The United States Marks the 300th Anniversary of Saint Petersburg

The programme of celebrating the 300th anniversary of Saint Petersburg is vast and diverse. This opinion was expressed in a RIA Novosti interview by Director of the Russian State Hermitage Museum Mikhail Piotrovsky to take part in the gala events. He said that this celebration had become possible because the Hermitage Museum had many good friends in the United States.

Speaking about the participation of the State Hermitage in the programme for marking the jubilee of the Russian northern capital in the United States, Mikhail Piotrovsky first of all mentioned the exhibition "Women in Art" which has opened in the National Museum in Washington. It displays canvases and sculptures from the Hermitage made by West European women.

He also spoke about a great festival of Russian culture in the Smithsonian Institute where events devoted to the Hermitage would take place on February 13 and 15. In the context of this festival, Mikhail Piotrovsky will read a lecture on the history of the museum.

The Metropolitan Museum, too, will organise an exhibition on the occasion of Saint Petersburg' 300th anniversary which will display several works of art from the Hermitage.

Mikhail Piotrovsky said that the Hermitage planned to organise visiting courses on the history of Russian culture in the Michigan University in Ann Arbor. The illustrative material will include not only slides but also exhibits from the Hermitage collections which will give the idea of the museum's vast scope.

Apart from that, the leading associates of the Hermitage will take part in the round table conference at Harvard University, which will be devoted to the jubilee of Saint Petersburg, and also in some other scientific conferences, including the one in the New York Public Library.