They know about the Museum exhibit of all: to whom it formerly belonged to, how they got into the collection and under what temperature and humidity should be contained. Their working days are spent in the silence of the funds, where they often make important discoveries.
Museums are temporarily closed, but it does not prevent to get acquainted with the most mysterious of their employees. In a joint material mos.ru and the Agency “Moscow” share their thoughts about their work and its features.
Guardian — blue blood of the Museum. This man is highly educated, with expertise and respect for the object of its activities — the Museum object. Mandatory quality — discipline and responsibility, patience and perseverance. It is very important that the man who became Keeper, had high moral standards. It is an axiom. I think a reasonable tradition in the Soviet museums to take in the funds employee only after he has worked in other related departments of the Museum — in registration or in the exhibition — and thus passed a certain test. I passed this way.
Often I’ve encountered the ridiculous opinion that the Keeper is just a Keeper with a key, knowing where and what the Museum is. Another distorted view is that the role of the guardian is only doing the will of the designer to find and extradite the subject to the exhibition and then take and put on the shelf. Unfortunately, this understanding is still common even in museums. Partly it was formed because of the closeness and some of the caste profession of the custodian.
I — veselic. My element is decorative-applied art, household items. I took everything to do with the way the production technology of the subject and its purpose, use, existence. If I wasn’t a guardian, I would like to do the work of the restorer or of the guide. The first helps you better understand the subject. The second makes up for some lack of communication with the outside world.
all I like order. And work saver I like the feeling that my actions will be more. It is a pleasure to care for works — for them to find the optimal storage location, organize topography (location of exhibit) to wrap the thing in a special macalintal paper and place in the daddy.
But less like a creative piece of work. dealing with a large number of works by one author, immersed in the world of the artist and become a specialist, an expert in his work. More already never with anybody will not confuse — a deep dive gives such knowledge.
Curious cases, of course, also in our practice are. Like the previous guardians did not know how p��Avelino to collect the multicast work, but now it turns out that it should look quite different from what was done before. Or we find new pieces on the backs of cardboard, which the artists used as the solid substrate. Then we gain another masterpiece.
Often abstract compositions it is difficult to determine where the top, where the bottom, where the side party. So long sometimes I think, but I can’t come to a common opinion how it to exhibit. There are also cases that modern art just does not fit in the Museum — do not pass neither at the door nor the window, nor floor. This feature works by contemporary authors.
Pets guardian it is difficult to distinguish for a long time when working with things, I’m keeping funds “Graphics” and “Photography” and even within these categories can’t decide what I like more. I was lucky enough to keep and lovely watercolor drawings, “Mowgli”, May Miturich-Khlebnikov, and the work of many famous photographers of the late twentieth century and pre-revolutionary figures of Claudius Lebedev, and pictures of the siege of Leningrad, and several thousand beautiful and interesting things. How can you choose?
For me the Keeper is the person who not only monitors the physical condition of Museum objectswipes the dust and fills out the card in the program. The guardian provides a link between generations. All of our Museum objects were once created by human hands, and there’s always some kind of human story. And I, as a guardian, protecting subjects, preserving and these stories, like having a multitude of threads connecting the past with the present and even the future.
My favorite person manuscript-documentary fond, personal archives. for Example, the archives of the futurist poets Sergey Bobrov and Vasily Kamensky. Also one of my favorite collections my collection — an archive of notes from the speeches of Vladimir Mayakovsky in different cities of the country. In these notes, the students appealed to the poet with questions or simply shared his opinion about his work. There are treatment funny, touching and even sassy, but in any case, to study them — a pleasure.
I love the peace and quiet of your storage. But I often lack communication with other people, so I with pleasure would try yourself in the role of teacher or lecturer. Also I would be interested to participate in the creation of the exhibition not only as a guardian to help with the selection of material, but also in the role of the author.
Museum activities I began in the Central Museum of revolution of USSR in 1963. has Worked in the funds Department for 15 years. This Museum was the scientific-methodical Department of all-Union scale, and stock and storage work I mastered and learned there. In 1977 I was invited to the Museum of cosmonautics in chief of the guardian. I came prepared, knowing the work of all departments. The staffing of the Museum of the post of curator was not, and was a research staff who is engaged in storage of collections of books, photographs, fine art, philately, medals and awards, sculpture, applied art, clothing Fund, and others.
Employee stock Department must have patience, accuracy, thoroughness, perseverance. Our work starts with the description of items. When I went to the Museum of the revolution, gave me eight thousand Newspapers of the period of the NEP. It was interesting to study them.
stock work is very exciting. you Can explore Museum objects from morning to evening — and that time is not enough to explore everything. Not everyone will be able to work in the funds, because it is quite a routine. We are to love. There are people who know how to learn the material, and there are those who are able to complete. Employees should do what will bring the greatest benefit to the Museum.
The hardest part for me in work now — the absence of the person who would know more than me, and custodial work, and from whom I could learn, because to know everything is impossible.
My working days are not similar to one another. In small museums (or in large enough, but with a small staff as ours) the guardian is also researcher, and exhibition curator, and tour guide. With all the kaleidoscope of Affairs at the guardian, there is one ritual — he comes from “Instructions for recording and storage of Museum values”: twice a day I go into a Fund to test and record temperature and humidity. And this despite the fact that we have long had a system of remote control, which itself captures indicators every three hours and graphs.
Sphere of my scientific interest — engraving. Graphic collection of the Museum is small, draw graphics in it a little less than 400 sheets, but here you can find real masterpieces. It seems to me, the study of printmaking, as nowhere else, the actual words of the German art historian Abby Warburg: “God lives in the details.” Here attention to details, secondary elements, and defects can give more than all authors ‘ signatures on the sheet. So I really like to sit with a digital microscope over one of the prints to Shine through paper on a light table, remove the watermarks and look for equivalents.
the Most difficult to work with Museum funds — to go home on time. Working with objects is addictive, often lose track of time. And the Museum, as you know, the institution almost modal, all stock keys should give up on time. So I was looking for and was almost kicked out foNDA home.
If one day you could trade places with someone from the Museum staff, I would like to become a restorer. of Course, previously having graduated from art school, school, getting a higher education! Then one day to be the restorer — and return back to the Fund.
Restorer working with objects not only outside but inside. It’s like a doctor, in whose hands the life of the patient. In my opinion, is the most important work in the Museum. Without restorers, we never would have considered the creative plan of the author or under layers of yellowed varnish, nor in the fragments of broken vases and sculptures, and many items and all were lost.
I am a perfectionist, work in the funds for me. I like to organize, describe items, put them in places to keep safe, to digitize, to introduce new information about the subject in the database, to do accounting records. I get great pleasure when new items arrive in the collection.
Guardians — owners, and I think it’s a good quality to work with Museum objects, because the first task of my colleagues is to keep the subject in the form in which it came to the Museum.
Guardians are not immediately apparent and not all Museum employees. This is an extremely responsible position, requiring specific experience and professionalism. To become a custodian, the necessary willingness to learn. Work in the funds — consistent, methodical, neat. The custodian must have a system mind-set, to be persistent, to be able to achieve this goal: if I saw that thing in need of restoration, is to draw attention to it and to enforce the necessary climatic and sanitary conditions.
Always interesting to work with genuine and memorial items related to the life and work of a particular individual. Each piece, whether a photo or a painting, carries the information of his time. When we in the Museum received the new items, we try to record legend of the receipt of the subject for future employees. Any exhibition or permanent exhibition will be more interesting and valuable, if it will expose the true items.
a creative approach in working with Museum objects do not. Guardian constantly communicates with the exhibition Department and selects the objects not only on the list, but visually, it needs to understand in advance how an aesthetic point of view it will look like the subject. Modern guardian involved in the creation of catalogues, virtual exhibitions — it requires creativity and the ability to work in different programs for editing or typesetting.
the Guardian has always been and remains the expert entrusted to him the collection. Is the person responsible for the physical preservation of Museum objects collection, and the study subjects. The Keeper is the one who must always be with my collection, must not only be proficient in knowledge in her field but also to understand related fields.
Love the museums instilled in me the work of the State Museum-reserve of S. A. Yesenin. a Student I worked there as a tour guide, with great pleasure told the visitors about the life and work of the poet. After this experience I decided that I wanted to work in the Museum. As a philologist, I was looking for a community of your profile and found intimate Museum for the writer Konstantin Paustovsky. In the funds I started working as a Junior researcher, assistant at the travel Department. The story of my coming to the Book — more personal: Paustovsky, like Yesenin, directly connected with my family sometimes.
the Museum exhibits often present surprises. In our funds once received the device, the purpose of which we at first didn’t really understand. Long could not understand, consulted with colleagues, studied the special literature. Some time later it turned out that it is a device for viewing slides and negatives on the glass, owned by well-known photographer Viktor Molchanov (1910-2003), in Soviet times, worked in the Literary Museum and filmed meetings of writers. He invented a new genre, called a photo story. Several Molchanov’s photo story on the life paustovskogo, and is stored in the collection.
the job of the custodian is very much monotonous, repetitive activities. the Main thing — not to lose interest, not to sakonnet, do not fade. I found the recipe: you need all the time to learn, to improve, to learn new things, visit museums, watch and take notice. For many years I learned and still learning this difficult art.
