Visitor to the Hermitage
An internet meeting with Director of Visitor Services Nina Vitalievna
Silantieva in Cafemax in the Hermitage
On 18 April 2005

- Nina Vitalievna, what are the special programs being planned for veterans to mark Victory Day?
- We have not put the question in those terms. We are not marking Victory Day as such, rather we are honoring war veterans during the anniversary year of the Victory. Beginning on 1 May 2005, WWII veterans can visit our Treasure Rooms for free when they join a tour group. Moreover, we will organize 60 tours for veterans of the Guards Regiment Museum for which the veterans' organizations can place orders. In general it is not easy to get to see our Treasure Rooms but this will be free for veterans.

- Why are there so few places where one can rest in the Hermitage? After all when you come and visit the Hermitage it is not just for 5 minutes. You spend several hours walking around and there is no place to sit down, is there?
- That is a splendid question. Actually the problem itself is rather new. There were always a great many couches and armchairs in the New Hermitage building and they were originally intended for the use of visitors, to allow them to rest. But now these pieces of furniture have themselves become museum exhibits and visitors are not allowed to sit on them. The staff in my department are now looking for ways to increase the number of places where visitors can rest, and the problem has already been partly solved.

- I was in your museum not long ago and I noticed that many couches, armchairs and chairs are cordoned off so that no one can sit on them. Why is this furniture kept in the display rooms? Is it or is it not furniture?
- With reference to the preceding question, what we are talking about is couches and armchairs in the New Hermitage. These pieces of furniture are more than 100 years old and they have truly become exhibits in their own right. It takes some thought and reflection to find a way to place new furniture into interior decors dating from the 19th century while respecting the design. Putting in new furniture is a simple matter, but it has to be a special project and that is not cheap. We will be very grateful if sponsors come forward to help us.

- Where can one have a meal in the Hermitage without spending a lot of money? Are there special dishes for children?
- Dining out in the sense of a full meal is not possible in the Hermitage, but in our cafes on the ground floor you can have a snack without spending much. In the summer there is also a cafe open in our courtyard where you can have a bite to eat. For children, there is always ice cream on sale. We have a cafeteria for our employees, but occasionally it serves meals to tour groups who have made prior arrangements with us. There is also the Hermitage Restaurant, but dining out there is expensive.

- Why is it so stuffy in many of the museum halls? Is a modern system of air conditioning being installed in the Hermitage?
- This is indeed a problem and many visitors complain, especially in the summer. About 15% of the museum rooms have air conditioning. Here again it is very difficult to install such a system in palace interiors and it is also very expensive.

- Will you admit WWII veterans to the museum this year free of charge?
- The fact is that WWII veterans can enter the museum for free not only this year but on a permanent basis. We have not cancelled these particular privileges and in general we have a considerable number of free entrance tickets for different groups of the population. I can tell you that many visitors were afraid we would abolish these privileges, and we posted announcements that our privileges remain in force.

- Are there many participants of WWII working in the Hermitage?
- We have 138 employees in this category: seven of them were out on the battlefield and six were awarded medals for helping in the defense of Leningrad. Around 100 employees lived through the Siege or were held in concentration camps. On 6 May we are planning to have a special holiday to honor the veterans.

- We know that you admit war veterans to the Hermitage for free. But do you admit for free those who accompany them?
- An accompanying person is very likely someone who is able to pay for a ticket. We have a rather large number of people who enter the Hermitage for free: university students, pensioners, school children. Thus, a large percentage of people who can accompany a veteran do enter the museum free of charge. All retirees, 1st and 2nd category invalids, war veterans and persons placed on equal status with them, veterans of certain kinds of employment…visit the museum for free. As you see, a very large category of people can enter for free.

- You have a remarkable garden in the courtyard of the Winter Palace. Why are there so few benches to sit on?
- The garden in the courtyard was opened to visitors on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Petersburg. Now we have come to understand that the number of benches is inadequate. Here also we are working to increase the number of benches and we have the task of finding benches that look suitable in this particular garden.

- How many branches does the Hermitage have today? How can we get to know something about them?
- There are 5 and it would be more correct to call them departments rather than branches. These are the Menshikov Palace, the General Staff, the Winter Palace of Peter I, the museum of the porcelain factory, and the storage facility in Staraya Derevnya. Tours of these departments are open to the public and you can order a place via the tour office.

- Will the Hermitage have a special exhibition to mark the 60th anniversary of the Victory in WWII?
- We do not have plans for a special exhibition to mark this day, but in several of the museum halls there are display stands on which you can see drawings done by Vera Malyutina during the Siege. These let visitors see how the hall looked during the years of the Siege. Many guides take visitors up to look at these drawings and tell them about the events of that time. In this anniversary year we should remember, and we should point out these display stands during the tours.

- How many elevators does the Hermitage have for visitors? How can you get up to the roof?
- We have two elevators for use by visitors. They are equipped for invalids, but only on these floors. The roof is not accessible to visitors except by special permission of the security service. The roof areas are not adapted for taking strolls, though we have had special tours for journalists as part of a promotional campaign.

- Is it possible to buy one ticket in the Hermitage that admits you to all the museum branches?
- We can arrange that but there are several elements to consider. Our departments are situated rather far apart and the main buildings of the Hermitage are themselves huge. A visitor may buy a combination ticket and then not manage to visit all the departments during one day. People are not happy when they want to see everything but don't have enough time. We are considering extending the validity of such tickets to more than one day.

- How can one order a place on a tour of the porcelain museum?
- You just have to phone the tour office and reserve a place.

-Why isn't the Hermitage open evenings? Do you plan to open the museum at night again the way you did for the 300th anniversary of Petersburg?
- Let me take your last question first. I think that if we are going to open the museum all night it will not happen before the 350th anniversary. It was an unforgettable night, but if it is going to happen again we have to be better prepared. Regarding evenings, we are open on Wednesdays and Fridays when we have special courses for art enthusiasts that are open to subscription. When you subscribe to such a course, you get the right to visit the museum in the evening over the course of the year. For tourists we are sometimes open on Monday evenings. In general we made an attempt to keep the museum open in the evening but it was not economically justified since the number of visitors to the museum at those hours is few.

- Can you solve the problem of queues to get into the Hermitage and increase the size of the cloakrooms?
- That is an interesting question. People think that queues form because there is not enough room in the museum. On a warm summer day queues form for a different reason. We try to ensure that it is comfortable in the museum halls and in the summer we may close off entrances to let the atmosphere recover. With regard to the cloakrooms, we generally are planning to increase capacity by modernizing the system of hangers and storage.

- Where is the wax figure of Peter I kept today?
- It is in Peter's Winter Palace.

- Why don't the museum employees at the entrance wear uniforms? That is customary in all major museums and cultural centers!
- That is a very good question. When I became the director of the hospitality service I thought we should introduce uniforms. Now we have found sponsors who will help us to solve this matter and I think that by May 18th our staff checking tickets will be in uniforms.

- Do the major museums of the world have some common system for sharing experience and coordinating work with respect to receiving visitors?
- Unfortunately that does not exist, though it would be interesting to visit the major museums of the world and share experience. I think that we could both talk about what we have developed and see what is interesting over there which we might apply.

- How do you come to know about what is going well in the museum, what is going badly, and what your visitors would like?
- We work very closely with the sociological sector. At our request polls and questionnaires are often administered in the museum. In this way we learn about what is good in the museum and what is not. We recently set up a desk where visitors can write down what pleased them and what they didn't like in the Hermitage.

- Is it possible to get advance information in the Hermitage about temporary exhibitions that are being prepared? Is there anything like a theater poster where such information is made public?
- We do issue advertising announcements which let visitors know what exhibitions are going on at the moment and what is being planned. This is available even to visitors who just drop in to stroll around. Petersburgers as a rule take these notices with them and do know about the opening of exhibitions in advance. Moreover, our service prepares the publication of booklets for the temporary exhibitions.

- Are there any new technologies for the dissemination of information in the museum and if so what are they?
- Upon visiting the Hermitage, visitors can see a program on a plasma screen showing the halls and departments of the museum and also which temporary exhibitions are open at the given time. In addition, there are orientation kiosks in the gallery where a visitor can choose an itinerary and print it out. We also have a department for visitors, an "educational center," where you can learn in greater detail about one or another museum hall or work of art. I sometimes regret that when a visitor comes to the Hermitage and sits down in this center he forgets about viewing the originals and falls in love with the art on the screen. The new technologies are "two-edged swords."

- Does the Hermitage need to have advertising?
- To be honest about it, I would say 'no.' The museum is so famous after all. It is one of the four largest museums in the world, so we don't have to attract visitors they way other museums in our city do. But we do need to inform the public about exhibitions and we are busy doing this.

- What information about the Hermitage is available for free and where?
- In general you can get information right here during the museum's working day.

- There are very expensive art books on sale in the Hermitage. Can one buy small publications that are not expensive such as booklets or flyers?
- In principle, yes, if you look attentively at the merchandise in the points of sale around the museum you can buy this sort of thing. For example, our department prepared a good brochure, a short guide to Italian art during the 13th - 15th centuries. A similar kind of booklet dealing with the art of France is under preparation. Moreover, we have small books which talk about museum halls. You have to look over the shelves of our stores carefully..

- How does the museum use the area of the large courtyard?
- People who come to Palace Square relax there. In the summertime visitors to the courtyard are not always visitors to the museum. We have had several concerts in the courtyard, such as those offered by the Hermitage Orchestra. This year we had a promotional activity which we did jointly with the ice studio and with our school center. It was called The Snow Queen in the Winter Palace and both children and adults worked on it. The ice sculptures stood in the courtyard for a long time and I think next year we will do something similar.

- Tell us please about what strange things go on in your work.
- Fortunately, we have had no strange occurrences. But even if there have been no amusing situations, there have been funny questions posed by visitors, questions to the administrators which left them dumbfounded. As regards our problems, well I can talk about one: the museum is open until a certain time, 18.00, though the ticket office closes one hour earlier. In the summer it happens that people arrive at 15.00 and stand in line more than an hour then find that no one is being admitted to the museum. However, sometimes we try to find a compromise for people in this situation. It is very difficult for us to refuse to let people visit the museum.