The "Treasury" opened at the National Centre RUSSIA

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The new original project "Treasury" opened at the National Centre RUSSIA on 22 May. It is a renewable cultural space where expositions will change throughout the year. Each of them will be dedicated to one vivid theme or collection and will allow visitors to discover the diversity of our country’s material legacy through unique artefacts. For the first exposition, exhibits were provided by the world’s only toy museum, the N.D. Bartram Art and Pedagogical Toy Museum of the Sergiev Posad Toy Institute, a branch of the Russian University of Traditional Arts and Crafts.

"The National Centre RUSSIA is opening a new project, 'Treasury', which will allow visitors to see unique exhibits from different museums. This is an important step in popularising the richest museum holdings of our country. The first collection we presented is the unique collection of the world’s best Toy Museum from Sergiev Posad in the Moscow Region, founded by Nikolai Bartram. The museum holds more than 160,000 exhibits, and it is a great fortune that they have been preserved for future generations. Our 'Treasury' features dolls in the costumes of the republics of the USSR, and through them we tell the story of the diversity of the peoples living in our country. These exhibits echo our 'Geography Lessons' exposition. Thank you to the museum and Valentina Fyodorovna Maksimovich for being the first to support our project and provide their unique exhibits. We hope that other museums from all regions of our country will also join 'Treasury'," Natalia Virtuozova said.

The exposition of the National Centre RUSSIA presents recreations of original museum exhibits: toys recreated by contemporary masters based on originals from the museum’s holdings. Among them are the "Sailor" doll, a recreation of a late 19th-early 20th century item made in Saint Petersburg; "Tatar Woman", an early 20th century porcelain toy made in Germany, received from the Alexander Palace; and the "Boyar Woman" doll from the same historical period. A separate section includes recreations of works by the "Artistic Toy" artel (Moscow, 1950-1959), based on originals by sculptor Yelena Borisova (1889-1976), who dedicated her life to toy-making. Also on display are "Doll in a Velvet Dress", "Doll in a Straw Hat", as well as the ethnographic series "Ossetian Woman", "Komi Girl", "Udmurt Woman" and the sets "Development of the North", "Nenets Chum" and others.

"The opening of the 'Treasury' became possible thanks to the efforts of the National Centre RUSSIA, which has implemented such a project in our country for the first time. Everything you will see here is unique work. Especially the stand showing the peoples of Russia. These are works that were once made entirely by hand. And it is very important that what is shown is not simply a toy as an object, but also the highest aesthetics of its design," said Valentina Maksimovich, Academician of the Russian Academy of Education, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor, and President of the Russian University of Traditional Arts and Crafts.

Together with its technology partner, VK, the National Centre RUSSIA has prepared an audio guide for visitors to the exposition. Anyone can scan the QR code next to the display case and hear a story dedicated to the exhibits, as well as to the regions and peoples of Russia.

The "Treasury" project of the National Centre RUSSIA can be visited daily from Tuesday to Sunday, from 10:00 to 20:00. The exposition is located in the foyer of the West Entrance. Admission is free. Follow other events of the National Centre RUSSIA on the russia.ru website in the Events section.