culture on sale?
Did you read
about the use of images from major Russian museum collections as chocolate wrappers?
It might be believed that due to Russia's apparent economic muddle, culture is
on sale, both wholesale and retail. I am not going to deny obvious facts. Nor
will I assert that in ten years of economical reforms a reasonable balance between
commerce and spirit has been found. But let us look into the issues more thoroughly.
Krasnoyarsk is
not a capital city, but you would be correct in calling it a typical provincial
center, plenty of which are scattered all over both European and Asiatic parts
of Russia. There are here no huge museum complexes like the Hermitage or the State
Tretyakov's Gallery; but Krasnoyarsk still possesses a number of good regional
museums. So, I went there to get firsthand information on what impact commercialization
had on cultural institutions least supposed to make money.
Among
the institutions were: "House of Surikov" Museum, Surikov Art Museum, Culture
and Historical Museum Complex, and Krasnoyarsk Literature Museum.
Imagine
a museum in the former USSR. It was a state-owned institution, a rather prestigious
place of work. It regularly received funds to enlarge its collections, to repair
the building etc. Buying new items for the collection did not stop even in the
hardest times of World War II.
Paying
for public utilities was not a subject to think of. Museum associates traveled
to visit other (Soviet) museums. In brief, museums felt themselves to be quite
comfortable in the USSR. Today's situation is largely a negative to the picture
sketched above.
I
investigated the following: i) what are the major concerns of the museums authorities?
and ii) to what extent has the market economy transformed museum work. You can
read and hear from mass media many times of catastrophes in the Russian cultural
sphere. I asked the leadership of the museums to arrange three problems according
to their importance: salary of the associates, expenses to keep up the buildings,
replenishment of the collection. All interviewees said that salary is the most
acute problem, then follows the matter with collections. No one considered keeping
up buildings, electricity and heating as a first priority.
To
say that the salary is low means saying nothing. A museum expert is paid in the
range of USD20.00 to USD40.00 a month. Some societies do not realize how humiliating
it is for an intellectual to be a beggar.
Under
such conditions, who will blame people for offering user pays services? Leasing
space in museum buildings for non cultural purposes is considered by the leadership
as a negative commercialization of culture. However, They do it and admit they
do it. As a rule, every museum leases rooms, used as offices by companies. Museums
who have sufficient space offer conference halls for presentations and other celebration
events, so that wealthy people can go there to have cocktail sessions in a spiritual
environment.
On
the other hand, there are projects directly related to what a museum is supposed
to do. Museums collect information and exhibits that are often unique. Sooner
or later somebody comes who will want the information.
A
Krasnoyarsk company Siberian Tea Ltd produced a series of tea blends and used
images of paintings in the design of the packs. A few Krasnoyarsk museums sold
their images to the company. The image below is a tea pack that has a reproduction
of a painting by D.Karatanov (from the collection of Krasnoyarsk Museum of Regional
Studies).
My intention
was to understand what attitude we should develop in regard to the practice. Is
it acceptable? Is not the practice harmful for cultural life? The answer is rather
simple: like many spheres of human activity, everything depends on the people
that do it. As the director of Surikov Art Museum Mr.Efimovskij put it, "why not
if it is done with pertinence and tact". Example: Paraskovia Surikova, mother
of the great Russian painter Vasilij Surikov kept the traditions of fine tea in
her family. So, one of the tea boxes has her portrait and is called "Paraskovia's
Tea". The portrait is the property of the "House of Surikov" Museum. I am pretty
sure that if you wanted to use any of the images to advertise toilet paper you
would have no success with the museums here. At least, as long as these people
govern them.
In
a sense, what we see with the culture and commerce is a result of undercommercialization
rather than overcommercialization of the society. Commercial relationships are
not well enough developed or optimal in Russia, so that the economy is functioning
like a decrepit engine. With the improvement of the commercialization all desperate
attempts to get money at any price may go and are already disappearing into the
past.
Vladimir
Gavrikov
gavrikov@online.ru
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