The Night of Museums in 1150-year-old Polotsk will shave fifty years off the city's age
10/05/20120 views
10 May, Vitebsk /Diana Kurilo - BELTA/. Visitors to the National Polotsk Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve during Museum Night will travel back to the 1960s, Tamara Dzhumantaeva, acting director of the museum-reserve, told a BELTA correspondent.
Traditionally, on the eve of International Museum Day, the "Write Yourself into the History of Polotsk" campaign is held in Belarus's oldest city. Its essence is that the museum accepts gifts of items that are in one way or another connected with the history, culture, and traditions of the city. This year, the city celebrates the 1150th anniversary of its first mention in chronicles, and Museum Night, which will take place on 18 May, and the campaign will be held under the slogan "Polotsk ±50". As Tamara Dzhumantaeva explained, this idea arose because the 1100th anniversary of Polotsk was widely celebrated, and the city received many gifts that are still worthy of attention today. Moreover, it is easier for an ordinary person to comprehend and understand a fifty-year history, to correlate the events of their own lives with the events of the city. Therefore, this year the museum is ready to accept items from citizens reflecting the era of fifty years ago – the 1960s – to update existing and create new museum exhibits. Families, individuals, enterprises, and organizations can be donors. "Donor tables" operate in all 11 museums of the reserve.
On International Museum Day, 18 May, the National Polotsk Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve promises its visitors many surprises. Participants in the campaign will be awarded personal certificates for free admission to all museums of the reserve for a year, and the names of donors will be inscribed in the Honorary Book of Donors. In addition, all museum visitors who fill out special coupons become participants in a lottery to be drawn on 18 May. Among fifty memorable prizes will be season tickets for free admission to the museums of the reserve, invitations to organ concerts, the right to hold wedding ceremonies in the Museum of Textiles and the Saint Sophia Cathedral, and an invitation to a walking tour of the city. Young Polotsk residents will have the opportunity to envision their hometown half a century from now, when it celebrates its 1200th anniversary. They will draw the next major anniversary, and their works will await their time in the museum.
The Polotsk National Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve is a unique historical territory, the monuments of which are protected, studied, restored, and adapted for museum exhibitions. The exhibitions of some museums are located in architectural monuments: St. Sophia Cathedral (mid-11th - mid-18th centuries), the former Jesuit Collegium building (18th century), the Lutheran Church (1888), the Brotherhood School (late 18th century), residential buildings at 1 Voykov Street and 46 Nizhne-Pokrovskaya Street (19th - early 20th centuries), Peter I's House (1692), and the water tower (1956). The museum collection comprises about 90 thousand items. In total, the National Museum-Reserve includes 11 Polotsk museums.
The main holiday of the global museum community is celebrated on May 18. Its objective is to demonstrate that museums are an important means of cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures, and the development of mutual understanding, cooperation, and peace among people. Museum Night is an annual event dedicated to the International Museum Day. Museums, large and small, traditionally open their doors to visitors in the evening and at night, and also prepare special programmes. The event is international and takes place in 42 European countries. Almost 2 thousand museums stay awake once a year, opening their doors to everyone interested in seeing a museum at an unusual time of day. -0-
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