Enjoy Russian language school students
and local volunteers have visited the Museum of Fine Arts of Karelia Republic.
It is situated in the historic center of Petrozavodsk
in the former Cathedral Square,
in one of the old stone buildings. This building itself is the architectural
monument of 18th century. In different years it housed a public school, Olonets Grammar School
for boys, Public Library, Pioneer Palace and Vocational
School of Culture.
Systematic work on research and
collection of monuments of ancient Russian art in Karelia, active quantitative
increase of the collection as well as lack of normal conditions for keeping,
made the leaders of the republic expedite the resolution of the issue connected
with establishment of the Fine Arts Museum, which opened its doors to visitors
for the first time on October 20, 1960.
Today the exposition includes: Ancient
Russian Art (icon painting) 15-19 centuries, Decorative and Applied Art of
Karelia of the 19-20 centuries, Russian Art of early 18-20 centuries, Russian art of the 20th century,
Karelian art of the 20th century, Wester European Art.
The excursion was presented in Russian by
one of the guides Marina Korshakova. All students had a chance to learn more
about Karelian and Russian everyday living of past centuries. As the guide used
lots of specific terms, it was hard to understand the details. After the
excursion our volunteers helped the students and translated all indistinct
parts. “Students were fascinated with ancient icons. We told them a legend of
creation of the Kizhi church. They were also impressed by the stories of
Russian and Lappish daily graft – we told them about ancient “iron” and
“washing machine”, - Anna Abramova (one of the volunteers) told.
John Dawton shared his impressions: “It
was in interesting experience because we were able to see the old Icons and
discover what the national Karelian dress was, it was a great cultural
experience!”
