Museum Olympus-2011

On November 3rd, 2011, the Museum Olympus prize third award ceremony was held in Tsarskoye Selo. The symbol of the Museum Olympus prize, established by an initiative of the Saint Petersburg Cultural Committee and the Interagency Museum Council, is a statue of the goddess of memory, Mnemosyne.

Twenty seven museums participated in the competition’s seven categories: The Prestige of Petersburg, Museum Book, Innovation in the Museum, Museums for Children, Exhibition of the Year, Installation of the Year, and Museum of the Year.

This year, the State Hermitage Museum was the winner in the Prestige of Petersburg category for the “Hermitage School of Restoration” program in Yekaterinburg and in the Innovation in the Museum category for the “Laser Technology in the Restoration of Works of Arts Made of Precious Metal” project.

The Hermitage also received certificates in the Museum Book and Museums for Children categories, for the catalogue of the “Buried Treasure of Factory Owner Likhacheva” exhibit and the “Days of Classics” creative festival for young people and children, respectively.

A special prize For Contributions to the Field of Museum Work was awarded to Olga Nikolayevna Bogdanova, the Director of the Department of Exhibition Equipment of the Hermitage Museum, along with, Alexander Ivanovich Kuzmin, the Director of the A.V. Suvorov State Memorial Museum and Vadim Valentinovich Znamenov, the Director of the Peterhof State Museum Reserve.

A special prize For Supporting Museums was awarded to the Coca Cola Company by the State Hermitage Museum for its support for the Hermitage’s restoration projects, the grants it issued for necessary hardware, as well as equipping the classrooms of the Hermitage School Center and organizing competitions. On the initiative of the Hermitage, a special prize For the Best Journalistic Work was awarded to Anna Ivanovna Vsemirova, a Radio Rossii correspondent, for radio programs dedicated to museums.

Tatyana Baranova, Director of the Department of Scientific Restoration and Conservation, with the award for The Prestige of Petersburg category

Igor Malkiel, Director of the Laboratory for the Scientific Restoration of Precious Metals, with the award for the Innovation in the Museum category

Elena Zvyagintzeva, Director of the Editing and Publishing Department, with the award for the Museum Book category