Exhibition "By the Hands of Craftsmen"

About exhibition

Carpentry, blacksmithing, harness and leatherwork, jewelry-making, weaving… The importance of crafts to humanity cannot be overstated. From generation to generation, objects created by the hands of artisans embodied technological knowledge, traditions and the worldviews of peoples. Hand production played an important role in the economy, promoted cultural exchange, strengthened social ties and, of course, filled everyday life with household items. In women's national ornaments, weaving looms and elements of horse harness, the history of Novosibirsk is "sealed" from its very beginning. From the time when today's Dzerzhinsky Prospekt was called the Kamensky Tract, when the city hosted old brick factories, and horse-drawn transport was still a common means of travel… Skilled people made the city's future with their hands. The memory of them has been preserved in intricate carved patterns, the colored stitches of embroideries, the shine of metal objects, and sometimes in Novosibirsk families' photo albums. One corner of the exhibition recreates the apartment of a Soviet design engineer drafting plans in a 1950s interior. Not so long ago the museum building at Dzerzhinsky Prospekt, 1A was the home of workers of the Comintern Factory. In those days crafts were taught from the school bench, and theory was tightly linked with industrial practice. Residents of Novosibirsk will be able to admire the fruits of craftsmen's labor (jewelry, harness items, many household objects made of wood and metal), learn about the purposes of craft tools for working with various materials, and immerse themselves in the atmosphere of the old city.