On June 6, Verkhnedvinsk /Diana Kurilo - BELTA/. One of the central events of the celebration programme for the 125th anniversary of Marc Chagall in Vitebsk will be the XXII International Chagall Readings, as reported to a BELTA correspondent by Lyudmila Khmelnitskaya, Director of the Marc Chagall Museum. The scientific conference will be held on June 9-10 at the museum. Art critics, historians, and archivists from Russia, Belarus, Germany, and Latvia have shown interest in it. Their focus will be on issues related to the biography and work of Marc Chagall, as well as the history of the Vitebsk People's Art School. The opening of the exhibition "History of the Vitebsk People's Art School. 1918-1923", based on materials from the State Archive of the Vitebsk Region, the Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local Lore, the "Vitebsk Centre for Contemporary Art" Museum, and the Marc Chagall Museum, is timed to coincide with the start of the readings. As Lyudmila Khmelnitskaya noted, the interest in the topic of the Vitebsk People's School is due to the fact that Marc Chagall was at the origins of this educational institution, and also because work is beginning in Vitebsk on the creation of a new museum dedicated to the history of the famous educational institution. Last year, the Vitebsk "Centre for Contemporary Art" Museum was handed over the building that has survived to this day, where the school was located from 1918 to 1923 and where its famous teachers lived: Malevich, Lissitzky, Yermolaeva, and other avant-garde artists. The collection of materials on the history of the school will begin with the current Chagall Readings. More than 40 events, which will be held throughout the year, are timed to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Marc Chagall in Vitebsk. The artist's anniversary will be celebrated in his homeland for two days - July 7 and 8. -0-

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