The first results of the International Conference "Museums and Power".

September 9-14, in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, a key event in the museum sphere of 2014 was held - the International Conference “Museums and Power”.

The St. Petersburg part of the event was implemented with the support of the Government of St. Petersburg, the Presidential Administration and the State Hermitage, with the participation of the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum-Reserve, the State Museum of the History of Religion, the State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg, the State Museum of Political History of Russia and the Central Museum communications named after A.S. Popova. The strategic partner of the conference was the Start Development Management Company, the general sponsor was the Elena and Gennady Timchenko Charity Fund. The main organizer of the conference was the Russian Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM Russia).

At a press conference on the opening, the President of ICOM Russia Vladimir Tolstoy spoke about how the conference was conceived: “The theme“ Museums and Power ”is gaining a special sound today. But it was not announced yesterday, but more than two years ago. Every three years, ICOM holds a general conference. And the competition between countries wishing to host it is almost as acute as between the contenders for the Olympics. Russia also tried to gain this right. But, unfortunately, we lost to Italy: the 2016 ICOM General Conference will be held in Milan. However, we decided that Russia should not be left without the largest museum forum. Then we came up with such a conference - our colleagues from Germany and the USA immediately supported us. ”

The importance of the chosen topic was emphasized in her opening speech by Irina Aleksandrovna Antonova, President of the State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin and Honorary Member of the International Council of Museums: “The theme that was proposed to us at this international conference is of particular and very important importance. Especially nowadays. I see it as a topic not only of dialogue, which is extremely important and always present, but also as a matter of responsibility of the authorities to museums, which are usually subordinate to this power.

Keynote speakers included Vladimir Tolstoy, President of ICOM Russia, Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation on Culture and Art; Mikhail Piotrovsky, General Director of the State Hermitage Museum; Luis Raposo, a member of the Presidency of ICOM Europe, one of the authors of the Lisbon Declaration “Supporting Culture and Museums as Confronting the Crisis and the Pledge of Building the Future” (2013), former President of ICOM Portugal and Hermann Schaffer, founder of the Museum and Foundation House of History of the Federal Republic of Germany ". A special guest of the conference is film director Alexander Sokurov.

During the breakout sessions that took place in the city’s museums, issues of regional development and international politics, the ways and capabilities of museums to address issues of “complex history”, and the main provisions of the Code of Museum Ethics were raised. A separate block of reports was devoted to the topic of displaced values and museum strategies in solving social problems.

More than 600 museum specialists from a total of 30 countries took part in the conference. A total of 70 reports were made in St. Petersburg and more than 30 in Yekaterinburg.

Within the framework of the conference, several significant events took place. On September 11, new open storage halls of the State Hermitage’s Restoration and Storage Center in the Old Village were inaugurated in St. Petersburg, and the Europe Nostra Prize received by Tsarskoye Selo State Museum in 2014 for the restoration of Agate rooms was presented on September 12. The opening ceremony of the memorial sign in Tsarskoye Selo was attended by Vice President of Europa Nostra, Prince Alexander Sain-Wittgenstein-Sain.

On September 13, a tripartite agreement was signed in Yekaterinburg on the establishment of the Hermitage-Ural cultural and educational center. The document was signed by Mikhail Piotrovsky, General Director of the State Hermitage Museum, Yevgeny Kuyvashev, Governor of the Sverdlovsk Region, and Alexander Yakob, head of the Yekaterinburg Administration. On September 14, conference participants were invited to the opening of a new museum in the city of Irbit - the Museum of Engraving and Drawing, which presented a collection of European graphics of the 15th-20th centuries.

Following the conference, no resolutions or policy documents were adopted. The objectives of the conference were different - to demonstrate each other’s readiness for an open dialogue, to identify the most exciting topics, the direct discussion of which should be given special attention in the future, as well as to demonstrate the desire and ability of the museum community to build sustainable ties that do not depend directly on the political situation.

For almost seven decades, the International Council of Museums (ICOM) has remained faithful to its principles and defines the museum as a source of knowledge and culture, which helps to better understand the world around and what is happening in it, and any heritage - as the property of all mankind.