Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve became winner in one nomination of Museum Geek Festival!

The award ceremony of the winners and participants of the Third Festival of Museum Multimedia “Museum Geek: Digital Heritage” was held on the main stage of the 19th International Festival “Intermuseum”.

To participate in this contest, the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve presented the Internet encyclopedia “Saint Kirill Belozersky”. It was made by specialists of Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve with the assistance of the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Vologda region, the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, some federal and regional museums and libraries.

The employees of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve digitalized all icons, church articles and books connected with the image of St. Kirill Belozersky; took 3D pictures of the saint’s personal belongings, reconstructed the chapel and the places of original settlement of St. Kirill Belozersky on the shore of Lake Siverskoye. It gives a chance to show immensity of the monastery founded by him.

The Internet website about the personality and deeds of St. Kirill Belozersky containing various multimedia information (photos, virtual panoramas, 3D models, animation, video, and audio) was appreciated not only by several thousands of users, but also by the colleagues. It was named the best in the nomination “Best Multimedia Book”!

L.A. Musienko, director of the State Museum of History of Religion, gave the reward to Alexey Smirnov, head of the project, for the victory of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve in one of the contest nominations.

“There are not very many websites about the Russian saints in the Internet, but their basic difference is that they are made unprofessionally, often with the help of primitive designers, and they are placed on free hosting. So they have to pay for it providing area for advertising and it certainly disharmonizes with the site content. We wanted to make a good worthy project that would be useful both for specialists and pupils and just believers who would like to learn more about the saint. But it was clear at once that the museum couldn’t implement such a project on its own. We needed assistance of some clergymen, experts in field of audio, video and web-design and mobilization of recourses of our colleagues from other museums. And we needed financing. On March 29, 2016, the federal jury of the International Contest “Orthodox Initiative” approved the list of winning projects. The Internet encyclopedia “Saint Kirill Belozersky” represented by the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve was also among them. Thanks to the financial backing of the foundation, we managed to create a new site containing various multimedia information about the founder of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, his cloister and the museum. There are over 100 images of Saint Kirill from the collections of different Russian and foreign museums, libraries and private collectors. I must underline that we are not going to stop at what has already been accomplished and plan to replenish the website with some new data. We thank all our friends and partners from the museums and libraries, the Elar and the Ascreen Companies for assistance in the implementation of the project.  We also express sincere gratitude to the judges of the International Contest “Orthodox Initiative” who supported this project and the judges of the Festival of Museum Multimedia “Museum Geek” for appreciation of our work”, said Alexey Smirnov, representative of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve.

The Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve constantly participates in the Internet Festival of Museum Multimedia arranged in the format of a biennale and takes prize-winning places. Last time it was given a special prize of the festival partner – the Non-Profit Partnership “Automation of Museum Activity and Information Technologies”.

Photo: Savva Miturich