitage; rather, its functions have been to discuss plans for exhibitions and to certify research staff and graduate students. At the end of the 1980's, a new era in the history of the Hermitage Academic Council dawned. Amidst the stormy events occurring in the country, the museum staff once again began to place great hope in the Academic Council. A new Statute on the Hermitage Academic Council was adopted and several commissions consisting of Academic Council members were formed beneath the Council.

In recent years the relations between the Academic Council and the commissions have undergone serious change. Today more than ten different sorts of commission are functioning in the Hermitage. These consist of research staff, but by no means are they all members of the Academic Council. The commissions determine the exhibition, publishing, and educational policies of the Hermitage. Such issues as certification of staff and distribution of research grants are also dealt with by one or another of these commissions. In these circumstances one must ask if the Academic Council is needed and, if the answer is affirmative, then what should its functions be? The Council members expressed a variety of views on this subject. As Mikhail Piotrovsky remarked at the close of the session, it may be that the Academic Council's form of existence in the 21st century will be that of commissions having concrete functions.

In any case, a majority of those who spoke at the session were convinced that the Academic Council is needed at the Hermitage. It is the custodian of the museum's research traditions, a symbol of Hermitage research, and it provides a forum where the museum's scholarly staff can discuss the issues of museum life which concern them publicly and in the presence of the museum's senior management.