Head of the excursion department of the Amur Regional Museum of Local Lore. G.S. Novikova-Daursky, Honored Worker of Culture Elena Smetanina spoke about what kind of people work within the walls of the institution and where the most valuable exhibits are kept

Interactive news

- Elena Vladimirovna, in what mode does the Amur Regional Museum of Local Lore work now?

Photo from the archive of the local history museum

Museum now very interesting forour visitors.Used to work only two formsevents: excourses and lectures. We have now expanded the forms of and actions areexcursion with poisassignments, excursion-wayprocession, conversation, theatricalexcursion. Popular with visitexcursion quiz bodies, for exampleenvironmental or historical measures.

Actively used multimediany presentation when the guidelectures. If earlier ourlecturers took on a field tourthis very huge traveling exhibitionski, now one is enough for themflash drives to demonstrateall our exhibits.

For young viewers in ourthe children's center is theatricalexcursions. There nowthere are two expositions thatvery much in demand. For children alsovarious holidays are held:New Year, Christmas, Easter -specially for such eventsour employees dress up incostumes. Demonstration of exhibitstakes place in a playful way, which is very

Like children.

- What does local history offermuseum in addition to exploring the exponatami?

Master-classes in arts and craftsmy creativity. We work withthe most talented teachers,masters who on weekends andholidays teach needleworktownspeople. This is a painting of birch bark,wooden, ceramic products,this is embroidery, modeling of clayproducts as well as Japanese polymeasuring clay.

Works for our visitorsa souvenir kiosk where youwhoever wishes can purchasememorable thing. And also eachthe visitor can make a suvenir with views of the city of Blagoveshchenskin a special apparatus in its own waydesire. Our museum becomesinteractive, very useful ininformational and educationalplan. Touchscreen kiosks, miracle vitrina-3D Museum gives a lot of knowledgeon historical and environmentallocal history.

About visitors

- Elena Vladimirovna, tour guidesovod works closely withpeople who come to seea third for exhibits. How is it builttheir dialogue?

It is very important to love your friends.settlers. Visit us on excursions atdifferent people walk - from smallchildren to adults. To everyone notmust be found undermove, interest,captivate. We tryxia adjust toour guests, aboutwe drive periodicallymonitoring tounderstand in which onereign furtherwork. We workin close contact withschool teachers who regularly

We try to correct the programwe are activities to captivate,interest the younger generationtaking into account the requirements of schoolprograms.

- What kind of guests come to yourates?

Our museum has already become an internationglobal, we track "geographicfiyu "of our visitors. It is gratifyingthat there are a lot of guests among themcities that want to meetwith the history of our region. For thatwhich people have we organized a systemindividual excursions, whichdid not work in our museum before.Before, visitors just boughttickets and walked through the halls, now atguides on duty work for usdy who are readytaking into account the wishesguests to provideall information aboutexhibits. More often,of course visiting usute groups of chinesetourists. Specialistbut for them the stateour museum atlecturers involvedwith knowledge of Chinese, who arethe native language for foreigners aboutlead excursions.

Photo: Evgeniya Nifontova

About employees

- What kind of people work for you?

Most often to work for uspeople come with pedagogicaleducation. Most of ouremployees studied at BSPU, athistorical-philological, geographysical faculties. They are veryknow the history of their native land well,can work with different ageaudience, these are ready-made specialiststo build work with people.The guide must be redchiv, emotional, should captivatebehind yourself so that people can hear it.To work in a museum you need to knowthe history of our land, its nature,culture. Man must strivelearn more, work constantlyabove yourself and increase the level of knowledgeniy, improve the methodology forconducting excursions. It is important towork in constant contact withcolleagues, with visitors, toknow their wishes, their interests.Museum staff should knownot only history but also commitmentbut funds to navigatein items that are in ourmuseum. When lecturers prepare formeeting, they collect a lotinformation to be able to tellabout objects literally with closedeyes.

- Tell us about the positions withmuseum workers.

We have many specialties.These are lecturers, guides, and templecarriers who work directlymainly with museum items, researchcomfort and describe them. We also haveartists, specialists workexposition and exhibition department,who arrange the exhibition beforeexcursion. Each exhibition hasyour curator who researchestopic, goes deeper into it and preparesstreaming material for the event,is working on an excursion. Important,for the exhibition to work!

- Do students come to you forgives the biggestexhibition hall toannunciation and guests of the city couldfully enjoy herscale. Institution is readytake one guide forwork with visitors.

Every day they come to the same museum rooms, take their place and unobtrusively observe the visitors. Without them, no one will let guests into the exhibition. The caretakers make sure that no one who comes to enjoy the art breaks the museum rules. What mistakes do Tomsk residents often make at exhibitions, what else, besides observation, is the caretaker's duties, what paintings make a special impression on guests? All the details were given to us by Ekaterina Mikhailova, the caretaker of two halls of the permanent exhibition of the Tomsk Regional Art Museum.

When visitors appear in the neighboring museum hall, Ekaterina Mikhailova turns on the light and waits for the guests to come to inspect the exhibits presented in her "possession":

Visitors enter "my" room - I get up and meet them, say hello, most of them greet me too, - explains Ekaterina Ivanovna. - Then I quietly and carefully watch them, it's not for nothing that we are called caretakers. Many touch pictures with their hands or bend over so that they touch the work with their heads, this is prohibited, since it is harmful for pictures. Then I make comments, politely say: "I'm sorry, please, you can't touch anything." According to the rules, the distance from the person to the picture should be 40 cm. We try to remind about our rules politely so as not to spoil the guests' mood. The duty of reprimanding is the most difficult thing for me in our work. I understand: a person has come to rest, to see an exhibition, and then they come up to him, they begin to prohibit something. It is important not to offend the person, to be benevolent, but at the same time quite strict.

True, most guests treat such comments with understanding. Conflicts are rare. Although sometimes people begin to be indignant, they say, they say, abroad in museums they are allowed to touch exhibits with their hands. Then such guests are reminded that the permanent exhibition presents masterpieces, these are originals, really old works created in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. If everyone who wants to touch them, then they will not last long.

Other violations that visitors make are the appearance in museum halls with large bags and outerwear. Such guests will not be allowed into the halls, but will be politely sent to the wardrobe. Outerwear in the halls is undesirable due to the abundance of street dust and bacteria, which are very harmful to paintings. Large bags are a safety issue.

Museum caretakers have many safety instructions. The chief curator of the art museum Olga Komarova introduces all the rules of the halls staff. But all the points are quite doable:
- All requirements are available for a person of our age, - says Ekaterina Ivanovna. - You must be honest, responsible, observant, have good hearing and eyesight.

The caretakers are hired after an interview with the chief custodian and administrator. They look at the work book. Usually they seek to find people on the recommendation - because the responsibility here is high, and the salary is the opposite. You have to work from 10 to 18 hours practically without a break. You can leave only for 15 minutes for lunch when there are no visitors and by all means ask the caretaker from the neighboring rooms to observe. Food is usually brought from home with you. Sometimes you can go to have tea behind a screen in one of the halls, but also for no longer than 10 minutes, and after warning your neighbor.

Ekaterina Mikhailova has been working at the museum for 17 years. First she took the position of caretaker, and then became an administrator. But 2 years ago, I returned to the museum halls, felt that I wanted a calmer business:

The work of the administrator is complicated, - explains Ekaterina Ivanovna. - He submits all the caretakers, many other duties, you need to know everything that happens in the museum and make sure that there is order everywhere.

Although the museum caretaker does not have to be bored either. Besides direct observation, he has enough other things to do. Imperceptibly turn on the light before the guests appear, so as not to flip the switch in front of them. It is also necessary to monitor the special lighting:

The works look good with her, - Ekaterina Ivanovna is sure. - The backlight was installed recently, already under our director Irina Viktorovna Yaroslavtseva. Even with her, showcases called "glass" appeared, thanks to which we can present those exhibits that were previously stored in storerooms. For example, in my room in such a showcase there is a beautiful vase painted with gold. It was created at the imperial glass factory in the middle of the 19th century. She is safe in the shop window, she will not be damaged by accident. And the illumination allows the vase to appear in front of the visitors in all its glory, without it the golden pattern would not be so noticeable.

Also recently, soft comfortable benches have appeared in the halls, on which visitors can relax, because the permanent exhibition of the museum is large, ten halls are located on the second floor, four more on the third. The shops are especially popular with children. On weekends, families come to the museum, and the kids get tired, sometimes the kids can even lie down on soft benches. Elderly visitors, who also often visit the permanent exhibition, appreciate the opportunities for recreation.

In addition to observing itself, the caretaker has other duties:
- When there are no visitors, we remove dust from the equipment in the hall, - says Ekaterina Ivanovna. Each caretaker has his own little bucket, with a damp cloth we wipe the glass of showcases and window sills twice a week. We, of course, do not touch the paintings; they can only be dedusted by research workers. I watched them take care of the works - they put on a special soft mitten and carefully guide it around the exhibit.

Sometimes the caretakers are asked questions - not everyone booked a tour, some people watch the exhibition on their own, such visitors often want to clarify something, and they turn to the employee they see in the hall.

We do not have such deep knowledge as guides, due to our official duties we should not talk about pictures, - explains Ekaterina Ivanovna. - But if we can, then we answer the questions of visitors. Most of all the guests are interested in: "Do you have copies or originals?" We answer that mostly originals are presented in our halls, even the frames of the paintings are original. Many people ask about Empress Maria Alexandrovna, whose huge ceremonial portrait can be seen in the hall where I work. Clarify whose wife she was, I tell you that Alexander II.

Museum caretakers are not indifferent to the royal family; practically everyone can tell a lot about the Romanov dynasty. They read a lot in the museum: when there are no visitors at the exhibitions, the caretakers are allowed small books (so that they do not interfere with the time to notice the guests) format. Ekaterina Mikhailova prefers historical novels, loves the works of Edward Radzinsky. And interest in the Romanov dynasty arose partly due to the portrait of the empress presented at the exhibition:

This work immediately interested me, - notes Ekaterina Ivanovna. - We also have an interesting portrait of Nicholas I in the museum, painted even before he took the throne. Impressed by the work, I took books from the library about the Romanov dynasty, read them with enthusiasm, then shared them with my colleagues.

According to the observation of Ekaterina Mikhailova, visitors to her halls most often freeze for a long time near the portrait of the empress and near the painting, which depicts a frightened peasant girl (children especially love to view her):

Many also like two works by the artist Pleshanov - his self-portrait and the image of a girl, they are very good-looking, but, in my opinion, this is too idealized beauty, - Ekaterina Ivanovna shares her impressions. - We have very characteristic works, for example, "The Head of an Old Man", a portrait created by an unknown author, where we see an unusual, expressive, probably once handsome face of an old man.

Ekaterina Mikhailova has been spending her working day in the same two halls for two years now. And she says that they absolutely do not bother her:
- How can you get tired of such masterpieces ?! - the inspector is surprised. - I love very much both the paintings presented in the halls, and our entire permanent exhibition, I'm happy that there is such a collection of works in Tomsk, I think this is a brand of our city.

The only thing that upsets the caretaker is the too restrained attitude towards the unique collection of Tomsk residents themselves. They do not go to the museum very often, and the guests of the city are delighted with the collection, and even Muscovites and Petersburgers, spoiled by museums, admire when they come across genuine works of famous masters in Tomsk. Ekaterina Mikhailova would like the townspeople to value more their unique opportunity to enjoy masterpieces.

Text: Maria Anikina

Today, modern museums are trying to find new ways of presenting information and communicating with the audience: from warehouses with ancient artifacts, they want to turn into cultural centers where people will meet, communicate, exchange ideas and gain new knowledge and impressions. For this, exhibition curators come up with interactive formats, project managers collect temporary exhibitions from all over the world, tour guides create free audio guides, and only the curators cannot always find a place for themselves in this new world of the museum. Often they can be replaced by surveillance cameras, but are such changes possible in a provincial museum, whose work structure has not changed for 20 years?

Undoubtedly, such museums have their own charm, although there are almost no new exhibits, a strict aunt-caretaker is watching you in every room, and the only unusual thing in the museum is a local cat, periodically brushing valuable artifacts with its tail.

Our correspondent spent one day as a museum curator and told about all the intricacies of a typical Yaroslavl museum.

The clock is exactly ten.

Climbing the modest staircase of the museum located in the very center of Yaroslavl, I fantasize with anticipation of how my present day might pass as a caretaker of one of the city's main museums. Stopping in the first hall of the museum, to my surprise, I find myself in the dark and stumble upon a cat walking past the museum exhibits - the most faithful lover of Yaroslavl history.

It is very difficult to catch a crowd of people in a museum on a weekday, so local workers are in no hurry: one of the senior caretakers, suddenly emerging from the darkness, slowly approaches me, greets me and informs me in a low voice what I have to do for the next seven hours.

She leads me through the halls of the museum, repeating from time to time: “You can't touch anything here, otherwise the alarm will go off. It is better to turn off the light here while there are no visitors. Here do not try to leave things, otherwise they will suddenly be stolen. And don't forget to put your phone in your bag while the visitors are in the hall, otherwise it's dangerous. "

Not realizing the danger of my phone, I follow the caretaker to the last hall of the museum, where I have to observe visitors throughout the day, and, putting my things aside, slowly begin to examine the exhibits in the hall.

The museum, to which I was sent to practice as a caretaker, has been operating since 1985 and is especially popular among tourists from other cities, who usually gaze at all the exhibits with gusto, study the accompanying labels and admire the history of our city. Nevertheless, despite the constant flow of tourists, many of whom, as a rule, are residents of the capital, the museum is not in great demand among the local population (apart from young schoolchildren and students who are driven into the museum by a herd and forced to devour the objects around them with their eyes).

It seems that the development of the museum stopped at the end of the 20th century: behind huge shelves there are exhibits, many of which are printed copies, or layouts that require urgent restoration, the further from the halls dedicated to the ancient history of the city, the more boring it becomes to watch the development Yaroslavl for several centuries. The surest way to attract attention and dilute the emptiness of museum halls on weekdays is to completely change the presentation of information. For example, instead of boring exhibits with accompanying labels, a museum may try to include innovative assistants in its exhibits.

True, any, even minimal change in the museum, such as repairs or the installation of new shelving, cannot be done without money, which is difficult to obtain.

An hour passes.

The first visitors begin to appear in the halls of the museum, who carefully examine the exhibits. Since at a time when there are people in the halls of the museum, I cannot take out a book or a mobile phone, there is nothing left to do but carefully examine the tourists, to my surprise, who study with great attention what is under the shelves. In pursuit of a new volume of knowledge, some of them cautiously approach me and begin to ask questions regarding the presented exhibits. However, I can hardly answer most of them, which causes surprise on the part of tourists - after all, the caretaker must know everything.

The silence of the museum halls and the noiseless movement of visitors slowly drives me into a doze. I close my eyes for a few seconds, but soon winced at the stern voice of one of the attendants: "In order to stay awake, you better watch the visitors."

A little perplexed, I answer: "What can happen to the exhibits, because they are under the shelves?" “Well, all of a sudden, visitors will carry a bomb into the museum. We do not have metal detectors, so we, the caretakers, must be as careful as possible, ”the woman replies, and in the meantime I understand that all my ideas that the museum's expositions should be updated with modern technologies seem ridiculous, because here are local workers, Modestly moving around the hall and whispering remarks to the visitors are asked to prevent terrorist attacks.

Several more hours pass.

I struggle with naps and try to keep an eye on the visitors. Suddenly the silence of the museum is disturbed by noise.

On the stairs, you can hear the steps of people heading to the central hall of the museum. One of the caretakers whispers to the other: "Today in the museum a thematic lesson." After these words, tourists begin to pass by me, the column of which is led by museum staff, dressed in costumes from the times of "War and Peace" by L. N. Tolstoy.

It’s funny to watch how the guides and research staff of the museum hobble in fluffy dresses, and then clumsily begin to dance the mazurka.

The museum is trying to somehow attract the attention of tourists who have long learned by heart all the permanent exhibitions, but their love of history brought them to this place again. Such themed events, of course, will not replace updated shelves with exhibits or audio guides, but they will definitely attract visitors who want to look at the theatrical abilities of the museum staff. And thanks to the museum workers, who do not hesitate to put on a fluffy dress in between scientific activities, this place continues to live, albeit without fresh repairs, unique finds and large salaries of employees.

Who works daily at the Yeltsin Center? Author Graduate.pro talked with museum worker Alexandra Lopata and found out what is most important in this profession.

I have many educational backgrounds. The first is construction, in a technical school. Then I simultaneously graduated from the Faculty of Cultural Studies and Art Studies at UrFU and received a diploma in Creative Industries and Cultural Management at RUDN University. Then - a master's degree in audiovisual communications.

As a child, I dreamed of becoming an archaeologist. Then I wanted to become an actress. I even entered the theater institute, but they didn't take me.

After that I decided: if I am not destined to be an actress, then I will study art. I did a lot of volunteering in museums. As soon as I graduated from the institute, one of my teachers invited me to work in a museum.Fate itself brought me to the museum. Two years passed - and I was addicted. It is very interesting.

I think this profession suits me. I like to get new knowledge, I am interested in history. I like old things, everything "old". What has a touch of antiquity has its own charm. The museum profession found me on its own.

There are pluses and minuses in any work. Every day I learn a lot of information, communicate with people. A museum is a space for communication, dialogue. I work in an interesting creative team and learn from my colleagues. I have a space for creativity, here I can invent and implement. Probably, if I worked in a factory, I would die of boredom. The museum worker is a guide to art.

I can't directly name the cons, I love my job too much.

Yes, you get tired at the end of the day, but where don't you get tired? We are working very hard. We work every day from morning to evening. But no one forces anyone, all of them themselves remain, of their own free will.

We have a very large excursion load: often there are groups of 30 people, including many children. Sometimes negative people come. It takes a lot of energy and at the end of the day you are simply exhausted.

Every day of work brings satisfaction, you understand that you have done something useful.

I would like to develop. A museum is a space that can be developed endlessly. Every day, learn something new, invent, update, promote. That is, it is something inexhaustible.

I don’t know how my life will turn out, but I don’t plan to leave the museum yet. If fate deems it necessary to lead me to another place, I will go there. One way or another, it should be related to culture, science and communication with people.

The museum is, in fact, very interesting. We have few employees and we do not have enough people, there is work for everyone. Everything goes to economists, lawyers, engineers. Few study art critics. And then many of them come there to sit somewhere for four years.When I got to the museum, I realized that there is a lot of work, but few people.

Now museums are experiencing a second life: if you compare them now and in 2000, then they are completely different things.

I saw many different people who came right after university. I will say this: a person who is interested in life, wants self-realization and development, will be interested everywhere. Including in the museum.

The museum is so huge that it seems to me that life is not enough to explore everything. I saw people who come, despite the modest working conditions, despite the lack of understanding of the senior employees on the bias ... They took and bent their line. We studied and made interesting projects.

Working in a museum requires dedication; altruism is important. You need to be prepared for the fact that you may not be noticed, ideas may be ignored, that you need to work hard. You need to defend, you need to learn to be loyal, flexible and ready for anything.

Be prepared that you will work hard; you must always raise your intellectual level. You need to keep track of what is happening in the sphere all the time. Have a core and do not trust those people who say that no one needs museums today.

Interviewed by Alexandra Kvashnin a

The Village continues to talk about how people of different professions plan their income and expenses. In this issue - a museum worker. According to the Ministry of Culture, the average salary of employees of cultural institutions, which include museums, in 2016 amounted to about 59 thousand rubles in Moscow and 50 thousand in St. Petersburg. Also last year, the department published a report on the earnings of the heads of state museums, according to which the general director of the Hermitage, Mikhail Piotrovsky, received 839 thousand rubles a month, and the general director of the Tretyakov gallery, Zelfira Tregulov, 437 thousand rubles. A young employee of a large state museum located in St. Petersburg told us what his responsibilities are, how much he gets paid and what he spends his money on.

Position

Museum employee

Income

30,000 rubles

(including quarterly premiums)

Expenses

10,000 rubles

9,000 rubles

debt recovery

3,000 rubles

transport

3,000 rubles

2,000 rubles

alcohol

2,000 rubles

1,000 rubles

entertainment

How to get to work at the museum

I grew up in a family associated with art, I remember being a child with my parents in a museum. I had not yet thought about which specialty I would choose, but it seemed to me some kind of magic that a person looks at a picture and sees not just a plot, canvas and oil, but the context, the connections of this work with others, the history of creation and getting into the museum, the artist's techniques ... I went to study as an art critic at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts named after Repin. This is a very important place where art historians, graphic artists, sculptors, architects coexist in the same building, where you can go into workshops and watch how they work. There is no such situation as in some universities, where art history is also taught, when a student studies art history, but has never seen artists.

A significant part of the people who work in St. Petersburg museums are graduates of the Academy of Arts. In museums, there is always a need for laboratory assistants, therefore, if there is a rate, they remember those who trained, underwent practice and somehow showed themselves. It happened to me too. Now I am 23 years old and have been working in the museum for four years.

Sometimes a person who wants to get to work in a museum thinks that he will be engaged in research, but not everyone understands that a museum is a huge system, in which, in addition to departments related to science and art, there is still a lot - even electricians and mechanics, security service. It often happens that you have to wait for the required rate for years. For example, you study Japanese art, because you want to work in the department of the East, but the rate has appeared in the department of scientific documentation or the scientific and educational department. You have to go there and wait until, perhaps, you will be invited to the right department. Our employees are completely different. There are those who come with glowing eyes. Someone needs the status of work in a large state museum, and I even know many destinies that could have been better if people did not stop before moving to other museums or organizations for fear of losing this status. But it is clear that no one comes to work in any museum in Russia because of material benefits.

Features of work

The mission of a laboratory assistant in any department is to remove routine duties from scientific staff so that they are engaged in scientific work, preparation for exhibitions and conferences. I talked with colleagues from different scientific departments, and I got the impression that we do the same things, just sometimes they differ due to the specifics of the department: somewhere there are paintings, somewhere - archeology. A lab technician is a mixture of a secretary, a courier, a rigger, and a handyman. We are often called on the phone to get some information about paintings, events, and I answer such calls. If employees of another department come to the department, I will accompany them too. The State Museum is always a bureaucracy, here we depend on a huge amount of papers, signatures, stamps.

Especially a lot of paperwork appears during preparation for the exhibition, if the exhibits are not from Russian collections, but from abroad. Writing memos, checking acts, collecting signatures and seals is also the work of a laboratory assistant. When colleagues come to us, for example from the Louvre or the British Museum, you need to meet them at the airport, escort them to Peterhof and Gatchina - this, again, is the responsibility of the laboratory assistant. As a courier, it happens that you need to go to the office, receive parcels and letters. Sometimes you arrive at dawn and check whether everything is ready for the conference, whether the projector is working. Each science department in the museum has a library, and mostly girls work there. There are many books, they are heavy and dusty, and laboratory assistants are always ready to help take these books where needed.

In general, laboratory assistants are responsible for all movements of dusty and heavy objects - stacks of books, boxes, packages. Senior scientific workers, venerable masters and ladies in shawls will not do this. Laboratory assistants are mainly young people who have just graduated from a higher educational institution or are still receiving education by correspondence, they are from 20 to 30 years old. This is the very age when you can do this kind of work in the best way. If you need to very quickly get a signature in another part of the building, you can literally run there, in parallel remembering all the films you know, where the heroes ran through museums.

The next step after a laboratory assistant is the position of a junior researcher, then there is a researcher, leading, senior researcher and curator. Researchers are already people who are 30–35 years old, leading and senior, respectively, even older. But these promotions come not only due to seniority, but also due to publications and other achievements. At the same time, you need to constantly develop, monitor what is happening with your area of \u200b\u200bstudy around the world. And for this you need to constantly go to the library, visit other museums, compare things, communicate at international conferences with your colleagues.

There are employees who, after 30 years or so, decide that they are quite satisfied with the position of a laboratory assistant or a junior research assistant, and stop developing. These are quite conservative people with whom it is difficult for me to discuss topics of science and art. They sometimes allow themselves to express themselves in a way that is inadmissible even for the layman, for example, they can say: "Malevich is not an artist at all, my child will draw better even then."

I work five days a week from 09:00 to 18:00, but for a museum employee, work does not end with the end of the working day, but continues in free time. After work, I often go to exhibitions, read books on art. Museum workers have an important privilege: they have the right to free entry to museums in Russia and some other countries using a special ICOM card. This kind of leisure activities on weekends is very popular among my acquaintances: you buy the cheapest reserved seat ticket for the train that comes to Moscow in the morning. From the station you run to the Tretyakov Gallery, Pushkin, the Museum of Architecture, watch exhibitions, and so on until six o'clock. In the evening you go to the gallery, which can work until eight, then you meet with your Moscow acquaintances, also employees of museums or other cultural institutions, and then you go back by night train.

People from St. Petersburg go to Moscow exhibitions much more often than vice versa. Yet Moscow is a very cool city in terms of exhibition policy. We also have many museums, but not all of them have their own programs, interesting projects. Museum practices, which are used in Moscow, come to us only after a few years, and even then not always in the correct form. Often this happens due to St. Petersburg snobbery and the stereotype of the cultural capital.

Income

My salary is 22 thousand rubles a month. Someone may think that this is not enough, but there are St. Petersburg museums, where employees receive much less. Once again every few months there is a quarterly bonus - about 30-40 thousand. The prize depends on the season, museum attendance, but probably only people in the accounting department can calculate it for sure. When you receive 22 thousand, expenses often exceed this amount, and it turns out that debts accumulate, and after receiving the premium, I return the money to everyone from whom I borrowed.

All the technicians I know accept help from their parents in one way or another. Someone is given money, someone is paid for housing, someone is bought clothes or food is brought. Parents understand that their children cannot cope without such support. My parents covered some of my expenses - for housing and mobile communications.

Expenses

On average, I spend at least 3 thousand a month on books on art history and museum practices. I go to the Vse Svobodny bookstore where the cool guys work. When I have no money and I see that there is only one copy of the book left, I ask to put it aside for me for a week or two. Sometimes it happens that they call me from this bookstore and say that there is a book available that may be of interest to me. Then I get into another debt, buy it and switch to eating a vegetable mixture for 60 rubles.

I go for free not only to museums, but also to national film weeks in Rodina or Giant Park. I try to maintain the level of knowledge of foreign languages \u200b\u200bin order to communicate with colleagues from other countries, and for this I watch films without translation. There are several cinemas in St. Petersburg that show films in the original language with subtitles, but I don't get to the daytime screenings because of work, and a ticket for an evening show costs comparable to the price of a not very expensive book on art history or curating. Sometimes I invite my friends to join me in watching a movie that they somehow downloaded in advance, because I don't have the Internet at home. I'm not afraid that with the Internet I will plunge into the abyss of procrastination, I am absolutely sure of this. The end result is that the books I buy will grow into a huge pile and gather dust. And so I protected myself from the temptation to go online, read an article on Colta, then another one, then go to Artguide and in addition watch a couple of documentaries during the evening.

I spend about 3 thousand a month on transport. On average, about a couple of thousand comes out on clothes. I don’t buy it every month, but I usually wait until the sale at Uniqlo starts and I’ll grab myself a few basic items there. So for three or four months I will be calm, because I have simple clothes that can withstand dust and dirt, with which part of the museum work is associated. After all, there is such a law: when you buy yourself a new white shirt and come to work in it, it is on this day that you will need to drag and drop dusty archive folders.

It takes me about 8-10 thousand for food a month. Lunch is a very interesting part of my working day. My friends and I have this theory: it is when you start taking food from home in a container with you that you will no longer be young. In addition, the museum is a rather dusty place, so it's nice to leave it for at least an hour during the working day to get some fresh air and warm up. Since a significant part of the museums is located in the center, at lunchtime you can catch some exhibition, and then just take a shawarma or falafel on the go. Sometimes we visit new places that open up near the museum, evaluate the development of gastronomy - this is also interesting and deserves attention. We have a canteen in the museum, but they cook there from ingredients that not everyone eats for one reason or another, that's why we don't eat there.

Since I live in St. Petersburg, I have fixed expenses for alcohol. I don’t drink a bottle of wine every night, but on average it spends a couple thousand a month. Recently the bar "Chronicles" celebrated its birthday, and at least a thousand were definitely left there.

When a premium is issued and some additional money appears, then I, as a rule, give out debts. I can also go to an exhibition in Moscow or another city where I have friends who are ready to provide an overnight stay.