On 30 May 2024, the Council Hall of the State Hermitage was the venue for an awards ceremony for the winners of the children’s art competition held as part of the Days of Classical Antiquity festival. The aim of the festival is to show that the legacy of the Greco-Roman world is not merely matter for museums but can also become a striking part of modern-day life and a source of inspiration.
By tradition, the main event of the Days of Classical Antiquity was a children’s art competition. This year the young artists produced works inspired by the theme of the Greek feast. The competition took place from 23 April to 23 May in two formats: offline in the halls of Classical Antiquity and online in the museum’s social networks,
At the ceremony, Irina Nikulina, a researcher in the Hermitage’s Department of Classical Antiquity, congratulated the winners and spoke about the competition statistics: “This year we had more than 700 entrants from 23 schools and [extracurricular] art studios in our city. We are very pleased that many youngsters had the opportunity to participate online. We were sent 257 works from different places in Russia.”
“Each year we come up with a different theme for the children’s art competition, but they are all connected with the history of Ancient Greece and Rome,” Nadezhda Novosyolova, another researcher in the Department of Classical Antiquity, explained. “This time we chose one of the most popular and light-hearted topics that run through the whole of life in Ancient Greece. The Greek feast is not only about food; it’s about socializing, philosophical discussions, debates and reflections.”
After certificates and souvenir gifts were presented to the young artists, the guests of the occasion were invited to the opening of an exhibition of the works of the winners and runners-up in the Heracles Hall. That display can be visited by all holders of entry tickets to the Main Museum Complex until 30 June 2024 (inclusive).
A list of the competition winners and runners-up has been published in the special Days of Classical Antiquity group in the VKontakte social network. The works of the finalists for both the online and offline formats can also be seen there.
During the festival children were able to join in quests, guided tours and creative master classes where they could make postcards, apply graffiti to ceramics and braid beads. The organizers also prepared an extensive inclusive programme. As in previous years, pupils of Boarding School No 33 for children with hearing impairments and the Konstantin Grot School for blind and partially sighted children took part in it.
The festival organizers expressed particular thanks to the Hermitage volunteers. They devised and conducted an interactive game for the youngsters, during which each of the participants got to know the traditions, music and dances of the Ancient Greek feast.
The Days of Classical Antiquity festival for children and teenage school pupils is organized annually by the State Hermitage’s Department of Classical Antiquity under the guidance of the head of the department, Anna Alexeyevna Trofimova.
