St Petersburg in the Creative Art of Children. International exhibition project

The exhibition is a closing stage of the international project initiated by the Russian Museum in 2000. Members of 200 institutions for children from different regions of Russia and various foreign countries took part in this project. 300 works were selected out of 2,500 and were shown at the exhibition. These include modern drawings, as well as unique graphics of blockade period, and a number of works of 1960-1990s from the collection of the Russian centre of museum pedagogy and children creativity of the Russian Museum. As a theme for creation, St.Petersburg is not only what can be seen today but also its tree hundred years history. That is why many drawings are devoted to historical events, as well as to images of historic heroes. The integral image of the city is combined of different subjects and topics, which attract one by their ingenuous, poetic, and sometimes funny interpretation of what is depicted. A separate section of the exhibition introduces works of foreign participants of the project. These children have seen St.Petersburg only on TV or in films, or have read about it in books, but their works are full of imagination and enthusiastic attitude towards the great city on the Neva river. Creative achievements of young artists are interesting not only because of the variety of subjects but also of techniques and materials used: water-colour, tempera, pastel crayon, oil, batik, gobelin, computer graphics and collage, beads, ceramics, wood, leather, and paper. Exhibitions of children works are always like festivals. This is why, both children and adults visit them with great pleasure and find something new in the outer world through them every time. The exhibition held in the halls of St.Michael's Castle presents the whole world, St.Petersburg by the name. A catalogue for the exhibition has been published.