Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes joined in “Night at the Museum”

The Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes has been participating in the International Action “Night at the Museum” for the fifth year. This event took place for the first time in Berlin in 1997. The first cultural institution of Russia that joined it in 2002 was the Krasnoyarsk Museum Centre. Museums of St. Petersburg have been taking part in the action since 2008. More and more museums located in large cities and district centres participate in the event every year.  

This night museum action has two goals: to present new opportunities and potential of the museum and new exhibits from the holdings; to attract new visitors that could combine their leisure with a chance to go to the museum at an unusual time. First of all, the matter concerns the youth.

Therefore, everybody could visit permanent exhibitions of the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes for free on May 20 starting from 17:00. Monk-priest of the bishop’s yard “Ferapontov Monastery” Ioasaf (Vishnyakov) presented a new information booklet titled “Ferapontov Monastery” in the Refectory at the beginning of the museum event. It was published thanks to the participation in the International Grant Contest “Orthodox Initiative” in 2016-2017. This colourful illustrated booklet telling about the monastery and its sacred objects was issued in an edition of 3000 copies. Soon everybody will be able to buy it at a low price in the functional Church of Epiphany and in the souvenir shops of the museum.

The new exhibition of the icons from the Church of the Deposition of the Virgin’s Robe was also opened within the framework of the action “Night at the Museum”. This ancient wooden church built in the village of Borodava is located on the grounds of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve now. O.P. Bunina, employee of the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes and scholar in culture studies, read the lecture on the Church of Annunciation, the Deposition of the Virgin’s Robe and the history of construction of the first Old Russian churches dedicated to this feast. She told about the town protective meaning of the main church image that had been brought from Constantinople to Moscow and then to the Ferapontov Monastery. Besides, the icons from the iconostasis of the Church of the Deposition of the Virgin’s Robe were presented at the lecture. Nowadays they are the most ancient icons in the museum collection that date back to about 1485. O.P. Bunina paid attention of the visitors to the unique inscription in the book that Jesus Christ was holding in his hands in the icon of the Deisis tier. It was probably connected with the apocalypticism in 7000 AM (1490).

O.V. Silina, art critic and specialist in teaching methods in the museum, delivered the master-class “Apprentices of Dionisy”. Its participants have a chance to make a small fresco following the principles, technological stages and artistic methods of the master of the turn of the 15th-16th centuries. Of course, it is impossible to reconstruct the fresco painting process completely; we have to keep certain conditionality in the choice of painting methods and materials. But as a result of this museum event, visitors learn in practice how Dionisy worked and create a souvenir about it. This time the museum guests painted an image of the angel from the credence altar of the Nativity of the Virgin Cathedral under the direction of O.V. Silina. She told them about symbolism of the angel’s attributes and artistic peculiarities of the image. During the action “Night at the Museum”, the master-class “Apprentices of Dionisy” was delivered twice for two groups of visitors.

In spite of the fact that the Museum of Dionisy’s Frescoes is located in a small settlement that certainly has an impact on the number of night visitors, the museum employees are always glad to present the museum, its renovated exhibitions and their creative abilities at an unusual time.