We speak with Elena Orlova, Director of the I. I. Mashkov Volgograd Museum of Fine Arts, about how museum workers operate in the Internet age, whether an artist can be hungry, and why one must not economise on culture.
The doors are always open
— Elena Vladimirovna, how is the museum celebrating its anniversary date?
— We prepared a large programme for visitors. One of the first things we did was to honour veterans, beginning with the opening of the exhibition “Country of Heroes.” The display includes canvases depicting workers of the pre-war period, heroes of the Great Patriotic War, and those who restored the city from ruins. Recently an exhibition of applied art, “Eastern Casket,” opened.
The birthday museum itself prepares gifts for its guests; for us this is a customary phenomenon. While oil workers, metallurgists and builders celebrate their professional holidays with trips into nature and corporate parties, we meet our professional day with a “twenty-four-hour labour watch”: we hold the “Night at the Museum” event. And on national holidays we do not rest either — our doors are always open.
We celebrated the anniversary modestly, in the spirit of our crisis time. There is no money for celebration, so we held it among friends. Fortunately, we have very many of them — actors, musicians, poets, librarians, journalists...
A vicious misconception
— Times really are difficult; many believe that when people do not have enough money for food, they have no time for culture. By this principle, apparently, priorities are set and budgets are cut. The region’s culture, as is known, suffered the greatest losses: expenditures were cut to 43 percent.
— Not everything in our life is limited to a person’s natural needs. Why do we come into this world? Why do we work? Only to eat well? Not by bread alone... There are eternal values that must not be forgotten and that it is dangerous to underestimate. During the war people risked their lives to save priceless canvases for future generations.
There is a vicious misconception that only a hungry artist can create something brilliant. Why is the sphere of culture considered the branch where society can painlessly save as much as possible? All our troubles — broken roads, overturned rubbish bins and everything else — come from devastation in people’s heads, a devastation caused by a lack of culture. Yes, in schools children study the course “World Artistic Culture,” where they are taught a taste for beauty. But if we want them to grow up as patriots, to be proud of our country’s spiritual heritage, schoolchildren must not only study art in theory but also see a worthy attitude toward cultural institutions.
Here is an example. Two kiosks stand next to our museum. For ten years we have asked the city authorities not to eliminate them, but merely to move them elsewhere. This is not our whim; these are fire-safety requirements! Several years ago one kiosk caught fire, the flames spread to a museum window, and it cracked. The fire could have destroyed a priceless collection. But the kiosks still stand by the museum walls... Moreover, for the anniversary they prepared a “gift” for us: they removed an old kiosk and immediately installed a new one — with fast food. My heart bleeds...
And I understand that something is wrong with our priorities. Not Repin, Shishkin, Aivazovsky, Mashkov, but fast food is now “our everything.”
The ice has not moved
— Elena Vladimirovna, you meet colleagues from other regions. Are museums there also financed according to the residual principle?
Profile
Elena Orlova. Born in Volzhsky. Graduated from the I. Fedorov Ukrainian Polygraphic Institute, specialising as a graphic artist. In 1990 she created in Volgograd the only Children’s Art Gallery in Russia. Since 2010 she has been Director of the Mashkov Museum of Fine Arts. She teaches at Volgograd higher education institutions. Honored Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation, member of the Union of Artists of Russia. Awarded the Medal of the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland,” II degree, for achievements in culture and art; the medal “Elite of the Women’s Business Community”; and the honorary badges “Care for Childhood,” “Best People of Russia,” and “Keeper of Traditions.”
— Twice a year we, directors of Russian museums, gather at the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. And honestly, I envy them!
New museums have been built in Yoshkar-Ola and Ufa; museums in Saransk and Vladivostok have been completely renovated. A grand restoration of museum palaces is under way in Tver. A third historic building has been transferred to the Omsk museum! Almost every year they acquire premises, replenish collections, restore paintings. We can only dream of that.
Our museum is the only one in Russia that does not have its own separate building. We pray that forgetful residents above us do not flood us and do not forget to turn off the gas. At the same time, we have the second largest collection of works by our fellow countryman Ilya Mashkov, who made Russian art famous throughout the world. The Russian Museum is in first place.
The museum catastrophically lacks premises for exhibitions and for storing collections. It seemed that the ice had moved when renovation began in the exhibition hall on Chuikov Street. We planned to hold contemporary-art exhibitions, lectures and master classes in the renovated space. But the renovation is dragging on for an indefinite period. There is no end in sight.
Last year, on Museum Night, I even tried a creative method: I planted a brick in the ground and watered it from a watering can so that a “building” would grow. As you can see, it produced no “sprouts.” The method of Uncle Pumpkin from “Cipollino” would probably have been more effective: one needs to collect a brick a year.
It takes you completely
— When you, as director, have many problems, do your hands perhaps fall and you have no time for creativity?
— The desire to create is always there! We have an amazing team of like-minded people of different ages, temperaments and educations, but all of us, so different, are united by the fact that we love our museum. Working in such a team is a great happiness; one can move mountains and bring the most unreal plans to life. Once I developed the scenography for two productions at the Theatre for Young Audiences, and after immersing myself in that atmosphere I understood that one cannot serve theatre halfway. It demands all of you. The museum is just as demanding; it takes you completely. And I go to work with joy.
— Your museum breaks all stereotypes about such institutions: quiet, boring, two or three people wandering through empty halls. Life is in full swing at your museum.
— One cannot stand still. We have various educational programmes for schoolchildren, pensioners and children with disabilities. These include interactive lessons, tours, lectures and various master classes.
For the very youngest there are interactive games: children can assemble puzzles — paintings by Ilya Mashkov — on a touch panel. It is wonderful when children enthusiastically assemble a world masterpiece piece by piece; that is how they study it. It is so touching when elderly people listen to lectures with interest, become acquainted with paintings, and then take up a brush and begin to draw — some for the first time in their lives.
Contact with the work of great artists awakens the desire to create. This is the great power of art.
“Arguments and Facts” No. 18, April 29, 2015