25-29.05.2017, Moscow: The XIX International festival «Intermuseum» took place at the Central Exhibition Hall «Manege».
Over the course of the festival’s five days, the Hermitage’s Volunteer Service led an array of games and interactive exercises at the museum’s booth, the playground, and the master class zone:
- A board game «Tour de France 1717: The Grand Journey of Peter the Great», dedicated to the 300th anniversary of Peter the Great’s trip to France;
- A lotto game «Epochs and Styles», that introduced the visitors to five styles using examples from the collection of the Hermitage;
- Coloring and making collages from the pictures of 1717 fashions, «The French Sheen of Peter’s parties»;
- A computer game and creation of collages «Make Your Own Tapestry», based on the «Indian» tapestry series with the depictions of exotic animals from Brazil, which was given to Peter the Great in France;
- «The coach! The coach!» — creating a paper model of the Big French carriage, which Peter the Great bought in Paris in 1717 for the coronation of his spouse;
- A game «French Theatre» introduced the participants to the characters of plays of famous French playwrights. Aside from hearing about the well-known pieces of Molière and Racine, the visitors learned about the characters from commedia dell’arte, which was popular in France since the times of Louis XIV, and about French comedies of the most famous playwright of the first half of XVIII century — Pierre de Mariveaux.
All of the materials for games and exercises had been developed by the volunteers over the course of several months. The materials were checked for accuracy and quality by the Hermitage’s «Shkolny Centr» department.
A multitude of volunteers from Moscow helped in the execution of master classes, exercises and lectures at the Moscow «Manege» where the museum festival took place. The special atmosphere of early XVIII century France was created by the French costumes, sewn according to the French patterns from 1717, that the hosts were wearing and a copy of the Big coronation carriage, in which anyone could take pictures.
The games and exercises drew lots of fans who were ready to keep coming to the festival daily. The volunteers, then, managed to introduce a multitude of visitors of the festival to the French culture of early XVIII century and its influence on the shaping of the Russian culture in Peter the Great’s time. For the first time, the Muscovites learned about the French regency style, about all the wonderful French inventions in Peter the Great’s court, about early XVIII century French fashion, about French theatre, and about a wonderful time when Russia was lucky to delve into and fall in love with the French culture.
All of this made the work of the State Hermitage’s booth at the festival lively and diverse. All visitors could take a part of the Hermitage with them — a small copy of the French carriage, a paper tapestry, a collage from the elements of French dresses and, of course, new knowledge, good mood and an inspiration from seeing the beautiful.
We are thankful to the volunteers for their ideas, patience, hard work, time, talents and for their sincere desire to contribute to the creation of interesting projects for the visitors of the State Hermitage!
