Exhibition: Mikhail Shemyakin's Nutcracker. The Artist's Theatre

About exhibition

This exhibition was organized by the St. Petersburg Mikhail Shemyakin Center. The display aims to introduce visitors to Shemyakin's interpretation of one of E. T. A. Hoffmann's best-known tales, 'The Nutcracker and the Mouse King', through the prism of two productions — 'The Nutcracker' and 'The Magic Nut'. Surrounded by sets, costumes and ballet characters, the exhibition visitor becomes a spectator, and the museum itself turns into a theatre where the real and the imagined intertwine. The exhibition includes: original sketches for the ballet's costumes and sets; works in printmaking techniques; sculptural depictions of the production's characters; costumes created in the workshops of the Mariinsky Theatre based on Mikhail Shemyakin's designs; original historical photographs by Valentin Baranovsky — the Mariinsky Theatre's chief photographer at that time; an armorial tea service with images of 'thief mice', produced by the Imperial Porcelain Factory after the artist's designs.