From 19 to 24 September 2005 a seminar entitled Managing Museums: Museum Activities in the 21st Century was held in the State Hermitage. The seminar received financial support from the Moscow Office of UNESCO for Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation. Directors and principal scholarly staff of museums from around the CIS were invited to take part. Prior to the opening staff of the State Hermitage issued a collection of articles relating to a broad range of issues facing modern museums, and these were the main subjects for discussion in the seminar. Participants also received a CD-ROM with materials describing the Hermitage-UNESCO project which provides the context for the seminar. They also were given a presentation from the State Hermitage Youth Educational Center, where new educational and educational programs are organized for young people from St Petersburg and other cities of Russia as well as from foreign countries.

In the course of five working days the participants were acquainted with the work of the Hermitage’s press service and visited the museum’s new Storage Facility. They had special seminars devoted to the organization of temporary exhibitions, programs for museum development, work with visitors, new projects for children and young people. There were also especially interesting sessions dealing with legal aspects of museum work, new publishing projects, the work of the Hermitage’s internet site, multimedia programs, problems of safeguarding monuments and restoring museum buildings. Director of the State Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky opened the program. L.M. Moreva, a programming specialist on culture working in UNESCO’s Moscow office, took part in the events.

Of course these five extremely busy days filled with meetings, discussions and exchanges of views were not enough time for the top museum staff who participated to share with their colleagues all of the vast experience they have accumulated over the years, however much they may have tried. More and more questions arose even after the end of the formal part of the seminar. Without a doubt all these museum staff would like to learn from the work of one of the world’s largest museums. The final day of the program ended in a Round Table where results of the seminar were summarized. All participants gathered in the Conference Hall of the Hermitage’s Academic Council and a lively discussion ensued. The guests were unanimous in the opinion that seminars like this should be held on a regular basis. In the open and free atmosphere which reigns at these Hermitage meetings are born new ideas necessary for the successful development of both the regional museums of Russia and of the neighboring countries.

Ms. Lubava Moreva, a programming specialist on culture working in UNESCO’s Moscow office

Seminar participants in the State Hermitage’s new Storage Facility

Round Table. Discussing the results of the seminar

Discussing problems of restoring and protecting monuments

Seminar on issues relating to the organization of temporary exhibitions