Art behind art

 

What makes a great exhibition? What a strange question, you may say, great art does. But what if I’ll ask you to name a couple more things? Then large collection, good light, spacious halls and informational resources would be listed. Yes, you can look at The Mona Lisa standing in a crowd, being pushed from all the sides and blinded by flashes, you’ll probably see her quite close if you’re lucky – but will you be able to enjoy? I don’t think so.

So, the gem of art needs a good frame. This frame consists of proper placing of art objects, choosing the light that would show all their beauty but wouldn’t bring any damage, providing media materials, even setting up the right temperature! A whole team of invisible helpers: architects, designers, multimedia specialists, works hard to reveal the art at its best to the world. Their fresh ideas and professionalism change our vision of the most common, almost boring things, like food, objects from the past or things that are so ethereal that we rarely find time to think of them.

Yulia Alushina is a founder of a design bureau Museum Architect in St. Petersburg, Russia. Within her first ten years in museum design she worked on three large projects: The Third Battlefield of Russia, media exposition about the history of Smolny Institute and Museum of Armored Vehicles.

The Third Battlefield of Russia is a part of a large historical complex in Prokhorovka, Russia, built in memory of the great tank battle in 1943 when several thousand Soviet and German soldiers were killed. Despite the lack of funding, Yulia was able to show different edges of the bitter story of The Second World War, from the peaceful interiors of early 1940-ies to the days of Nazi occupation. The exposition tells not only about the combats, but also about the Soviet women who sacrificed so much in the name of the victory. They supported the soldiers with letters full of love and courage, they worked in fields and at the factories, and they served as nurses, radio operators, pilots and snipers.

Smolny Institute of Noble Maidens was a finishing school for young women established in XVIII century in St. Petersburg, Russia. Nowadays this type of educational institutions is often criticized because of the program focused on morality, languages, etiquette and housekeeping. However, that was the first institute for women not only in Russia, but in the whole Europe. Both noble and common girls could study there, there were opportunities of free and paid education.  Catherine the Great was a fan of progressive ideas of French and English philosophers and wanted to bring up a new generation of intellectual people with high moral standards. Smolny Institute was the first of more than 30 institutions for women opened across Russia by the XIX century.

Yulia Alushina created a small but elegant exposition illustrating the modest and sublime atmosphere of this place.

Museum of Armored Vehicles tells a story of military machinery from chariots to modern tanks. Yulia made the whole museum project herself. She brought new multimedia tools to the topics of war and history: animated tank model, 3D video, animated shadows and synchronized audio guide. The museum is going to add even more media, for example, animated floor for children. Besides the models of armored vehicles visitors can see a detailed model of the famous Soviet heavy machinery production facility Uralmash that produced legendary T-34 tanks and assault guns. Yulia says that the main goal was to make the museum interesting for the younger generations.

Small money, big hearts

 

Last week I received an email from one of the great performing arts institution in New York. They’re celebrating their 35^th anniversary with a range of virtual (alas!) events – and also looking for donors. In 2020, when art and culture organizations didn’t operate for so long and faced financial problems, my email was exploding with membership offers. Public funding plays a great role in the United States (in some countries arts are mostly funded by the government). Individuals, private funds and corporations may contribute up to 40% of the income of an art organization according to the research How the United States Fund the Arts by National Endowment for the Arts. Now, in the time of major fiscal crises individuals’ support starts playing a greater role.

However, it looks like the membership offers didn’t change much, they just became more frequent. I looked through the offers of famous companies: The Met, The Rubin Museum, The Guggenheim, Lincoln Center and The World Music Institute – and found out that if you donate less than $500-600, the biggest benefit you usually get is tax deductable. However, deducting such small sums doesn’t help you much too. All other benefits, like member events, previews, VIP and private openings, membership appreciation events are not accessible. However, these minor donors may have so much love and commitment!

Of course, it’s easy to understand such logic. Running an art or culture organization is expensive and often risky, and finding a good donor is a great success. But a big donation doesn’t guarantee that the donor will stay with the company forever. Why not to pay attention to people who are really devoted? Maybe they never buy orchestra tickets, maybe they donate $50 or less  – but they have been doing this for years, and their total could be much greater than a single chunk of money from a person who is not really engaged in the organization life and projects.

So if I was a marketing person, or an art director, or a board member (sending my wishes to the Universe), I’d definitely track these little lights of commitment and involvement – the volunteers, the regular attendees, the donors who send $10 every other month – and give them a chance to celebrate and to be appreciated by the company they gave their big loving hearts to.