Cultural and educational complexes - that what unites and consolidate Russia

M.B. Piotrovsky, Director General of the Hermitage, during his Conversation with N.V. Volynskaya, President of the National Cultural Heritage Foundation, Talked about How the Construction of Such Large-Scale Cultural Complexes will Develop the Regions and about Short-Term Prospects JSC Stroytransgaz is the general contractor under the complex construction project.

– Mr. Piotrovsky, the State Hermitage is one of the founders of the National Cultural Heritage Foundation. How, in your opinion, will such large-scale cultural complexes develop the regions? What, do you think, are the short- and long-term prospects?

- It is a very big job with a lot of efforts involved. We need to understand and explain very well what we are doing so that all people have an understanding from the very beginning – we are strengthening and, at the same time, creating the unity of the cultural space in Russia. In fact, Russia is not united by the economy, which is multidirectional today, or politics (kind of a power concept), but culture and religion that are the main things that unite and consolidate Russia. This requires cultural ties. They must be active and "alive", like blood vessels in the body. Only then we will have a united Russia with single culture. The country is huge and all of its regions have their own cultural specifics, cultural heritage, and landmarks. The country is large, centralized, so the "blood" flow should be active like in blood vessels. That is why we are creating local satellite centres, which are very important. They are designed to make the "blood flow" swift and real.

The Hermitage point of view is based on our experience that preceded this large-scale project launch. The Hermitage has created and is creating its satellite centres outside St. Petersburg in different parts of the world. There are many of them in Russia. The concept of such satellites is that they are not branches of the Hermitage, but Hermitage Centres, which are a joint project of the Hermitage and local cultural establishments. In our current projects that already exist in Amsterdam, Italy, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, Vyborg, and Omsk, when the Hermitage creates a satellite, it becomes a native facility, not something foreign. It is a separate organism. In Kazan, the Hermitage is part of the Kazan Kremlin Museum-Reserve. In Ekaterinburg and other locations, it is different. But everywhere we always involve not just cultural forces, but local cultural establishments, which makes it native. The issue of funding is also important – it must be regional funding. In general, it could also be received from the centre, but the main thing is that it should be allocated in the region, so that it is local, not a Moscow project but something important for each governor. And the region's top officials should open all exhibitions that the Hermitage Centre creates. When building cultural and educational complexes, we would like to preserve vivid ties between the Hermitage and regional centres. We must act together with regard to their HR and other aspects.

The Hermitage Centres are not just a collection that was brought in and displayed, it is only half the battle, even a tenth of it. The main thing is to convey the spirit of their work to the regions, since the Hermitage is not a collection of beautiful things, it is a state cultural establishment, with vast experience of work – more than 250 years. The entire history of the Hermitage is the entire history of Russia. The Hermitage is a symbol of Russia, a symbol of Russian cultural focus. At the same time, the Hermitage in history is a textbook and encyclopedia of museum management for eras. Almost not a single museum in the world has had so many vicissitudes: revolutions, wars, reforms, reorganizations. The way the Hermitage overcame all of them is our experience, which we share, and many learn from our experience. Our experience and the spirit of the Hermitage are school programs, lecture programs. We share this spirit and work style. Technology and what we have learned thanks to it is very important now. Today, we can regularly work remotely and hold meetings, inspect exhibitions and the state of exhibits, hold regular meetings with people at the exhibition. Now, there is a constant connection. With the help of technology, we will be able to manage the "blood flow through the vessels" better than before. Now, our mission is to make more use of technical capabilities. All this great experience gives us reason to suggest how big centres should work in the future. The most important thing is that we preserve our spirit and share it. That is not just a collection of the Hermitage, but the Hermitage itself, which we share.

The Hermitage is an event, it is always special. Each Hermitage is special in different cities. It is not the same in Amsterdam and in Omsk. This is due to the mindset of local people, their traditions and interests, the audience is different everywhere. In Vyborg, which, by the way, is close to St. Petersburg, the Hermitage is also special, with its own interests. In Kazan and Vladivostok – a beautiful society of friends-visitors of the Hermitage in its various guises is gathered everywhere. And now it is very important – as a result of the past year – that there are a lot of people in our social networks who do not live in St. Petersburg. And these are the people who will visit and become friends of our new cultural and educational canters that are already being developed. Now, when we know that construction is already underway, there are many additional challenges and it is very important to decide how all this will function.

 - What ideas does the Hermitage plan to bring in to the regions? What is the planned dialogue with people? Should we shape the environment of the future consumer?

- Yes, we should, and very thoroughly. As you understand, at first we will hold a great opening ceremony; there will be many people, a crowd. We need to make sure that people are interested after the opening. People have a lot of things to do and, as it often happens, at first millions visit exhibitions, then fewer. How much fewer? So, we should prepare and educate people.

And we do educate! On the one hand, we are active in social networks. On the other hand, for example, there is a formal centre in Vladivostok, which does not physically exist yet, but we hope that its main location will be in an old downtown building. But we already hold exhibitions, read lectures, bring people in – and every year the Primorsky State Art Gallery develops a full-scale program. The last exhibition there, which is already closed, was a big collection of carved stones from the Katherine's collection. It could be accompanies by children's games and quizzes, kind of indirect education programs. We do and invent various things. When we launched the Hermitage Days, there were only 2–3 standard events, but now there is so much more: a children's drawing competition, virtual cinema, lots of things. People have already got used to it, and we must not let them go, but engage and retain them. We must keep in mind that children grow up. That is why we have established the Youth Centre of the Hermitage. That is the work we should do while the construction is underway. During the Hermitage Days, we try to show all our genres of museum activities and arrange for an exchange of experience.  All these activities will be transferred to large centres of the cultural and educational complexes. An important and ideological part of the program is master classes for art restorers, when the regions together with art restorers work on acute issues and pending problems for 2–3 weeks. They exchange experience, administrative and custody matters, unified storage rules, and take into account the current needs.  It is useful when ordinary employees come, not just bosses, and solve issues. All this creates – something I began our conversation today with – the unity of the cultural space in Russia.

- The Hermitage is so huge. Who shapes and comes up with topics for dialogue with the regions?

- We choose topics together and develop a plan for 5 years out of our joint interests. We prepare 5–6 exhibitions. All locations have their own exhibition programs, which means that our exhibition should not only be interesting, but also, on the one hand, be close to local traditions (for example, the Golden Horde exhibition in Kazan) and, on the other hand, display something not yet presented in the region, something the residents have had no opportunity to see yet. It turned out interesting and unusual in Vladivostok, where the Hermitage Days are based on antique arts. In the Far East, there is a great interest in the Greco-Roman world. It is clear that when they discovered the Far East, they remembered Greece, the Greek pioneers. People came and created the Russian Far East, a culture oriented towards antiquity, and it remained like that. It is very interesting that ancient culture is of interest, given the fact that European culture is based on antiquity.

It is very important that there is such a dialogue and mutual interest. It is very important to duly arrange such mutual work from the administrative viewpoint, so that it would not be imposing on each other. This always happens like that in museum discussions and in the museum community – people want different things. It is always very difficult to ensure the correct frequency and line-up of meetings to discuss what kind of exhibition it should be, what kind of accompaniment it needs, what concent it covers, who will come to support the exhibition.

- In your opinion, will the new cultural and educational centres be noticed in the world cultural space? Are there examples in the world and what are the prospects?

- The cultural and educational complexes have already been noticed, and everyone is watching them very closely, they are really great. There are large-scale projects in the world, but there are not so many of them. In Los Angeles, a new building for the Los Angeles Museum is being developed – it is great in numbers. It is somewhere parallel to the complex in Vladivostok, but purely a museum, huge, expensive, and very spectacular one. And everyone is watching it very closely, this is one of the upcoming museum sensations – it is supposed to open in 2021. Our centres are also being watched, because a clear cultural policy is visible there, and they are being developed by excellent architects. In Vladivostok, there is an interesting architectural project by an architectural bureau famous all over the world. It attracts everyone at once.

Another important aspect: there is no need to focus on the arrival of tourists, although, of course, we understand that, for example, in Vladivostok, there will be the Japanese and Chinese. We must understand that this is not for the Japanese and Chinese, but for our own people, for Russian nationals, so that our Russian cultural tradition lives and helps develop, intellectually and emotionally, the Far East residents. Therefore, in Vladivostok, we will do something that not the Japanese, but the Far East residents are interested in. And only then the Japanese will also come and watch. We need different viewers everywhere. In Amsterdam, there are often discussions like “our Amsterdam audience will not understand this, it should be simpler to make it interesting”. There are things that must be on our side and on the other. For example, Peter the Great should be mentioned because we are talking about the Hermitage and the history of Russia. Then, altogether, we will get a unique cultural product, which will arouse great interest all over the world.

It has not yet been finally decided how the centres will be managed. How will it look like across the country? Will there be a single control centre? We will decide together. The centres are all different. I think, with certain reservations, there should be a management company that would rhythmically ensure the operation of all centres, especially as the program is specific, something will be repeated. In 2–3 years, an exhibition from Vladivostok can be displayed in Kaliningrad or Sevastopol. Coordination on such a large scale is important, it will be of interest to the whole world as an example.

The closest parallel is the United States, a huge country. There is a completely different territorial division and, in particular, strong decentralization there. Cultural clusters are not interconnected, separate and all special.  In Russia, cultural clusters have their own specifics, I think that our system makes them more interconnected. Thanks to our new project, we will show the world an example of how this can be done together.

- There is an International Soft Power Index rating. Culture alongside with other criteria of economic development, security, etc. is certainly part of it. From your point of view, will Russia get a certain rating in the world thanks to the new cultural complexes?

- It surely will because, in general, our main asset is culture. It cannot be taken away, the economy is unstable, but the culture is, even if we manage it not very well. This is a powerful force, culture raises and keeps us in the rankings, and we must support it. We need a system that would simultaneously provide a single cultural space and access to cultural values for the general public in all regions. I think it is very important to show the dignity of our culture, traditions of Russia, dignity of Russia, this is a great opportunity to raise them in the eyes of people.

Availability is a very important aspect of these centres. Availability is a good word. It means two things: first, that doors are open for you, and second, that you understand what is available to you, what is shown to you. We need to combine these meanings: sometimes we forget it, and the viewer forgets it.  We need to combine them: you are allowed through a wide door, but you must show that it was not in vain that people worked hard, brought and show such wonderful things. This is a challenge of the Hermitage as well. For example, visitors arrived for only an hour and a half to quickly run through the museum. This is a pity, because the enormous work that is being done is lost for some of the people, they do not see it and do not know it, our visitor surveys show this.

The mechanism of cultural communication within the country sharply increases the rating of the country's importance in the world space. We build and we connect it, and in the world space we are building a huge new tower.

- Are 4 complexes enough, in your opinion, or are there perhaps more open points on the map of Russia?

- The points were chosen very precisely, they are very correct – the edges of the Russian border. We must first do it, and then see. On the one hand, you cannot boil the ocean and try to do more than you can, on the other hand, these are unique complexes, you cannot make too many of them, nowadays too many things are replicated.

Culture must be available. We need to build complexes, work out the system so that people around are attracted to them. As we have done it in Kazan: all residents of Tatarstan must visit the Hermitage, trips are organized for schoolchildren so that they can visit it at least once. It would be nice to analyse it in 5 years and only then make decisions on further replication. If you make it in each region, the charm will be lost.

- A sensitive and often discussed issue is the use of digital technology. Visiting exhibitions in the online space? How can it look like in our situation and how can the balance of power change? The new cultural and educational complexes must also use digital technologies in order to bring art to every household.

- Of course, we cannot do without modern IT technology, and today, as I said, technology is very important so that the centres are interconnected all the time and online meetings are arranged on a regular basis. Our experience during the pandemic showed that we began to meet significantly more with our colleagues from other museums around the world. Previously, we had to solve many organizational issues, carry luggage, travel, but now no excuses are accepted for not showing up. Now, you have to be a very busy person not to have time to connect to Zoom.

The second and very important thing: thanks to technology, we began to build a story about the museum, people prepared in advance perceive what they see in a completely different way. Of course, it is absolutely different if you are prepared and understand what is genuine. While if you don’t understand what is genuine, what is reproduction, then you don’t feel the energy of art.

New lectures that come to your household and prepare you are perceived in a different way. We learned how it works from our social networks. After listening to lectures in advance, visitors come to the Hermitage prepared. They look at the same thing in a completely different way – not at 2-3 pieces, but at the modest jar in the corner, which was discussed, and remember the story about it – it turns out that the jar is there not in vain, it is a very important jar. That is why we need to properly build our educational system.

The pandemic experience has shown that all museums in the world have websites. It is believed that you need to have a look at the website before coming to the museum. As it turned out, one does not study the website before visiting the museum, but only looks at the opening hours and tickets. The website is rarely viewed, few people are getting prepared to visit a museum. In fact, you are supposed to view and study what you are going to watch, plan a visit, then come, look again and see what you have not viewed till the end, then come again, and this way people will visit the museum several times. New technology will attract people, and the system must be built in such a way that people have an incentive to come to the museum and see exhibits with their own eyes.

- In your experience, is the Hermitage suffering from a HR shortage? To what extent are local people able to absorb the ideology and start functioning?

- There are no such problems at the moment, there are employees who are passionate about art – and they make others involved too. There are also enough people – knowledgeable professionals and students at Universities throughout the country. There are many majors and professions that are needed, not necessarily related to art. These are PR, logistics, innovative IT technology. We have people, we just need to properly recruit and manage them. It is a matter of practice. We hold auditions for managers at the Hermitage.

- Can you comment on the words of the President of the Russian Federation: "Culture should in no case become an ideology"? In this huge country, where there are many religions, nationalities, different time zones, different cultural traditions – what can unite the nation? A common cultural code, but it should not be ideologised. Can you explain?

- All the things we are talking about in the sphere of culture are not arithmetic, this is algebra with a vivid process. Everything is not that simple – there should not be any ideology, since there are different ideologies, another ideology should be developed – an ideology of culture, museum in particular. All differences are beautiful, the existence of differences is good, it creates a living organism, all approaches are different in different situations, people are all different, in one place their favourite colour is red, in another – green. We should know well where and what is needed, and take it into account and monitor the success. This is exactly what culture does, it shows: people are different, history is different. Differences often give rise to wars of memory and violence, while culture transforms all this into a dialogue of cultures. Yes, there were differences, and it's good that they were, the history is interesting, let's just not be at your friend's throat about old grievances. Culture allows us to forget old grievances that occurred because they did not understand the charm of differences, did not understand that we actually can live side by side and wear different clothes. This is precisely what culture teaches us, and this has an ideological meaning. Culture should not promote a specific ideology, it should promote an ideology of goodness and an understanding of the beauty of differences. It sounds simple, but this is just the most important thing that people often do not understand, and this leads to complicated confrontations. Today, we understand that it is good that a person thinks differently and there is no need to kill because of that.