The project is aimed primarily at visitors with special needs, but it will be of interest to anyone who dreams of making physical contact with artefacts of world culture. The Hermitage is granting that opportunity to its visitors by installing tactile copies of masterpieces in the permanent display.
“Today in the splendid display of Chinese art, we are launching an inclusive project. I should like to note that the Chinese theme and Chinese display are becoming a part of the most diverse range of Hermitage initiatives for which we are well known, and in particular inclusion.
“With us all cultures are presented in a dialogue. They are all equal within the framework of a single world culture, and we are developing a system of inclusion that allows us to make things accessible for all categories of people who take an interest in art,” Mikhail Piotrovsky, General Director of the Hermitage, said addressing the gathering.
An important part of the “Art in Feelings. China” project is the inclusive festival that will run until 16 February 2025. Members of the museum staff will be conducting specially prepared master classes and a new interactive programme entitled “In Search of the Five Symbols of Good Fortune”. Tours guided in Russian sign language are planned for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. In this way visitors with special needы – blind and partially sighted, deaf and hard-of-hearing, neurodivergent people and those with disorders of the locomotor apparatus – will be able to acquaint themselves with masterpieces from China’s extremely rich culture.
Also as part of the festival, in the General Staff building there is a display of works by non-sighted artists from the Vizhu Rukami [I see with my hands] studio, which is the only one of its kind, not just in Russia, but anywhere in the world. All who wish will be able to examine the ceramic pieces depicting dragons that are highly significant symbols of Chinese culture.
Three new tactile copies of exhibits connected with Chinese conceptions of prosperity and happiness have been installed in the halls of the culture and art of China on the top floor of the Winter Palace. The first of the is a model of a sculpture depicting Shòuxīng (or the Old Man of the South Pole), the Taoist deity of long life, that dates from the 17th or early 18th century. The god is surrounded by nine boys who are holding symbols of prosperity and longevity. The second model copies a porcelain flask adorned with a dragon that was made in the 18th–19th centuries. It was decorated with blue cobalt underglaze paint and stands out for its distinctive shape with a flattened round body reminiscent of the full moon. The third tactile model reproduces a large 18th-century ruyi carved from a single piece of jade. The ruyi, which literally translates to “as desired” or “as [you] wish”, is a special object in Chinese culture that possesses symbolic significance and has a shape resembling a wand or sceptre. It carries a depiction of the lingzhi mushroom of longevity and other symbols of good luck and good fortune: a lotus, a bat, vases and fish.
The “Art in Feelings” programme in the halls of the permanent display in the Main Museum Complex is being implemented with the support of Sberbank.
Members of the Hermitage staff from the Department of Intermuseum Communications, Development Service, Oriental Department, School Centre, Department for Scientific and Educational Work, and Sector for Work with Volunteers were involved in preparing the project.