The Hermitage-Kazan Exhibition Center

The Hermitage-Kazan Exhibition Center was created under the patronage and with support from President of the Republic of Tatarstan Mentimer Shaimiev and is structurally a subdivision of the Kazan Kremlin State Historical and Architectural Museum-Park. It is situated on the territory of the Kazan Kremlin in an edifice formerly occupied by the Junker School that was built in the beginning of the 19th century. It has exhibition and auxiliary premises of around 1000 square meters.

The Hermitage-Kazan Exhibition Center has exhibition rooms and areas designed for holding computer classes, a video room, lecture and information halls. The general information halls are decorated as if they were a small part of St Petersburg, using modern technology. Permanent access to the State Hermitage's website and a screen showing news from the Hermitage and its branches all serve to transport visitors at the Hermitage-Kazan Exhibition Center to St Petersburg and to the State Hermitage.

The exhibition halls are intended to display paintings, graphics and decorative and applied art, as well as collections of historical and cultural items. There is an educational and methodological center for work with groups of schoolchildren and individual visitors using educational programs from the State Hermitage. It is located in two computer classes.

The video room of the Hermitage-Kazan Exhibition Center is designed as a place for conducting scholarly meetings and selective video-conferences. It may also be used as a press center and student club.
The lecture hall will be used to hold a series of lectures given by staff of the State Hermitage.

Thus, the concept for the creation and operation of the Hermitage-Kazan Center and its modern technical equipment provide for multifunctional use of the premises, for conducting exhibitions, lectures, conferences, scholarly meetings, and educational museum programs.

On 23 August 2005, during the celebrations to mark the 1000th anniversary of the city of Kazan, an exhibition entitled The Golden Horde. History and Culture was opened in the Hermitage-Kazan Exhibition Center. It presents more than 800 exhibits from the collections of the State Hermitage and museums of Saratov, Volgograd, Ufa, Voronezh, Astrakhan, Azov, St Petersburg, and Moscow.

Within the context of the opening of the Center, Mikhail Piotrovsky, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, member of the Russian Academy of Arts, and professor of the St Petersburg State University delivered a public lecture, and there was a press conference as well as the signing of a Protocol on Further Cooperation between the State Hermitage and the Kazan Kremlin Museum-Park.