On Thursday the 7th of April 2011, The Hermitage State Museum had the great honor to welcome the princess Mathilde of Belgium and the Belgian delegation, visiting Sint-Petersburg as part of a diplomatic mission.

Five Belgian students from the Free University of Brussels who are working as interns in the Volunteer Service of the museum during one month, had the great opportunity to meet the princess and to talk to her.

Always smiling, she showed herself very interested in their project and congratulated them for their initiative.

She mentioned different topics like student exchanges at an international level. She also asked them about their artistic interests, their motivations, their ambitions and about their living experience in the city.

The Belgian students took pride in this meeting and thank the princess for her goodwill and her open-mindedness.

Photo reportage:
07.04.2011. Princess Mathilde of Belgium in the Hermitage.

This past Saturday March 26, cat and art lovers alike gathered at the State Hermitage Museum for the Day of the March Cat. Once a year, the Hermitage opens its exhibition halls to showcase the talents of local children, and its basement to celebrate its feline inhabitants. These cats are the descendants of a cat brought by Peter the Great from Holland. Several more cats were soon shipped from Kazan at the request of Empress Elizabeth in order to keep the rodent population of the Winter Palace in check. Catherine the Great then added more members to their already burgeoning population to protect the original Hermitage collection. At any given time, there are about 50 cats living in the Hermitage. They are provided with food and medicine by employees of the museum, funded by the Foundation of Friends of the Hermitage Cats which accepts donations toward their care. On this special day, they are further provided with the loving appreciation of museum patrons.

Upon walking into the inner courtyard of the Hermitage Museum, visitors were greeted by several large, wooden, hand-painted cat sculptures. Their bright colors and friendly faces stood out amid the glistening snow. Occasionally one of the museum’s finest furry guardians would appear from the depths of the building, winding its way through the legs of visitors to the delight of those who saw him. Proceeding into the main entrance, patrons viewed several artistic endeavors by young St. Petersburg students. The approaches of the artists varied greatly, though they all centered around the theme of the day – cats. From the surreal to the hyper-realistic, these works showed the tremendous skill of the community’s future artists. 4th floor? Scavenger hunt? The halls were crammed with eager boys and girls, making their way to the 4th floor.

Visitors were then divided into groups and promptly guided into the underbelly of the Hermitage. Through the basement doors, attendees wound their way through empty corridors hoping for a perfect picture or just the sight of a furry face. After several brief sightings of the museum’s more wild inhabitants, young and old alike made their way to a small, well-lit room in the back of the maze-like corridors. Here the friendliest felines were found. Squeals of delight and peals of laughter echoed down the hall, as visitors posed and played with the cats of all shapes and sizes. Most of the cats were delighted with the attention, whether coming up to greet their guests or simply laying down for a well earned tummy rub. As they reluctantly exited the room, it was clear by the smiles on their faces, that these visitors would not forget their time spent at the Day of the March Cat.

Tom Cat Day Photos

March 27th saw the celebration of the annual Tom Cat Day. A whole range of events for young and old was organized by the Youth Centre and carried out with the help from the Hermitage Volunteer Service.

Everyone was welcome to take part in drawing their favourite cats on the canvas located in the courtyard of the Winter Palace right next to the cheeky blue cat painted by Dmitriy Shagin - famous painter and artist from St Petersburg. At the same time an exhibition dedicated to cats took place in the most restricted area of the State Hermitage - its attic. The most inquisitive and attentive visitors who took part in the celebratory quest round the museum were able to see the attic cats. Both the quest and the exhibition dedicated to the furry residents of the Hermitage were ‛only possible thanks to the volunteers‛, as the organizers and many guests kept on saying.

Tom Cat Day Photos

In preparation for the upcoming competition “Following in the footsteps of the Olympic Gods” the Volunteer Service together with the School Centre and the Antiquity Department have organized a tour for the computer science teachers whose aim is to inspire children to create artworks about Ancient Greece.

The head of the School Centre Irina Valerevna Diubanova has thrilled everyone with the Greek culture and mythology. She has not only agreed to lead the tour for the participants of the competition, but has also prepared a cycle of tours and lectures dedicated to Ancient Greece, which has already captivated all the volunteers.

On February 14th, the volunteers celebrated Valentine's Day. This year, many other holidays fell around this day including: Maslenitsa (Pancake Week), Chinese New Year, and the birth of a new Volunteer Service website benevole.ru. For the celebration, Jasmine, our new volunteer from Australia, baked a typical Australian dish - Banana cake. The delicious aroma of bananas filled the room throughout the day. This dish is definitely worth trying! Also, during the Maslenitsa party, the volunteers had the opportunity to discuss and celebrate the opening of the Olympic Games in Vancouver. Finally, to celebrate Chinese New Year, in the festively decorated Volunteer Service room, the volunteers organized a special fortune-telling event where they received gifts and happy predictions for the year of the Silver Tiger!

‘In the tracks of the Olympic Gods’ is the new children’s competition of computer work, carried out by Hermitage Volunteers together with the Antique Department, the School Centre, and the Training Centre of Computer Technology in 2010. The competition, dedicated to the history and culture of Ancient Greece, will take place from 1 February to 7 April and will culminate in ‘Classical Days’, the Festival of the Ancient World conducted yearly at the Hermitage.

The best works, chosen from such categories as computer art and graphics, presentations, Flash and Gif animations, will be displayed in the rooms of the Hermitage, and the winners will be rewarded in the Hermitage Theatre on the 24 April.

In order that they can produce works which can be worthily displayed alongside the richest exhibits of the Hermitage, participants of the competition will have the opportunity to visit excursions and lectures, meet with specialists, and also to participate in the carnival procession and other holiday events of the festival ‘Classical Days 2010’.