Museyon (Moscow)

In 1912, the Museum of Fine Arts (now the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts , which includes the Museyon) was opened at the Imperial Moscow University . The founder and first director of the museum was professor of the Department of Theory and History of Art Ivan Tsvetaev , who initially considered the museum as an educational and upbringing institution. Tsvetaev set as his goal “to introduce an artistic element” in school education and family education of youth, to provide the necessary funds for the study of arts, “ennoblement of tastes and the development of aesthetic concepts” ^[1] . In the 1920s, professors from Moscow University Nikolai Romanov and Anatoly Bakushinsky laid the foundations of museum pedagogy as a scientific discipline. The museum organized circles for children, which encouraged moving classes so that the child in the process could express their own artistic impressions of the seen works of art. Actively developed excursion and lecture activities, the publication of popular science literature, developed interactive methods of working with children, relevant and current ^[1] .

In the 1930s, cooperation of the Pushkin Museum with the Central House of Art Education of Children of the People's Commissariat of the RSFSR (now the Institute of Art Education of the Russian Academy of Education ) began. The museum hosted the International Exhibition of Children's Drawing (1934) ^[2] and the "First Children's Art Festival in the Museum" (1935-1936). In 1949, a school lecture hall was organized. In the 1960s, a modern system of working with children of all age categories was formed. The museum has opened an art studio for the youngest, and for high school students - the "Club of Young Art Critics " ^[3] .

The concept of the Center for Aesthetic Education of Children and Youth began to be developed in the 1990s and is a system of continuous aesthetic development of the younger generation of all ages within the walls of the art museum in their free time from school or kindergarten. The Museyon opened on January 17, 2006 in a building adjacent to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. The name “Museyon” is translated from Greek as “temple of muses ” and refers to the Alexandrian museyon , the Hellenistic cultural, educational and research center founded at the beginning of the 3rd century BC . The symbol of the center is an owl - the personification of in-depth knowledge and wisdom ^[4] .

In 2012, as part of the celebration of the centennial of the Pushkin Museum, plans were announced for the reconstruction and integration of its buildings into a single complex - the Museum Town ^[5] . The idea arose back in the 1960s and belonged to the director of the Pushkin Museum Irina Antonova . But only in 2008 the Government issued a decree on the creation of the museum quarter, and on August 29, 2014 the Pushkin Museum hosted a ceremony dedicated to the start of the project ^[6] .

The building of the Center for Aesthetic Education is located on the territory of the Museum of Fine Arts near the Kremlin , where the Moscow nobility has settled since ancient times. The boundaries of the site on which the Museyon is located were formed by the 17th century and have a manor-like character of buildings of that time: a front yard in front of the main house and an extensive garden in the back, along which there are wooden and stone outbuildings ^[7] .

In 1913, a stone building in the neoclassical style and an art nouveau fence were added to the estate. A fountain was installed at the main entrance, a gazebo in the garden. By the 1980s, the buildings were dilapidated, and during the restoration in the late 1990s, the main wooden building had to be replaced by a stone one. To date, the site has retained its initial boundaries and structure and remains an expressive example of the Moscow Empire style of the late XVIII - early XX century ^[8] .

The Museyon Aesthetic Education Center conducts classes for children and youth based on the collections of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, taking into account the age-related psychology of students and the cultural needs of modern society. The center claims to prioritize the combination of traditional art and educational programs with the new capabilities of modern audio-visual tools and computer technology ^[4] .

To date, about 1,500 children are involved in the circles of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts ^[9] . The Museyon operates the Club of Art Lovers, the Club of Young Art Critics, an art studio, a library , print shops, sculptures and ceramics , art photography and computer graphics ^[10] . There are family groups and art therapy classes ^[11] .

There is a lecture hall in the center where classes are held not only for children, but also for the older generation: the former director, and now the president of the Pushkin Museum, Irina Antonova, conducts an authorial lecture series for pensioners here ^[12] .

Musical classes with children are regularly held in a specially equipped music room, concert hall and memorial apartment of Svyatoslav Richter ( Bolshaya Bronnaya street , 2/6), transferred to the Pushkin Museum in 1999 ^[5] . In addition, the Museyon annually holds the January Music Nights art festival, which is a continuation of the December Svyatoslav Richter international festival, December ^[13] .

In the capital and other cities of Russia, Museyon actively participates in exhibitions, events ^[14] and round tables devoted to children's creativity and aesthetic education ^[15] .

Since 2017, Museyon has been involved in the joint project of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Sberbank and VISA “See the Invisible” - a traveling exhibition of relief copies of painting masterpieces from the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts collection adapted for visually impaired and blind people ^{[16] [17]} .

• Museyon official page
• Official site of the A. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts