On 20 May 2024, the exhibition “Hermitage Moments” opened in the Foyer of the Hermitage Theatre. It features photographs taken over recent years in the Hermitage itself, its Saint Petersburg branches, satellite centres and museums that host Hermitage Days.
They are the work of Hermitage photographers and their colleagues from other cities. It is a story of the museum universe, of what the Hermitage does in Saint Petersburg, across the whole of Russia, in other countries and in virtual reality.
What visitors see – the sumptuous interiors, the unique exhibits – is just the tip of the museum iceberg. An immense amount of work is hidden from the public gaze – research, the preparations for exhibitions and conferences, the publication of books and catalogues, programmes of public education and inclusion, the presentation of the Hermitage in the information sphere and in the world.
“The museum institutionally combines within it the entire ‘cycle’ of preserving an object: collecting, storage, study, attribution, restoration, analysis, presentation to the public, the creation of a scholarly and cultural product. It is only in that way that a thing becomes an exhibit, a great asset and cultural valuable,” says Mikhail Piotrovsky, General Director of the State Hermitage.
More than 2,500 people work in the Hermitage: curators, restorers, tour guides, custodians. They carry out archaeological excavations, preserve, study and restore masterpieces of world culture. Museum staff devise and carry out a whole range of public education projects: original cycles of lectures, art mediations, conferences, festivals, theatrical mysteries and inclusive programmes. They ensure the safety of visitors and the collections, keep the museum’s buildings clean and, together with colleagues, organize cultural events around the world. Then, of course, there are those who work with the mass media, who tell about the life of the Hermitage through its own website and its pages in the social networks.
The goal of the exhibition “Hermitage Moments” is to acquaint the viewer with the full diversity of the museum’s activities, to show what often remains out of sight.
The first section of the display is devoted to the main areas of the Hermitage’s work: the keeping and study of the collections, public education and research projects, archaeological expeditions and museum construction, the publication of catalogues and more. Each thematic block is colour-coded. Taken together they form a unified picture, a bright mosaic of the museum universe.
The second section presents the Greater Hermitage programme, the aim of which is to make the museum’s stocks even more accessible through the creation of new display facilities and the use of state-of-the-art technologies.
Under this programme, the museum has already opened four satellite centres in this country: the Hermitage–Kazan, Hermitage–Vyborg, Hermitage–Siberia and Hermitage–Ural. Another three representations – the Hermitage–Kaluga, Hermitage–Eurasia and Hermitage–Vladivostok – are currently undergoing construction and restoration work.
In parallel with this, across the country and beyond – in Kazan, Vyborg, Omsk, Yekaterinburg, Orenburg, Kaluga, Vladivostok, Irkutsk, Vladikavkaz, Yakutsk, Grozny, Belgrade and other cities – Hermitage Days are being held each year.
The exhibition curator is Ivan Vladislavovich Korneyev, Head of the State Hermitage’s Historical and Informational Service.
The exhibition can be visited by all holders of entry tickets to the Main Museum Complex of the State Hermitage.
