Erarta Museum

about the museum

Erarta Museum is the largest private museum of contemporary art in Russia and represents a compulsory part of any programme designed to explore the culture of St Petersburg or Russia

The museum opened its doors on 30th of September 2010 and ever since that day, something interesting has always been happening within its walls.

The museum collection currently consists of 2,800 works of contemporary art created by more than 300 artists from over 20 regions of Russia, which makes it the biggest Russian art museum that focuses on contemporary art in the entire country. Erarta Museum continually adds to its collection, which contains painting, graphics, sculpture, objects, installations and other forms of art and works with artists living in different regions of Russia, representing various generations and trends. St Petersburg Museum activities also include temporary exhibitions, publication of catalogues, guided tours and educational programmes. On 30th June 2015, the collection of Erarta became digitally available via the Google Cultural Institute’s Art Project.

Erarta Museum is more than just a traditional fine art museum and is an innovative Russian museum of art, whose activities aren’t limited to the aforementioned ones as well as support of contemporary Russian art — it is also actively engaged in its own creative projects. Many unique projects were born within its walls and have gone on to be brought to life by working with artists, the public or anyone else that wishes to participate in the creative process — among those are "U-Space" total installations, "Theatre With no Actors" multimedia plays with characters of paintings, Audio Installations, "Art-Animation" and "Art-Literature". Erarta's projects aim to bring contemporary art closer to people, enabling everyone to find something of their own in it.

Erarta Museum’s mission is to discover, research, collect and popularize works of art created by talented contemporary artists of Russia. The museum collection provides an opportunity to see works of both renowned masters and inherently talented and original artists which aren’t yet widely known, but whose art is already outstanding. Many of them will go on to find worldwide acclaim in the future but Erarta’s guests can discover their art today. The museum pays particular attention to working with young artists and searching for new talents. The museum's activity is aimed at the widest audience and its goal is to make contemporary art an important part of as many people’s lives as possible. Some of Erarta Museum’s most important features are its constant evolution and its focus on the audience, which helps even those without any prior experience of contemporary art develop a passion for it.

Erarta Museum is the first museum of contemporary art in Saint Petersburg and the largest private museum in Russia. Erarta’s mission can be summed up easily: to maximize the audience which enjoys contemporary art and is interested in supporting it. Our activities are aimed at the widest audience and we believe that everyone can find something interesting in contemporary art and as a result, learn more about themselves

Experiencing art is deeply personal and highly individual and only the viewer can decide to travel that path. The museum’s role in this process is creating the right conditions for it, to showcase something truly worthwhile, capable of moving the viewer to wanting to understand oneself, to find their place in the world, to see and accept life. As a rule, if someone says they don’t understand art, it just means he or she doesn’t feel any personal connection to it.

Our goal is to do everything so that people who come to Erarta see that contemporary art is both about them and for them, that the world is big and everyone has a place in it. As you walk our floors, you’ll see works which touch upon eternal philosophical themes — who we are and why we exist, where do happiness and suffering come fr om and what do they bring to our lives, what kind of world surrounds us — hostile, friendly or indifferent, whether loneliness brings pain or opportunity and so on and so forth.

We hope that the depth of these topics will help you immerse yourself into art and refer to your own personal experience. It is at that precise moment that art will serve its main purpose — to awaken the human mind and emotions and make the viewer feel connected to the intellectual and spiritual capital of humanity.

We hope that for all of you Erarta becomes a place which will fuel your own inner potential, wh ere the courage of artists in the open expression of their vision of the world will help you to not be afraid of being yourselves, to forget about the bustle and other distractions and recognise that it’s only the inner riches which are truly important. Every man is an artist — this will manifest brightly in all those who want it to happen.

WE WISH YOU A HAPPY JOURNEY OF SELF-DISCOVERY!