The Tretyakov Gallery is expanding further. This year, a large branch of one of Russia’s most renowned museums is set to open in Kaliningrad. The new building, located near the city center, is expected to start operations in March. The museum building on the so-called “Culture Island” is being built as part of the national project “Culture” – and it is largely complete, with only a few minor details remaining. The Art Newspaper reports on the new point on the map of Russian museums:
“The exhibition space, with a total area of 17,600 square meters, of which the exhibition halls will occupy more than 4,000 square meters, promises to be one of the most modern museums in Russia, featuring a cinema and a lecture hall with 276 seats, modern painting and drawing studios, woodworking and ceramics workshops, a media studio with tools for 3D modeling, screen printing, linocut, drawing, sculpture, and ceramics, as well as a book lounge, a museum shop, a restaurant, and a coffee shop. The museum is equipped with about 20 security systems, including alarm systems, video surveillance, and automation systems. A unique feature of the museum complex is the combination of daytime and artistic lighting in the exhibition spaces.”
According to the director of the Kaliningrad branch, Kamilja Baidildina, the museum will even have a special children’s museum – it will be entirely interactive, and young visitors will be able to interact with the exhibits. The exhibits, she emphasizes, are “specifically for Kaliningrad” and have not been shown anywhere else, featuring both copies of historical exhibits from the Tretyakov Gallery and works by contemporary artists.
The branch in Kaliningrad, located at Paradnaja-Kai, will open with a large project “Tretyakov Gallery. Five Centuries of Russian Art” featuring 300 works from the museum’s collection, showcasing artistic trends and genres of Russian art over five centuries. “The exhibition includes works by Vladimir Borovikovsky, Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Vera Mukhina, Vasily Polenov, Ilya Repin, Valentin Serov, Vasily Tropinin, and other masters” the article in The Art Newspaper states.