Employees of the VSU Museum and Exhibition Centre completed museum training in the best museums of Voronezh: Kramskoi Voronezh regional art museum, Nikitin Regional Literary Museum, the Museum of History of Voronezh State University of Engineering Technologies, and the Museum and Exhibition Complex of Burdenko Voronezh State Medical University.
Lectures, excursions, and workshops allowed the participants to improve their professional skills in the field of “Museum collection: registration, studying, preserving, and presenting; organising exhibitions and presentations”. The course lasted several weeks during which the employees of the VSU Museum and Exhibition Centre learnt about the management of the museum collection, storage standards, attribution of museum collections, excursion and exhibition activities, and modern work methods.
“Today, museums are becoming bridges between the past and the future, platforms for knowledge and ideas. In our work, we need to remember that students are future-oriented. And our task is to teach young people to use knowledge from the past,” said Anzhelika Makarova, Head of the VSU Museum and Exhibition Centre.
In 2022 the VSU History Museum became the VSU Museum and Exhibition Centre. This was a logical result of the museum’s long-term and multifaceted activities: since the creation of the updated exhibition in 2003, in addition to studying, preserving, and popularising the history of the university it was also actively engaged in exhibition activities, which include individual exhibitions and ongoing projects that show the works of VSU students, graduates, and staff, as well as painters, graphic artists, sculptors, and handicraft masters from Voronezh and other cities of Russia, both well-known and beginners.
The museum expanded its themes and territory beyond its single hall by organising exhibitions in the halls of the educational buildings of VSU and other city venues, such as educational institutions and museums of Voronezh, the Voronezh Concert Hall, and the Chizhov Gallery Centre. The museum participated in the organisation of the anniversary exhibition presented in the building of the State Duma of the Russian Federation in July 2018. It was the first exhibition in the State Duma dedicated to an educational institution.
Among the implemented projects is the exhibition “The Work of Michel Vinaver: Between France, America, and Russia” organised together with the House of Russia Abroad and the University of Strasbourg and the simultaneous presentation of a play by Maxim Vinaver, a French playwright of Russian origin, at the university; joint exhibition “Time of Mercy” in cooperation with the Voronezh Theological Seminary on the history of the seminary, the oldest higher educational institution in Voronezh, as well as on the art of Orthodox icon painting.
Among the centre’s ongoing projects is the “Rector’s Gallery”, which hosts exhibitions of recognised artist and illustrators, and the “Debut” gallery of student art.
Today, the VSU Museum and Exhibition Centre cooperates with the Voronezh branch of the Bank of Russia, Kramskoi Voronezh regional art museum, Voronezh Art School, Picturesque Voronezh Gallery, and military-patriotic historical reconstruction clubs “Nabat”, “Voronezhsky Front”, and “Za Otvagu”. The centre continues to study and reveal the history of the university and replenishing its collection. It opens exhibitions and publishes articles dedicated to various periods of the history of the university, faculties, and departments, outstanding scientists, military-patriotic events, the development of sports, international relations of VSU, and university theatres.
