Erarta Museum and Galleries of Contemporary Art

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Editor's review

2000 works by more than 150 artists from 15 regions of Russia, in short: Erarta, the largest private museum in Russia.

If you'd like to get acquainted with the latest and the most intriguing products of the Russian creative thought, this is just the place, as Erarta has already been through several special projects, which popularize art and immerse people in the creative process. At the museum the visitors can experience the “U-Space” total installations, watch the multimedia plays with characters from the paintings at the “Theatre With No Actors”, and see the stories of paintings come alive on the screen in the “Art-animation” project. They can even secure their own place in the museum by participating in the “Art-literature” project, a series of creative essays written by Erarta’s guests, which describe their thoughts about the works from the collection – the museum displays the best of them at a permanent exhibition, for other visitors to enjoy!

Seated in an impressive Stalin-era building, Erarta is more than art hub: here you can purchase not only the contemporary works, but also unique souvenirs and handicraft designed by Erarta, as well as a variety on publications in Russian and English.

Also Erarta is a great place to take a break from sightseeing and grab a bite to eat. “The Art Of Eating” restaurant in the museum wing serves contemporary Russian cuisine and vegetarian dishes, and the cafe on 3rd. floor is famous for its homemade desserts served with tea or coffee and a cosy summer terrace.

Erarta is open every day except for Tuesdays between 10 am and 10pm. Entry fee is RUB 600, guided tours are available for RUB 200, guided tours in English are available, booking in advance is recommended.

Editor
Editor & St Petersburg Local

Reviews

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Barry Green
United Kingdom

Wonderful discovery in Saint Petersburg - probably the highlight of my visit. First thing you're told upon entering is that Erarta is the largest private museum in Russia and it lives up to expectations - it's a huge five-floor building with the museum occupying the entire left wing and the galleries and temporary exhibitions on the right-hand side. The museum collection is interesting and varied (the brochure I was given says there are over 2000 works by more than 150 artists) - I particularly enjoyed science art on floor 1 and video art on floor 3 but was also delighted to see that numerous Russian contemporary artists are still very familiar with time-honoured traditions of oil and canvas that are seemingly becoming a forgotten form back home! Also, don't miss their "U-space" project - you get 15 minutes in private in especially themed rooms with art installations of various kinds, ranging from happy and cheerful to sad and pensive. The right-hand side has various exhibitions which change every two months and also has a gallery where you can buy contemporary works of art. Erarta apparently also has galleries in New York, London, Zurich and Hong Kong - very impressive as it really puts Russian artists on the map! Also want to highlight just how impressive the level of attention to foreign visitors is - unlike most places in Russia, everyone speaks great English and they evidently take special care signposting and translating absolutely everything from Russian to make it easy for guests to orientate and to find out more about Russian art. I cannot praise Erarta highly enough - it's great to see that Russia isn't stuck in the time of the csarz and has fantastic modern institutions such as this one! P.S. would recommend taking at least 3 hours to visit Erarta - there's a restaurant (didn't have time to try myself) and a cafe (did have time for that - great coffees and desserts!) to take a break if you're tired and bring some roubles with you - there are some really cool modern souvenirs in the shops.

Reply Mar 25th, 2013
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