Cherdyn Local History Museum. Main events of the 125th anniversary celebrations.
In 2024 the Cherdyn Museum named after A.S. Pushkin turns 125 years old. Throughout the year residents and visitors of Perm Krai can expect a bright and engaging program of events dedicated to the anniversary. "Our Everything!" will be its title.
The unusual project title chosen by the museum named after the great poet is, of course, not accidental. Just as Pushkin is important to Russia's cultural code, so too is the museum and its collections significant for Perm Krai and for Cherdyn itself.
Today it is one of the main museums of the Urals and the Volga region, housing unique collections that introduce visitors to the history, legends and principal symbols of Perm Krai — the Perm animal style, Perm wooden sculpture, "Zakamsk silver", book monuments and other heritage.
In the anniversary year the museum received an important gift from the region. Thanks to the support of the Governor of Perm Krai Dmitry Makhonin and the work of the Inspection for the Protection of Cultural Heritage Sites of Perm Krai, the restoration of the museum building at Yurganovskaya 69 is being completed. And in the middle of the year another building — Yurganovskaya 58 — will be put into operation. This is extremely important for the museum, since it has been operating without a permanent exhibition since 2017. Parallel to the celebratory events, the museum is working on designing new exhibitions.
Highlights
The first event in the celebratory calendar took place on April 20. On that day the Cherdyn Museum opened a new exhibition "The Wandering Church". It became the first large-scale update to the exhibition in the Museum of the History of Faith, which was created twenty years ago at the initiative of Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor G.N. Chagin — the opening was timed to his birthday. On the same day a working meeting of the Academic Council will take place to discuss the museum's development strategy.
Exhibition "The Wandering Church" — Museum of the History of Faith, Uspenskaya St., 59
On the Night of Museums — May 18 — an exhibition "The History of a Single Water Tower" opened in Cherdyn, which moved out of the museum walls and into the town. It is dedicated to yet another anniversary — 125 years since the city's water supply was established in Cherdyn and the installation of the water tower. Most of the photo panoramas that show 19th-century Cherdyn were taken from it; it is an important architectural landmark of Cherdyn. The city's water supply system has changed, but residents still use the outdoor water pumps, so part of the exhibition panels telling the history of the tower will appear next to them. For Cherdyn residents and visitors, this is a great opportunity to discover new stories from the town's life and new walking routes.
Outdoor exhibition
On Children's Day, June 1, an exhibition for children and parents "The Mystery of the Clay Tile" opened in Cherdyn, created jointly with the Perm State Art Gallery. It runs in the children's space of the exhibition hall at Yurganovskaya 60.
Children's exhibition "The Mystery of the Clay Tile"
The museum's main celebrations are scheduled for July 6. And on those days the museum itself plans to give gifts to its visitors. Pleasant surprises await those who decide to come to Cherdyn for the holiday weekend by shuttle bus. First, they will be able to receive a generous discount on the museum entrance ticket, and second, during the trip they will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the local history thanks to video materials shown on the routes.
July in Cherdyn is a time of white nights and walks around the town. So that visitors can share the story of this trip with friends, the museum prepared a series of fantastic postcards "Pushkin in Cherdyn". The contest participants were the authors of the designs, and Russian Post, in honor of the museum's anniversary, issued a series of these postcards with a special postmark.
Residents and guests can expect a celebration and, of course, the opening of an exhibition about the history of the museum. It will tell how Cherdyn and the museum became the center of major research across Perm Krai. It was from Cherdyn in 1847 that the Hoffman-Strazhevsky Ural Expedition set out — the first comprehensive expedition in the history of the Russian Geographical Society. The Cherdyn Society of Naturalists, which created the museum, organized receptions for expeditions of the Imperial Archaeological Commission, and the directors of the Cherdyn Museum have always been communicators between this unique historical territory and its major researchers.
"Our Everything" also tells about the residents of the area who made a huge contribution to the creation of the Cherdyn Museum. After all, most of the items from the unique collections came to the museum from Cherdyn residents.
As a token of gratitude and a gift to the residents of the Cherdyn urban district, there will be a traveling exhibition to the villages and settlements from which the landmark items originate — Bondyug, Pyanteg, Kurgan, Redikor and many others. But before the exhibition goes on the road, it can be seen at the "Zov Parmy" festival, which will take place from July 19 to 21. At the exhibition's site, visitors will also be able to observe the reconstruction process — the traditional in-ground casting of bronze objects in the Perm animal style.
Important events will also take place at the museum's Nyrob branch — the M.N. Romanov Memory Center. This summer an exhibition "The History of Nyrob's Shrines" will open there, gathering photographs from different years, restoration drawings of the Nikolsky and Epiphany churches and of the almshouse building where the center is now located. And on September 14 a round table will be held at the M.N. Romanov Memory Center as part of the traditional annual "Nyrob Prisoner" campaign.
Those who have long wanted to visit the museum should manage to do so this year, because from December 2024
The Memory Center will be closed for restoration. But the Romanov Garden will remain open to visitors; since last year volunteers from Perm, Nyrob and Cherdyn have been helping the Cherdyn Museum restore it. New trees and shrubs have been planted there — exactly the species once planned by the garden's designer, the famous artist and architect A.N. Zelenin.
Trees planted in the Romanov Garden (2023)
Museum research and partnerships with scholars have always been an important part of the Cherdyn Museum's work. It is in this anniversary year that the Cherdyn Museum became the first local branch of the Russian Geographical Society in Perm Krai. And this proud tradition will continue — on September 27–29 the museum will host researchers from across Russia who will gather for a scientific-practical conference dedicated to various aspects of regional history research and museum studies.
Museum Journey
And in November the Cherdyn Museum itself will come to Perm to show the best exhibits from its collection of finds in the Perm animal style. These artifacts will become part of a large-scale exhibition dedicated to the universe of the heroes of these mysterious objects. The exhibition will take place at the Central Exhibition Hall of Perm; its organizers are the Perm Regional Museum and the State Hermitage.
In addition to Perm, items from the Cherdyn collection will also go to Vladivostok and Krasnoyarsk as part of the "Dreams of Siberia" exhibition, which was held in Moscow in 2022–2023. The exhibition was so popular that it was decided to show it in different corners of our country. The opportunity to tour the country with these collections in the 125th anniversary year will be yet another gift from the Cherdyn Museum for its jubilee.
A ceremonial event for the museum staff. Happy birthday, museum!
