The STaTe hermiTage muSeum annual reporT

hermItaGe frIenDs orGanIzatIons hermItaGe frIenDs orGanIzatIons
The STaTe hermiTage muSeum foundaTion of canada inc.
and The canadian friendS of The hermiTage
The highlight of 2010 has certainly been the success of
the Canada–Hermitage Young Artists programme organized
by Dr. Sophia Kudriavtseva, Head of the Youth Education
Centre of the State Hermitage Museum, and Robert
Kaszanits, President of the Foundation. Judging from the
letters of appreciation and the photographs, it was an unqualified
success. Ten third- and fourth-year art students
were selected through competitions held among three of
Canada’s leading university art schools. The competitions
were under the supervision of the deans of their schools.
The participating schools in 2010 were: York University
(Toronto), Concordia University (Montreal) and the Ontario
College of Art and Design (Toronto). The students attended
“Art Semester at the Hermitage” organized by the
Hermitage Youth Education Centre. The itinerary concentrated
on skills development. Classes were held in St. Petersburg
on August 9 to 22, 2010. Most popular were visits
to artists’ studios. The Canadian Friends enjoyed sponsoring
one of the students and following her experience.
The State Hermitage Museum Foundation of Canada participated
in the publication of the English edition of Masterpieces
of European Jewellery from the 16th to 19th Centuries
in the Hermitage Collection album. In the future, the Founda-
addreSS:
the state Hermitage museum Foundation
of Canada inc.
900 Greenbank Road, suite 616
Ottawa, ON K2J 4P6
Canada
tel.: 1 (613) 489 0794
Fax: 1 (613) 489 0835
www.hermitagemuseum.ca
tion plans to participate in the production of more collection-based
publications that help bring the Hermitage’s
academic excellence to the world.
In October 2010 Robert Kaszanits brought the Canadian
Friends of the Hermitage from the Volunteer Association
of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts to St. Petersburg
to participate in the “Monday in the Hermitage” programme.
The tour was led by Dr. Hilliard Goldfarb, Associate
Chief Curator of the Montreal Museum, and Yvonne
Zacios, Head of the Volunteer Association. Robin Young,
Executive Director of the Canadian Friends, worked during
the summer months arranging details of the October
tour.
Toronto Chapter’s Fall 2010 lecture programme was rich
in history. They first organized a lecture with Dr. Corey
Keeble on the Palaces of St. Petersburg – War and Peace on October
6. On October 27, Rick Phillips presented An Evening
with Rachmaninoff and Dr. Keeble joined the chapter again
to cover the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 on November
17. Ottawa Chapter’s Fall 2010 lecture programme included
screening of The Hermitage Dwellers, a film featuring
some people who work for the museum, directed by Aliona
Van der Horst.
addreSS:
Canadian Friends of the Hermitage
1500 Bank street, suite 302
Ottawa, ON K1H 1B8
Canada
tel.: 1 (613) 236 1116
toll Free: 1 (866) 380 6945
Fax: 1 (613) 236 6570
Email: friends@hermitagemuseum.ca
www.hermitagemuseum.ca
hermiTage foundaTion (uK)
With the help of the London Friends, the two British
sculptors, Anish Kapoor and Antony Gormley, were shown
at the Hermitage from June to September 2010. Anish Kapoor’s
Sky Mirror was a sensational presence in the Great
Courtyard of the Winter Palace, reflecting the building as
well as the sky. Antony Gormley’s Clasp, a single figure built
from plates of rusted iron, stood in the Dionysus Hall surrounded
by Classical marbles to arresting affect.
The London Friends started the year with a banquet
at Sotheby’s raising money for the “Hermitage 20/21”
Project. Ilya and Emilia Kabakov were invited to participate
as the guests of honour. A series of plates were auctioned
at the dinner – very generously decorated by the
Kabakovs, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Antony Gormley,
Zaha Hadid, Bruce McLean and Keith Tyson. The guests
of the evening enjoyed wonderful music performed
by Vladimir Spivakov.
In April the London Friends had a book launch for Gem
Engraving in Britain from Antiquity to the Present by Julia Kagan
in the Hermitage Rooms. Unfortunately, Mrs. Kagan
herself could not be there, but she was watching the video
from the occasion within hours after the event.
Thierry Morel joined the organization as Managing Director
in June 2010 when the London Friends had a stand
at Art & Antiques London, an art fair in Kensington Gardens.
The Friends showed a group of twentieth-century
Russian photographs on display stands, kindly lent by Zel-
da Cheatle and the Tosca Fund, and sold catalogues of the
Hermitage collections with great success. Several new London
Friends were recruited.
The summer banquet in St. Petersburg included some
100 guests from all over the world invited by the London
Friends. The British Consul, William Elliott, gave a special
party for them the day before in the lovely garden of the
Consulate overlooked by the Smolny Cathedral.
A very diverse range of specialists from different departments
of the Hermitage came to London under the Visiting
Curators scheme. The program of the year 2010
started with Sergei Plotnikov, keeper of military drawings,
for whom visits to Windsor Castle and the Imperial War
Museum were arranged; then Yelena Krylova came to study
stained glass and asked especially to see the sixteenth-century
window in the village of Hingham in Norfolk. Marina
Guruleva was in search of experience with the restoration
of encaustic painting and was particularly helped by the
Hamilton Kerr Institute in Cambridge, and finally Alexander
Butyagin and Nadezhda Novoselova, studying Greek
settlements on the Black Sea, were introduced to the Institute
of Classical Studies and the Ashmolean Museum
in Oxford.
In December the London Friends of the Hermitage
changed its name to the Hermitage Foundation UK
to give a wider range of possible services to the Hermitage
Museum.
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addreSS:
Hermitage Foundation (UK)
the Hermitage Rooms, somerset House
strand
London WC2R 0RN
UK
tel.: 020 7845 4635
Fax: 020 7845 4637
Email: info@hermitagefriends.org
www.hermitagefriends.org