Hermitage Days - 2006

This year the traditional Hermitage Days were held from 4 to 9 December.

The week of festivities began on 4 December with an internet conversation led by Director of the State Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky on the subject of The Hermitage during the Year of Rembrandt. Other major topics of this on-line encounter were The Greater Hermitage Project, The Hermitage and its Visitors, and Museum Employee as a Profession.

On the same day there was a general gathering of the Volunteer Service of the State Hermitage. More than 100 people came to the Hermitage Theatre for this event. They received words of greeting from Mikhail Piotrovsky. The best volunteers received honorary certificates and commemorative presents.

On 5 December, the Director of the State Hermitage presented the most interesting Hermitage publications of 2006 in the Meeting Room of the Academic Council. Then in the Hermitage Theatre there was the screening of a film by Zinaida Kurbatova entitled Dmitry Likhachev. Personal Chronicles, created for the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev.

On 7 December, St Catherine's Day, the official birthday of the Hermitage, there was the traditional General Assembly of museum staff in the Hermitage Theatre after which Mikhail Piotrovsky held a Press Conference for journalists at which he shared the results of the year gone by and plans for the future. Following the Press Conference, journalists were taken on a stroll through the museum during which they were the first to see the exhibitions entitled The Hermitage in the World of Publications - 2006, The Return and Eagles and Lions United, as well as the newly restored Caucasus Rooms which were opened to the public later the same day and the artistic parquet floors in the rooms of 18th Century France. The press representatives also were informed about the program for renewal of the stage equipment of the Hermitage Theatre and the new control panel for video supervision. The promenade ended in the Internet Cafe, which these days is marking its fifth anniversary.

In the same evening there was the Awards Ceremony of Grants from the Vladimir Potanin Charitable Foundation to Employees of the State Hermitage.

The program on 8 December was devoted to the Friends of the Hermitage. This year the Club of Friends of the Hermitage celebrated its tenth anniversary and guests arrived from many countries. In the morning a Round Table on The Hermitage in Russia was held in the Meeting Room of the Academic Council. Representatives from Russian museums took part in the discussion about existing and future programs and projects of the Hermitage.

Then in the General Staff building two photo exhibitions devoted to the Hermitage were opened. Two Hermitage photographers presented their personal views of the museum: Leonid Volkov, in the exhibition “...Extensive and boundless... and Yuri Molodkovets, in Hermitage. Seclusion. The day closed with an evening reception of the Friends of the Hermitage.

On 9 December, St George's Day, award documents issued by the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation were given out in a festive ceremony held in the St George's Hall (Great Throne Room). On this day as well there was the public opening of the exhibition Eagles and Lions United. Heraldic Art in Books. In the evening a concert by the Admiralty Orchestra of the Leningrad Naval Base took place in the Hermitage Theatre - arranged within the framework of the 7th International Festival of Admiralty Music.

Internet meeting with Mikhail Piotrovsky in the Hermitage's CafeMax

At the General Assembly of museum staff in the Hermitage Theatre

At the Press Conference

The renewal the stage equipment of the Hermitage Theatre

At the exhibition The Return

At the new control panel for video supervision

At the newly restored Caucasus Rooms

At the Round Table on The Hermitage in Russia