The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts hosted the event “I’ll show you the museum”

At the Pushkin Museum named after A.S. Pushkin went on a bold experiment: for one day, young art historians replaced the museum staff. Children worked as caretakers, told tour groups about Rembrandt and the sculptures of Ancient Egypt, and handed out prizes for correct answers in quizzes.

We talked to the new museum employees and found out whether they are going to connect the future with the museum, what Pushkin exhibits they love, and why the time spent in the art historian’s club is priceless.

Olga Katkova, 15 years old, studies at Lyceum No. 1158

– What is your favorite exhibit and why?

- Wonderful. It's great that you can give people your knowledge and point of view. When you know the answer to a question a visitor asks you, it gives you confidence. You know more than other people. True, people often miss this hall; it is a walk-through hall.

– Tell me, how long ago did you join the club?

– This is my first year here. Our first tour guide brought us here. At first I didn’t understand anything, but now I understand that everything is very cool. I like the promotion we are running.

Alexandra Bondar, 14 years old, studies at gymnasium No. 1567

– Tell me, what is your favorite exhibit in the Pushkin Museum?

– Probably, I’m still walking, which are in the Assyrian Hall. These are large sculptures with the body of a bull, the head of a man, an Assyrian king, and the wings of an eagle. This is a clear example of how sculpture was used to intimidate. They are very massive, they were placed in front of the entrance to the city itself, and they were also in front of the entrance to the king’s palace. They were supposed to scare a person who enters there with bad intentions.

– What does the role of the hall supervisor give you?

– You can communicate with a variety of people. Even when you ask: “Do you want me to tell you something?” - and they tell you: “No,” - still try not to get upset, but to approach the next person, to believe. You can also learn things about the exhibits that you would never otherwise read in your life. For example, we have Hercules with a hind. A small child once asked what was in a doe's mouth. We thought for a very long time, probably two weeks. We looked at all sorts of options, but it turned out it was just a fountain.

– Tell me, where do you see yourself in the future?

– I would very much like to connect my life with art, but I don’t know yet what I will become. Maybe I’ll teach art to children and give lectures. I draw and here, at the museum, I go to engraving classes. I’m not sure that I will connect my life with painting. You'll become an artist, but what's the point? You will paint portraits to order.

– How did you become involved in the art critic club?

– My aunt graduated from the club, and she told me a lot about it. She still has a lot of friends with whom her aunt still communicates. Last year I went to an art club for fifth-seventh graders. When I found out that there was an opportunity to continue going there, I continued without hesitation. First of all, I have made many friends that I value. Secondly, we have amazing seminars and very interesting lectures.

Yulia Nakoshnaya, Ekaterina Kadushkina

The history of working with children at the State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin

Immediately after its opening in 1912, the unique “textbook museum” was visited not only by professors and students of the Department of Art History of Moscow University, but also by teachers-historians of Moscow gymnasiums. Already since 1916, the outstanding art critic, teacher and educator A.V. gave his unique “aesthetic lessons” here. Bakushinsky.

Since the 1920s, the Museum has been conducting out-of-school work with children. “In the current academic year, at the Museum of Fine Arts, at the suggestion and initiative of the employee of the Institute of Extracurricular Activities A.U. Zelenko, the beginning of a new type of educational work... classes with children (from 10 to 14 years of age)” (from an article by one of the first directors of the Museum, Professor N.I. Romanov). Romanov formulated the idea of ​​“saturating children’s imagination with images of a historical era that help to revive monuments of art” and substantiated the need to “organize activities for children of a more active nature, which can give them greater scope for the initiative to search... for motor reactions in the form of drawing from memory or from life , to reproduce with the movements of one’s own body the pose of a given statue or figure in a painting, and in general to deepen one’s experiences through dramatization.” These provisions were subsequently actively used in working with children at the Museum. Since 1928, research fellow S.V. Razumovskaya organizes systematic circle work with students.

An important event in the life of the Museum was the International Exhibition “Children of the USSR and Children of Capitalist Countries” (1934). The work plans of the Museyon Center provide for the organization of a series of exhibitions that will introduce the modern generation of viewers to the drawings of children from different countries that were exhibited at the Museum seventy years ago.

During the winter school holidays of 1935/36, the “First Children’s Art Festival in the Museum” was organized at the Pushkin Museum, which organically included sightseeing and special excursions conducted by the most prominent employees of the Museum (V.N. Lazarev, A.A. Sidorov, etc.) .

In 1949, a school lecture hall was organized; Since the mid-1950s, lecture topics have covered almost the entire history of art.

Since the early 1960s, areas of work with children of different ages that still exist today have emerged. The concept of aesthetic education at the Pushkin Museum is based on the principle of a continuous process of education in the conditions of an art museum.

Currently, the established out-of-school museum and pedagogical system consists of the following main components:

1. Art studio for younger children. In the mid-1960s, the Art Studio was headed by Erna Ivanovna Larionova (1922-1992), who laid the foundations for the methodology of teaching children in the art museum. For 20 years, since 1973, the Art Studio was headed by Nina Nikolaevna Kofman (1906-1998), art critic, artist, Honored Artist. Having the valuable experience of many years of leading the Moscow city children's art school, she created at the Museum a unique method for shaping the perception of art by young children.

Children aged 5 years are accepted into the art studio. During classes, they get acquainted with masterpieces of world fine art in the halls of the Museum. Then the children, under the guidance of artist-teachers from the museum’s art studio, embody their impressions in drawings. The training programs are designed for five years.

2. Family groups for children 5-8 years old with parents were created on the initiative of N.N. Kofman. For children aged 5-6 years, it is especially important to take the “first steps” into the “world of great art”, into the “world of the museum”, accompanied by their parents or loved ones. Gradually, this form of work gained great popularity and turned into a new direction of work with children at the Museum. Currently at the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin in family groups about a thousand children and parents study.

At the end of the school year, the Museum hosts reporting exhibitions and performances and concerts by participants in the Family Groups program.

3. Art lovers club for students in grades 5-8 exists in the Pushkin Museum named after. A.S. Pushkin since 1961. Since the founding of the club, Alla Sergeevna Stelmakh has been its soul for more than 40 years.

KLI unites schoolchildren in grades 5-8 who are interested in the history of fine arts, archeology and numismatics.

5th grade students (Ancient World club) study the culture and fine arts of Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.

6th grade students attend a Middle Ages club. Renaissance. During the classes, they get acquainted with the culture and art of Byzantium and medieval Europe, learn about the life and work of the largest artists of the Renaissance.

In the Great Masters of the 17th Century club, 7th grade schoolchildren can get acquainted with the works of famous artists of this era.

The clubs are led by research staff from the Museum’s Popularization Department.

Students in grades 6-8 can also participate in Archeology and Numismatics clubs. Here children will learn about famous archaeological discoveries, excavation methods, and coins from different eras and countries. According to a long-standing tradition, classes in these circles are taught by the best specialists of the Museum.

Since 1962, education in the clubs of the Art Lovers Club ends with an exhibition of children's creativity and a costumed prom evening. Children in historical costumes perform scenes from the works of ancient authors, excerpts from plays by Shakespeare, Moliere, Calderon, and read poems by poets of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

4. Club of young art critics for youth in grades 8-11 and junior students of Moscow universities began work in 1960 with the support of the director of the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkina A.I. Zamoshkina. At first, KYI consisted of several dozen Moscow high school students who had previously attended lectures for schoolchildren at the Museum. The first leader of the club was Liliya Lavrentievna Makoed.

Thanks to the Club, our Museum has become the alma mater for many young Muscovites - today's art historians, philologists, doctors, architects, engineers, physicists, musicians.

Teachers and students visit other art museums, galleries, artists’ workshops and exhibitions in Moscow. The club organizes evenings for which students, with the help of leaders, prepare quizzes, literary and musical compositions, show improvised pantomimes, read poetry (often of their own composition), and stage plays by classical and modern authors.

Since the beginning of the existence of the Clubs, a tradition has arisen of collective trips of the activists to ancient Russian cities and abroad during school holidays.

The uniqueness of the pedagogical process at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin lies in the method of continuous education of the younger generation in the conditions of an art museum.

Many of our students, who have long since become adults, come to the Museum not just as spectators, but as its friends; they bring their children, and some already their grandchildren. The Museum has many employees who have gone through art school, family groups, clubs of art lovers and young art critics.

"Children's" exhibitions at the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin from the 1960s to the present:

1988 - “Chinese folk toy” (from the collection of I.V. Zakharova); 1992 - “The world and images of childhood.” The exhibitions presented “adult” folk and professional art, created for children, telling about children, addressed to children, but also interesting for adults.

1994 - "Happy Birthday, Earth." An international exhibition of children's drawings, compiled from the collection of the Children of the Earth gallery (Tokyo) and drawings by Russian children, mainly students of the museum studio. The little artists reflected the world around them and their ideas about it in their drawings.

1997 - "Moscow in the drawings of children of the 20th century." A large international project carried out by the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin together with the Institute of Art Education, dedicated to the 850th anniversary of Moscow. At the same time, a unique retrospective section was exhibited, introducing viewers of the late 20th century to Moscow as seen through the eyes or imagined by children of the 1920s - 1990s. 2001 - “We are from childhood.” Exhibition dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin and the memory of its leader N.N. Kofman, gave the opportunity to see the works of Nina Nikolaevna’s students, created by them in their childhood years in the Art Studio, and their adult professional works in painting, graphics, design, and jewelry.

2004 - “Mercy on the Battlefield” (a joint project of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts and the International Red Cross). The exhibition was dedicated to a topical topic, especially relevant today. It presented works by art studio students and family groups, created within the framework of a specially developed program at the Museum, using children’s drawings from the art studio’s archives.

Address of the Center for Aesthetic Education:
Kolymazhny Lane, 6
(opposite the 5th entrance of the main building of the Museum)

The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts invites Moscow schoolchildren and preschoolers to the clubs of the Museion Center for Aesthetic Education in the 2017/18 school year.

It is better to check the availability of free places in the circles on the museum’s website. Some circles are accepted only based on the results of an interview.

Family group. 5–6 years and 6–7 years

October - May: Tuesday, 12:00, Wednesday, 12:00 or 15:00, Thursday, 14:00 or 15:00, Friday, 12:00 or 14:00, Saturday, 12:30, 13:00 14:30, Sunday, 11:00 or 13:00
September – April: Thursday, 12:00 or 12:30, Thursday, 15:00, Friday, 11:00 or 12:30, Sunday, 11:15 or 13:30

The youngest students, together with their parents, discover fine art for two years, get acquainted with its masterpieces and learn to spend time in the museum with pleasure. Classes are held in groups and consist of interactive walks through the Museum’s exhibition, during which children and their parents receive assignments, answer questions and listen to stories from an art historian.
Children aged 5–7 years are accepted. Classes are held from October to May once a month on weekdays or weekends, depending on the chosen group.
A cycle of 16 lessons is designed for 2 years. All classes take place in the Museum (in the Main Building or the Gallery of European and American Art of the 19th–20th centuries). The subscription requires the participation of 1 child and 1 parent.
The cost of a subscription for 2 years of study is 10,000 rubles.

Conversations about art. 2–3 grades

September – April: Wednesday, 16:00, Thursday, 16:00, Friday, 16:00, Saturday, 14:00, Sunday, 12:30 or 14:00
October – May: Friday, 15:30, Saturday, 13:30, Sunday, 11:10

Younger students learn to think and talk about fine art and learn about its history through the Museum's collection, under the guidance of art historians. A lesson is a conversation in which children learn about the features of fine art, its types, genres, styles and trends from the Ancient World to the 20th century.
Classes are held once a month on weekdays or weekends, depending on the chosen group.
A cycle of 16 lessons is designed for 2 years. All classes take place in the Museum (in the Main Building or the Gallery of European and American Art of the 19th–20th centuries).
The subscription includes 1 child. The cost of a subscription for the first year of study is 3,000 rubles.

Conversations about art. 4th grade

October – May: Friday, 17:00, every second Saturday, 15:00

This course is designed specifically for 4th grade students who are beginning their introduction to the visual arts but are not yet familiar with history. During the classes, participants will get acquainted with the Museum’s collection, talk about fine art and its features, so that next year, based on knowledge of history, they can continue this conversation in the Art Lovers Club or in thematic “Conversations”.
Classes are held once a month on weekdays or weekends, depending on the chosen group.
A cycle of 8 lessons is designed for 1 year. All classes take place in the Museum (in the Main Building or the Gallery of European and American Art of the 19th–20th centuries).
The subscription includes 1 child. The cost of a subscription is 3,000 rubles.

Conversations about art: The ancient world. 5th grade

October – May: Sunday, 11:15, 13:10 or 16:00, Saturday, 14:30

A course for those who have begun to study the history of the Ancient World as part of the school curriculum. During classes in the halls of the Museum, schoolchildren will not only be able to see works of art that they are familiar with from illustrations in history textbooks, but will also talk about the features of different Ancient civilizations.
Classes are held once a month in the Main Building of the Museum on weekdays or weekends, depending on the chosen group.
A cycle of 8 lessons is designed for 1 year. The subscription includes 1 child. The cost of a subscription is 3,000 rubles.

Computer graphics

October - May: 2 times a month on Wednesdays at 17:00

The classes are designed specifically to introduce children aged 9 to 13 years to the basics of computer graphics, drawing on the history of fine art. Using examples from the works of Renaissance artists and other masters, children learn to use color and study the principles of perspective. Thus, during the classes, children create their first graphic works based on masterpieces of world painting, while gaining basic skills in working in Photoshop.
A cycle of 16 lessons is designed for 1 year. The subscription includes 1 child. The cost of a subscription is 8,000 rubles.
Admission is based on an interview. Online registration for an interview begins on August 22, 2017.

Art lovers club

2 times a month on weekdays at 16:00

The club was created specifically for those who study in secondary school and complements the school history course with an in-depth study of the history of fine arts. That is why the Club program is divided into 3 successive levels for students in grades 5, 6 and 7.
In addition, the Club has two clubs, especially for those who are interested in archeology and numismatics; Anyone can join them (students in grades 5–8).
All classes at the Club are held 2 times a month on weekdays at 16:00 - lectures in the auditorium of the Museion Center for Aesthetic Education and classes in the halls of the Main building of the Museum.
A cycle of 15 lessons is designed for 1 year. The subscription includes 1 child. The cost of a subscription is 5,000 rubles.

"Ancient world". 5th grade

October – April: Tuesday, 16:00, Friday, 16:00

The course is designed specifically for 5th grade students. At lectures, children get acquainted with the monuments of ancient civilizations, and study them in more detail during classes in the main building of the Museum.

"The Middle Ages and the Renaissance". 6th grade

The course is designed for 6th grade students and is a continuation of the Ancient World course, so there is no enrollment of new students for this course. At lectures, children get acquainted with the masterpieces of the main masters of the era, and during classes in the halls they study the topic of the course using the example of works from the Museum’s collection.

Course "Great Masters of the 17th Century". 7th grade

The course is designed for 7th grade students and is a continuation of the Middle Ages and Renaissance course, so there is no enrollment of new students for this course. The course introduces schoolchildren to famous masters of the New Age through lectures, as well as examples of works from the Museum’s collection.

"Numismatics". 5th–8th grade

September – April: Wednesday, 16:00

A special program for schoolchildren, developed by researchers from the Department of Numismatics of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin. This is a way to learn about the art and history of numismatics, learn to understand ancient coins, and also get acquainted with the work of scientists.

"Archeology". 5th–8th grades

September – April, Thursday, 16:00

The program is for those who are interested in famous archaeological discoveries and finds, as well as the work of archaeologists today. The authors and presenters of the course are real archaeological scientists who introduce students to the history of archaeological discoveries and modern archaeology.

Art studio. 5–6 years

October – May: Tuesday, 11.00, Wednesday, 12:00, Thursday, 11:00

The art studio was created specifically to introduce the Museum’s collection to children who love to draw and draw a lot on their own. This course is not an art school or drawing lessons, which is why admission to the Art Studio is based on views. The classes are structured in such a way that children spend part of their time in the halls of the Museum, so that later in the workshop they can depict what was inspired by their works of art.
Children aged 5–6 years are accepted. The course lasts 5 years. Admission is based on an interview and viewing of the child’s work (drawings). Online registration for an interview begins on August 21, 2017.
The subscription includes 1 child. The cost of a subscription for the first year of study is 7,000 rubles.

Art workshop. Ceramics. 9 years

September - April: 2 times a month on Wednesdays at 15.00

During two years of ceramics classes, children work with different types of clay and learn to understand the differences between earthenware, porcelain and pottery clay. They will learn what unfired glaze, underglaze painting and enamel painting look like, try their hand at sculpture and relief, and study works of applied pottery art on display at the Museum.
Children 9 years old are accepted. The course lasts 2 years. Admission is based on an interview and viewing of the child’s work (drawings, modeling). Online registration for an interview begins on August 22, 2017.
Classes take place in the ceramics workshop at the Museion Center for Education. The subscription includes 1 child. The cost of a subscription for the first year of study is 8,000 rubles.

Art workshop. Printmaking. 11–15 years

October - May: 2 times a month on Tuesdays at 17:00

Schoolchildren from 11 to 18 years old study in the printmaking studio. The course lasts 4 years. During this time, children become familiar with various engraving techniques, master the technique of engraving on linoleum, wood, plastic and metal, and also gain experience in constructing a graphic composition - a clear rhythmic structure based on a combination of silhouette, spot and line.
Children aged 11–15 years are accepted. Admission is based on an interview and viewing of the child’s work (drawings). Online registration for an interview begins on August 22, 2017.
Classes take place in the printmaking workshop at the Museion Central Exhibition Center. The subscription includes 1 child. The cost of a subscription for the first year of study is 8,000 rubles.

Club of young art critics

September - April: once a week on Saturdays at 16:00 (or 16:30)

This is a youth community at the Pushkin Museum. A.S. Pushkin, where they study the history of fine arts. The club was created for high school students (grades 8–11) and junior students. Classes at the club are lectures and seminars on the history of fine arts from the Ancient World to the 21st century. The Club hosts various events that allow their participants to learn how the Museum works, meet contemporary artists, try themselves as guides and curators, and also make new friends among like-minded people.
Classes at the Club last 4 years. Admission to the Club is based on an interview. Online registration for an interview begins on August 22, 2017.
Classes are held in the Museion Central Educational Center, one of the Museum buildings, or in other Moscow museums (depending on the topic of the lesson). Classes are taught by employees of the Museyon Center and invited specialists.
The subscription requires the participation of 1 listener. The cost of a subscription for the first year of study is 6,500 rubles.

Once every few months, the State Museum of Fine Arts named after A. S. Pushkin becomes younger. On April 10, the “I’ll show you the museum” event took place there for the third time. Students of the Young Art Critics Club at the museum conducted free excursions for everyone throughout the whole day - from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. “Tatiana's Day” visited three excursions and would have stayed more if I had had the strength.

As usual, there is a crowd at the Pushkinsky box office. There are no signs about the event, and finding the right entrance is not easy. Teenagers scurry up and down the stairs. The Brownian movement of youth is especially noticeable among the monolithic, art-hungry queue.

“You only buy a ticket for entry, and the excursions themselves are free,” they tell me.

Along the stairs sit teenagers wearing white T-shirts with the words “I’ll show you the museum.” I remember the phrase of Comrade Dynin from the movie “Welcome, or No Trespassing”: “Children! You are the owners of the camp." Today children are the owners of one of the main museums in the country. For one day they become caretakers, administrators, and tour guides.

The same T-shirts, only black, are worn by the guys in the Gallery of European and American Art. They are curators: they themselves approach visitors and offer to talk about the paintings.

These young people from 13 to 19 years old, with their curators from the Museion Center for Aesthetic Education of Children and Youth, spent almost two months preparing more than 20 different excursions for adults and children, a quest game with prizes for the winners, live paintings, and musical accompaniment. When X-day arrives, both visitors and young art critics get excited.

The main building of the Pushkin Museum looks like a buzzing beehive. At the entrance to the halls, a dark-haired girl holds a sign with the name of the excursion high above her head. Raspberry pants, waist-length braid, smartphone sticking out of his pocket. Her name is Anya Volkovitskaya, she is 14 years old.

- Look look! - she pushes her friend. -Have you seen how many people I have?

Sin in the mirrors of eras

In the main building of the museum on Volkhonka, it is not the curators who come to visitors, but the visitors who come to guides. Her friend Polina brought me to Anya. We were late for the start of the “Sin in Art” excursion, and now Anya, “through connections,” repeats the first part for us.

- Do you like studying here?

- This is my first year going to the Young Art Critics Club. We study on Saturdays, and I really like it,” says Anya, while we run around the halls of Pushkinsky.

Each "I'll Show You a Museum" event has its own theme. The topic of the third meeting is travel.

- How do you prepare for the excursion?

- First I write it. Then the curator checks what was written and makes corrections. Then I learn what I wrote by heart. Then we have an audition: the first with the curator, the second with a stranger. And then we go out to the groups.

There are many who want to hear about sin in art. Anya is proud of the popularity that has fallen on her.

- The concept of sin in antiquity was different from the Christian one. Before you is the sculptural composition “Athena and Marsyas”. Does anyone know who Marsyas is?.. As we know, Athena invented the pipe or aulos in Greek, which she loved to play. Aphrodite and Hera laughed at her, because during the game Athena’s cheeks became very swollen. When she saw her reflection, Athena threw her pipe to the ground in anger. She was picked up by the strong Marsyas, who learned to play the instrument so masterfully that he challenged Apollo himself to a duel. There are still disputes about who won, but the result was disappointing for Marsyas: Apollo became angry, tied the satyr to a tree and tore off his skin. In this case, it was considered a sin that a strong man dared to challenge God to a duel.

The audience is led to Luca Giordano’s painting “Apollo and Marsyas” - red shades of flesh, a bloody knife, hanging skin - by another young guide - Katya Kaplina. Her tour is called “Suffering through Stone and Canvas.”

- Tell me, are children allowed on your excursion? - asks the mother of a seven-year-old boy.

- Don't worry, we don't have any age restrictions.

Katya is serious and unhurried. She tells the audience not only about poor Marcia, but also about the suffering of Christian martyrs. For example, St. Lawrence was roasted alive on an iron grate for openly professing the Christian faith and refusing to worship pagan gods.

- And here on the polyptych of Francesco d’Antonio da Ancona of the 14th century we see that Saint Catherine was driven on the wheel. She is standing with a palm branch in her hands, and do you see a wheel on the back right?

The children silently turn their gaze to the door with the image of the saint. Looks like it's time to come out for air.

Zero emotion and very smart

Each excursion lasts from half an hour to forty minutes. A detailed schedule of topics and start times can be obtained from the guys at the counter at the entrance to the museum halls.

-Are you going somewhere else? - Anya asks me.

- I... I don’t know, is it possible?

- Of course, go if you have time. This guy yesterday made comments to me about my excursion. Corrected mistakes, said there was little scientific approach.

A group of people, led by a young man in glasses, passes by us.

- What if I go on a tour with him?

- Go. It will be very smart. Well, very much.

Hellenism and Mahabharata

The excursion “Woe to the Vanquished” is conducted by Nikita Pravilshchikov.

- What competitions do you know? - asks Nikita.

- Sports.

- Yes, this is the simplest option, the first thing that comes to mind. No, no, don’t worry, I specifically asked the question to get exactly this answer. Thank you, you helped me.

For his fifteen years, Nikita is very smart: he compares Greek myths with the Indian epic Mahabharata and, like any teenager, seems to have no doubt that he is right.

The journey into the depths of centuries begins with antiquity. A copy of the frieze of the altar of Zeus in Pergamon (the city of Bergama in modern Turkey) reflects the myth of how Cronidas kills the Titans while Gaia, their mother, looks on in horror. Although her face has not been preserved, one can see that facial expressions appear in ancient art only in the Hellenistic era. Before this, sculptors made do with what art historians call an archaic smile.

An archaic smile hides emotions. It’s somehow inappropriate for ancient statues to scream and cry: the “Wounded Amazon” by the sculptor Polykleitos is bleeding, but from her calm face it is difficult to understand that she is in pain.

- She’s actually in pain, but she’s almost laughing. You know that all modern gags (from the English gag - a joke, a comic episode, a comedic device based on obvious absurdity - “TD”) actually originated from Aristophanes. He described everything long ago in his “Clouds”. Imagine, comedians haven’t come up with anything new since then! Does anyone remember what a feat of Hercules the Lernaean Hydra was?

“Second, it seems,” the girl answers.

- That's right, and the first was the Nemean Lion. Well, I won’t burden you,” Nikita tells the listeners. - You have questions?

The adult listeners smile guiltily.

- In fact, they say that there are no questions when everything is clear to everyone or the guide has tired everyone, so goodbye!

And the teenager confidently walks away from the imaginary scene, leaving the listeners with a desire to re-read the myths immediately upon arriving home.

Back to the Future

They're scary. They are angular and clumsy, but they are guides to the world of beauty. But the worst thing is that they ask questions.

- Why is there a cross on the church when Christ had not yet been crucified and no one knew what the cross was a symbol of? - asks Anya, pointing to the 11th century doors depicting biblical scenes. She runs through the halls of Pushkinsky as if in her own apartment. I try to keep up - I'm afraid of getting lost. Of course, I don’t know the answer to her simple question.

- Yes, because the sculptor simply wanted to indicate that this is a church. After all, people didn’t know how to read, how to show them that the church is the church? Make a cross on the roof.

They force you to pay attention to the obvious - composition, light, colors. And they interpret the symbols not in dry scientific language, but as if they meet painters and sculptors in the subway every day.

- Would you like to study art in the future?

- And who will I work for then?

- I don’t know, a museum caretaker, maybe... A history teacher.

- No, they don’t pay enough for this. I want to become a military translator.

- Military translator?

- Yes, I have an institute next to my house. I love languages.

Polina, Anya and I are sitting on a leather bench in front of the statue of David. Anya tells us about the Cranachs: their exhibition is on at the Pushkin Museum until May 15. You need to buy a separate ticket for it, so we watch the paintings via the Internet on the smartphone screen.

- In general, the Cranachs are the Northern Renaissance. Why northern? Because north of Italy. Do you see the vine? This is a symbol of the blood of Christ. Wine is made from grapes, and the artist decided to indicate this in the painting. His future victim. The curators told us a lot about this yesterday, but I didn’t remember everything. Do you know each other at all?

I look at Polina, then at Anya.

- To be honest, we just met. Together we were late for your excursion.

- Wow! And what a big group I had!

In the evening I read a review on the Internet: “Thank you very much for the “I’ll show you the museum” campaign. It was very interesting. I really enjoyed the “Sin in Art” tour. Anya, who led it, amazed us with a magnificent speech. Also valuable was her attempt to show how sin was portrayed in different eras and in different countries.” I’m sending a message to Anya: look, you’ve been noticed!

- Wow! Thank you for sending!

It's not every day that you have as many as thirty-two people listening to you.