The State Hermitage Museum: Hermitage News

The State Hermitage Museum International Advisory Board Sixteenth annual meeting

On 27 - 28 August, 2010 the Sixteenth meeting of the State Hermitage Museum International Advisory Board was held in St Petersburg.

Traditionally, the discussions deal with most pressing issues of the Museum's development. Working sessions were held in the Conference Hall of the State Hermitage Museum. As always, themes for discussion were developed by the Director of the State Hermitage Museum Prof. Mikhail Piotrovsky. This year, Board members were invited to take part in the round table 'Contemporary Art in the Hermitage: Approach and Strategy' discussing the Hermitage 20/21 Project. The questions introduced for consideration by the International Advisory Board included exhibitions of contemporary art scheduled for 2011 - 2014, results of the latest contemporary art shows in the Hermitage, approach and ideas of the Advisory Committee on Contemporary Art, strategies of acquiring objects of 'new art' for the Museum, and work with private collectors.

The Board members had a tour of the reconstruction site in the Eastern Wing of the General Staff building, and visited two museums of contemporary art that recently opened in St Petersburg: the New Museum and the Erarta on Vassilievsky Island.

Members of the Hermitage Advisory Committee on Contemporary Art: Sir Norman Rosenthal, former director of the exhibition department of the Royal Academy of Arts, London; Tim Marlow, Director for exhibitions, White Cube Gallery, London, and Geraldine Norman, advisor for the Hermitage 20/21 Project, London, were invited to take part in the working sessions of the Advisory Board.

On 28 August the Members of the International Advisory Board of the State Hermitage visited the Gatchina State Museum-Reserve.

Members of the State Hermitage Museum Advisory Board who took part in the sixteenth meeting:

Prof. Mikhail Piotrovsky	Director, the State Hermitage
Neil MacGregor, Chairman	Director, The British Museum, London
Irène Bizot	Ancien Administrateur général, Reunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris
Henri Loyrette	Président directeur général, Louvre, Paris
Annamaria Petrioli Tofani	Former Director, Uffizi, Florence
Alfred Pacquement	Directeur du musée national d'art moderne Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Henk van Os	Honorable Director, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Svetlana Philippova	Former Director, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

A working meeting at the Hermitage’s Council Hall

At the exhibition Picasso from the collection of the Picasso National Museum, Paris

Reviewing the restoration work progress at the room of culture and art of nomadic tribes of Altai of the 6th-4th centuries B. C.

At the updated permanent exposition Culture and Art of Central Asia. Ancient Times and the Early Middle Ages

Inspecting one of the sites of the Eastern Wing of the General Staff building during its reconstruction