Presentation of the Hermitage-Vyborg Project

On 24 June 2008 at the Hermitage Theatre there was a presentation of the Hermitage-Vyborg Project which was held for journalists and the public of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region.

Government representatives and members of cultural organizations in Leningrad Region and staff of the State Hermitage Museum attended the event. The director of the State Hermitage Museum, Mikhail Piotrovsky, and the head of the Vyborg District municipality in Leningrad Region, Georgy Poryadin, made speeches.

On 27 November 2007 at Vyborg State Hermitage Museum, the Government of Leningrad Region and the Municipality of Vyborg District concluded an agreement on cooperation for the establishment of the Hermitage-Vyborg Centre. The agreement is based on their desire to enable the greatest possible accessibility for inhabitants and visitors to Leningrad Region to see the collections preserved by the State Hermitage Museum and to implement educational programmes for children and young people (taking into account the experience of the museum in organizing and running cultural and educational programmes in the regions of the Russian Federation).

In a ceremonial setting the agreement was signed by the director of the State Hermitage Museum, Mikhail Piotrovsky, the Governor of Leningrad Region, Valery Serdyukov, and the head of the Municipality of Vyborg District, Georgy Poryadin.

The agreement undertakes the establishment of a centre in the building of the Museum of Fine Arts and the Vyborg Painting School, which was built according to the plans by a leading, local architect to Vyborg, Uno Werner Ullberg (1879-1944) in the constructivist style.

Preparation for the development of the centre, its programmes, the technical and economic basis of its activities, the architectural and artistic planning of the building, its status as a cultural institution, the budget and sources of funding the centre were all undertaken by a working group of specialists, representing all parties to the agreement and also invited experts.

In February 2011 State Hermitage Museum Lecture Centre began operating in Vyborg. It was opened by the deputy director of the museum, G. Vilinbakhov. The lectures attracted a great deal of interest from city residents. A study programme has been developed for the 2008-2009 academic year. It will consist of fourteen lectures.

Exhibitions at the centre are to be held two - three times a year, their subject matter will be reviewed by the State Hermitage Museum Exhibitions’ Commission. Exhibitions are also planned for the works by artists from Vyborg, St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region.

The financing of the project and the documents for the tender process have been prepared. Repair and restoration work should begin in September.

Uno Werner Ullberg’s building, as a building of Federal historical significance will warrant special attention. At the present time consultations are occurring with Rossvyazokhrankultura for St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region concerning obligations for protecting the building.

Administration for Vyborg District Municipality in Leningrad Region
on the Hermitage-Vyborg Centre

The idea for the creation in Vyborg of a painting school and museum arose at the end of the 19th century. In 1890 the Vyborg Friends of Art society was created. In 1891 the Vyborg Painting School began operating, the rent for its various premises was paid for by the Friends of Art society. It was at the Vyborg Painting School that several Finnish artists began studying and where their early works were displayed, for example Hugo Simberg (1873-1917), Waino Kunnas (1896-1929), Gosta Diehl (1899-1964) and others. In 1893-98 the Vyborg Historic-Ethnographic Museum was located in the former city hall building, its collections were increased with improbable speed. For example, at the conclusion of the 19th century in Paris, an artist and traveller, William Gromme bequeathed his art collection worth one million roubles to the Vyborg Museum - not a single city in Finland has received such a gift.

Finally, in 1930, the building for the Art Museum and Painting School was constructed on Pantserlaks Bastion. The designer was a leading architect and a local from Vyborg, Uno Werner Ullberg (1879-1944). The building was executed in a functional style and answered exactly the task which it was to have: in the left wing the Art Museum was located and the Painting School was in the right wing.

An opening ceremony was held on 12 October 1930, and the city celebration took on a national character: Lauri Kristian Relander, the president of the republic was present.

The main part of the museum’s collection was the work of Finnish artists: drawings, sketches and paintings by Hugo Simberg, Eero Jarnefelt, Albert Edelfelt, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Pekka Halonen and others. The museum was adorned with a sculpture by the famous countryman, Johannes Takanen, Venus and Amor (marble, 1875). The museum does have the works of famous Russian and European masters: Ivan Aivazovsky, Ilya Repin, Konstantin Bogaevsky, Mikhail Erassi, Viktor Svetikhin and others. Among the early and valuable pieces from European art are the lithographs by William Hogarth (1697-1764).

The Vyborg Art Museum quickly became the second most important museum in Finland after Helsinki’s Ateneum. Active museum and educational work ceased in 1940, during the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland. A large part of the collection was taken from Vyborg and distributed among Finnish museums, in particular: Hameenlinna Art Museum, Lahti Art Museum, Lahti Historical museum, South-Karelia Art Museum in Lappeenranta, part of the works belong to the Vyborg Foundation in Helsinki. Since 1945 the home for Vyborg Artists’ Society has been Helsinki.

After a fire in 1941 the museum wing was empty for a long time and the school section was attached to the dormitory for workers of the Vyborg Ship Building Plant.

In 1958 the Vyborg Municipal Commission of the CPSU and the Executive Commission of the Vyborg City Council or Workers’ Deputies decided to establish in the building of the Vyborg Art Museum a museum of regional studies for the Karelian Isthmus. However, because of the poor condition of the museum building the museum was opened at a different address at 20 Prospect Lenina, and was later located on Castle Island.

In 1972 in the building of the former Painting School a capital restoration was undertaken to the designs of Boris Sobolev, a filial of the Vyborg Architectural Institute Lengrazhdanproekt is located there.

In 2003 the left wing of the building was returned to the Vyborg Painting School. On the agenda, again the question of establishing an art gallery in Vyborg. In 2007 the idea of the head of the Municipality of Vyborg District in Leningrad Region, Georgy Poryadin, is processed as a decision in principle: again work will begin on what will be one of the best museums in the country, in Vyborg. At the Pantserlaks Bastion Vyborg will have its Hermitage - a centre for art, the Hermitage-Vyborg Centre.

Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage Museum

Georgy Poryadin, Head of the Municipality of Vyborg District in Leningrad Region