On 30 June 2020, the State Hermitage’s Days of Classical Antiquity 2020 festival for children and teenagers comes to an end. Due to the difficult epidemiological situation in the country, the festival, which has become a well-loved Hermitage tradition, took place in a new format for the first time, moving on-line.
Yekaterina Bitneva
Age 10
Saint Petersburg
Arina Orishkevich
Age 6
Ryazan
Yelizaveta Romanova
Age 3¾
Saint Petersburg
Alena Vdovina
Age 6
Leonid Afanasyev
Age 8
Rzhev
Marusya Trapeznikova
Age 6
Bogdan Strizhov
Age 5
Saint Petersburg
Vladimir Gusarov
Saint Petersburg
Luka
Age 9
Saint Petersburg
Makar Sudarchikov
Age 7
One of its main events was the children’s art competition “Encounters in the Hermitage. The Invincible Heroes of Ancient Greece” that was held in May. For the first time in the festival’s history, entrants not only from Russia, but also from abroad were able to participate. More than 1,000 young artists from a range of countries – Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Ukraine, Finland, France and more – submitted their works. In Russia entries came from more than 50 different towns and cities. Diplomas were awarded to 250 winners and runners-up.
The winning entries can be viewed in albums on the museum’s social media: VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and Facebook.
Then in June, continuing the Days of Classical Antiquity 2020 festival, children aged from 3 to 10 dressed up as characters from classical myths as part of a project entitled “Gods and Heroes of Ancient Greece at Home and at War”. The entrants sent in photographs of themselves disguised as their favourite personages: Athena, Poseidon, Hermes, Artemis, Theseus, Achilles or Ajax. The youngsters were helped to make their striking depictions as accurate as possible by informative video films, presentations and quests prepared by the research staff of the Department of Classical Antiquity.
Photos of the festival’s gods and heroes can also be found on the State Hermitage’s social media pages on VKontakte, Facebook and Odnoklassniki.
Specially for the “Gods and Heroes of Ancient Greece at Home and at War” project, the staff of the Department of Classical Antiquity at the direction of its head, Anna Alexeyevna Trofimova, produced six video films and ten online quests that provided an introduction to the culture, traditions and mythology of the Ancient World. Over the course of the festival, they answered more than 3,000 letters from participants.
The videos about the heroic personages of Ancient Greece are accessible through VKontakte and on the museum’s YouTube channel.
The Days of Classical Antiquity festival has gone on for three months, inspiring children and teenagers with the myths and legends of Ancient Greece, enabling them to use their creative imaginations, to dream and give visual shape to their ideas, to learn about ancient history and study ancient art in the halls of the Hermitage. The festival gave all its participants the opportunity to immerse themselves in the Ancient World and the world of the Hermitage.
The Days of Classical Antiquity festival has come to a close, and now we are looking forward eagerly to fresh meetings in the future.
The participants’ talents and interest in the culture of Antiquity inspire us to tell more about the gods and heroes, about great and glorious deeds, about the wonderful inhabitants of Ancient Greece and Rome. Our travels in the world of the Ancient Greeks and Romans are not over – they will continue in another Days of Classical Antiquity festival next year.
We want to thank all the festival participants, their parents and teachers, and we hope that next year our meetings will take place in the halls of the New Hermitage, in the permanent display of the art of the Ancient World. But for those who are unable to come to Saint Petersburg – we will see you again online.
