The Open Library on Art in the General Staff Building of the State Hermitage

On 26 March 2021, the Open Youth Library on Art began functioning in the General Staff building of the State Hermitage. The Open Library is a result of joint work by the State Hermitage and the Museum 15/24 international project.

The core of the library’s stock of books is made up on publications on contemporary Russian and foreign art. Contemporary artists, curators and museum experts participated in the choice of literature. They selected more than 1,500 European and Russian publications devoted to world culture and contemporary art, architecture and design, photography and fashion, theatre and cinema. The library includes books and catalogues published by the State Hermitage, and also publications made by the Museum 15/24 project. The collection also contains graphic novels and a special collection of comics.

The creation of a facility of this sort is a part of the museum’s activities aimed not only at performing educational functions and popularizing contemporary art among teenagers and young adults, but also at expanding the museum’s accessibility and openness in general.

The library space was designed and fitted out taking account of worldwide experience and modern design approaches employed in museum libraries. The colour scheme for the interior and the choice of modern ergonomic furniture made it possible to visually expand the space and create an appropriate atmosphere for people to work comfortably with the books.

The Open Youth Library is located in the General Staff building next to the Hermitage’s Youth Centre and works as a reading room accessible during the museum’s opening hours. A visit to the library allows any visitor to the General Staff building to supplement their visual experience through reading, to obtain new knowledge in the field of art, primarily contemporary art.

Due to current public health restrictions, for the time being those who wish to use the Library will have to register in advance using the Youth Centre’s online resources and have an entry ticket to the General Staff building.

Students and officer cadets enrolled at educational institutions in the Russian Federation can obtain free-of-charge entry tickets for the General Staff building. They are able to visit this part of the museum without paying from Tuesday to Sunday during a particular time slot. The number of tickets for each time slot is limited. More details about free-of-charge access to the General Staff building for students.

Members of the Hermitage’s Students Club, and also those attending workshops, lectures, seminars and other Youth Centre events can enter the General Staff building using their personal passes or by online registration for particular events.

The rules for visiting the Library will change depending on how the public health situation develops. Updates will be published on the Youth Centre’s Internet resources.

The new facility will function not only as a reading room, but also as a venue for various events, including public discussions and meetings. The programme will be published on the Youth Centre’s social network pages. The first event will be a meeting of the book club “There’s this one book…” (curated by Youth Centre staff members Anna Tyrenko and Yekaterina Bychkova).

The role of main curator for the Open Youth Library has been taken by Christina Steinbrecher-Pfandt – an art-world professional with more than a decade of working experience. She has been head of the art fairs Art Moscow Art Fair and Viennacontevent, curated exhibitions and projects in Europe, the USA and Russia, including the Venice Biennale, Moscow Biennale, Artbat Fest and Berliner Festspiele. She is an advisor to Ars Electronica and on the board of the Art Art Foundation, the Urals Industrial Biennale of Contemporary Art, the Artbat Fest and the CADAF fair. In 2019, Christina Steinbrecher-Pfandt co-founded the Blockchain.art foundation together with Micha Anthenor Benoliel. In 2018, Apollo magazine named her a leader in the art world in the “40 under 40 in Europe” category.

The curator of the Library on behalf of the State Hermitage is Dmitry Ozerkov – head of the museum’s Department of Contemporary Art. He has been in charge of the Hermitage 20/21 project since 2007 and has curated exhibitions of contemporary and classic art, including “Jake and Dinos Chapman. The End of Fun”, “Jan Fabre. Knight of Despair / Warrior of Beauty”, “Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Not Everyone will be Taken into the Future” and “Zhang Huan: In the Ashes of History”. He was curator of the State Hermitage’s display at the 54th and 56th Venice Biennales of Art – “Dmitry Prigov: Dmitry Prigov” in 2011 and “Glasstress 2015 Gotika” four year later. He was commissar of the Manifesta 10 contemporary art biennale in 2014.

The selection of publications on contemporary architecture was made by Ksenia Malich – an art scholar and architectural historian who teaches at the Design School of the Higher School of Economics National Research University in Saint Petersburg. She has been the author and curator of exhibitions devoted to the formation of European schools of architecture in the 20th century and to major figures in contemporary architecture – “Santiago Calatrava. In Search of Motion”, “Architecture the Dutch Way. 1945–2000”, “Zaha Hadid at the State Hermitage”, “Golden Generation. Modernism in Finnish Architecture and Design” and more. She is the author of several dozen scholarly papers and exhibition catalogues devoted to questions of architectural theory in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The Museum 15/24 project

The Museum 15/24 project is a complex innovative programme for the State Hermitage being implemented by an international consortium made up of the Hermitage–Amsterdam Exhibition Centre, the Hermitage 21st Century Foundation, and the Outsider Art Museum (Netherlands). The project is part of the Dutch-based international programme Creative Twinning. The aims of the project are to develop new methods of involving young people aged 15–24 in traditional and innovative museum practices with museums in Russia and abroad, educational and research institutions in Russia and the Netherlands. The programme is overseen by the State Hermitage.