The project is dedicated to two landmark jubilees - the 60th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany, and the 110th anniversary of the establishment of the Russian Museum. The world-renowned museum was opened on one of the first royal orders of Nicholas II, Russia's last Emperor.
Project Virtual Branch comes as tribute of gratitude to Perm, which sheltered Russian Museum treasures during the war. More than ten thousand priceless exhibits were evacuated there from besieged Leningrad (which has by now regained its name of St. Petersburg) to be preserved at the Perm Art Gallery in 1941-1945. Standing out among those precious items were Andrei Rublev's icons and canvases by Russian classic painters Rokotov, Bryullov, Repin, Surikov, Levitan, Vrubel and Serov, to name but few.
The information and educational center has three functional zones - information, education and an interactive cinema theatre. The virtual exposition hall offers online sightseeing of the four palatial buildings within the Russian Museum complex, with their opulent interiors and spectacular exhibits. Lost interiors are virtually recreated on the basis of extant information. The virtual exposition hall has on display masterpieces out of the Russian Museum depositories, which, for some reason or other, cannot be exhibited in the real museum.
The information zone offers printed matter put out by the Russian Museum, DVD and multimedia disks, and video films about the museum collection and Russian art history, roughly two hundred items, all in all. The zone provides access to the Russian Museum website and other Internet resources on representational arts, museum management, and a great many other cultural matters.
The art exposition that opened to celebrate the online branch establishment has "Thank you, Perm!" for its motto. It shows sixty canvases, masterpieces of Russian 18th-20th century art from the Russian Museum.
The State Russian Museum has the world's most extensive collection of Russian art from the 10th century through the 20th century, approximately 400,000 exhibits. The museum arranges annual average thirty exhibitions on its premises, and puts out catalogues, albums and booklets for many of them.
