Reinforced sanitary measures will also be tested in the Amsterdam Hermitage branch.
The new system of visiting expositions with enhanced sanitary measures will be tested in the satellite centers of the State Hermitage Museum in Kazan and Amsterdam. It is these branches that will be the first to operate in the museum system after the restrictions are lifted, the Hermitage Director General, Mikhail Piotrovsky, said at a press conference in TASS.
According to him, the Hermitage Museum in Kazan has been just opened, whereas the Hermitage in Amsterdam is just about to open. The experience of working in a system that meets security requirements and creates the most comfortable conditions for people will be accumulated and distributed to the entire museum complex and to the central institution in St. Petersburg, which is still closed.
Earlier, the Hermitage Director General reported that the museums of the complex would have to radically change the system of receiving visitors and selling tickets, as well as logistics, in order to prevent crowds, but to give visitors the opportunity to comfortably view the exhibition. This mechanism is under development by the analogy with the operation of airports. It is planned to mark routes in museums and delimit guests by time. At the same time, it is important to leave the possibility of preferential visits to the museum to such categories of citizens as pensioners and students. It should also be taken into account that not all potential museum visitors the can buy tickets online due to the absence of a computer and adequate literacy.
Recall that since May 18, 2020, museums and libraries in Tatarstan have been allowed to work, subject to strict sanitary requirements. Due to the pandemic, the exhibition "Matisse. Picasso. Chagall ... Art of the Western Europe of the 1910-1940s in the Hermitage Collection", previously scheduled until May 24, was extended until October 18 in the Hermitage-Kazan Center.
According to the head of the Hermitage-Kazan Center, Margarita Tikhonova, there are sanitizers at the entrance to the museum, while visitors are permitted to entry only if wearing masks and gloves. Entry to the center is planned in timed intervals to avoid crowds. The first session starts at 10 am and then every 30 minutes. From 1 am to 2 am a sanitary pause is due. On Friday, the museum is open until 8 pm, so on this day two one-hour sanitary breaks are arranged. To enter the exhibition, you need reservation. Each hall can accommodate no more than 10 people at a time, and visitors can walk in one direction only. Be sure to keep distance.
It is a reminder that within the framework of the Great Hermitage program satellite centers of the museum are being created in Russia and abroad. Hermitage exhibition centers operate in Amsterdam, Vyborg and Kazan. The satellite centers Hermitage-Italy in Venice and the Hermitage-Siberia in Omsk are opened. In the foreseeable future, it is planned to open Hermitage Museum centers in Yekaterinburg, Kaluga, Moscow, and Vladivostok.