Court intrigue: why the director will not change in the Russian Museum
Alla Manilova has already been appointed, but is in no hurry to take office
The museum manual is bizarrely shuffled. On March 23, State Secretary of the Ministry of Culture Alla Manilova introduced the staff of the Pushkin Museum to its new director, Elizaveta Likhacheva. Marina Loshak, who led the Pushkin Museum for 10 years, was not just present, but smiled, giving her kingdom-state into the hands that she herself chose. Loshak managed to leave beautifully (unlike Zelfira Tregulova), why not rejoice. Meanwhile, the mood is different in St. Petersburg, where the art community is waiting for Alla Manilova, who should head the Russian Museum. As MK found out, the Queen of Spades will appear no earlier than June.
How many permutations in the museum world - eyes run wide. And they are all different - in nature and circumstances. Probably, one can draw some conclusions about how each new director of an important institution leaves and comes, how he will navigate his ship.
Here Elena Pronicheva was appointed to the Tretyakov Gallery in February, and has been silent for a month. The appointment of this rather obscure “horse” for the museum community is being loudly discussed, while the heroine herself prefers not to stick her head out yet. It is understandable - the predecessor of Zelfira Tregulova was "left", she learned about it literally from the news. Instead of words, Pronicheva plans to present a case - exhibitions, which, however, were invented under the former director. How will they be implemented under the new one? Very important question. We are waiting for April - to evaluate the first test of the pen of the most unexpected appointee. At a meeting with the collective, she promised "not to break spears."
In the Pushkin Museum, the change of power took place according to a completely different scenario - a mild one. Marina Loshak's contract was ending, and realizing that she was unlikely to be left, she decided to leave and choose a successor. The choice fell on Elizaveta Likhacheva, who showed a productive result of her work at the Museum of Architecture. Likhacheva, unlike Pronicheva, did not hide. Immediately after the appointment, she gave several interviews, dispelling various rumors around her biography. Likhacheva is from the generation of the 90s, she received an art history education at the age of 36, but she approached the subject fundamentally (as evidenced by a red diploma from Moscow State University). “I wrote for Boomerang magazine, played in a rock band, gave birth to a child, went to study law. My first entry in the work book is a cleaning lady. I worked as a salesperson, manager... I got into the Federal Migration Service by accident: when I was left without a job, my mother asked for me, and her friend offered me a position in the FMS. For the last 17 years I have been working at the Museum of Architecture,” says the new director of the Pushkin Museum about himself. Simple, without pathos and tediousness. And he clearly outlines his position: “The museum is a single organism. There are no unimportant people here.”
At the same time, when Elizaveta Likhacheva was being introduced to the team at Pushkinsky, it became known who would take Pronicheva's place at the Polytechnic Museum, which she previously directed. This is Dmitry Kozhanov, an ex-assistant to the president of the Kurchatov Institute, a former employee of various industrial enterprises - a man not at all from a museum environment, but a business executive. The Polytechnic University, which has been closed for reconstruction for 10 years, the price of which has increased by 2.5 times (to 18 billion rubles) during this time, now needs a miracle to get out of a protracted repair. The museum community is always skeptical about appointments to major positions of people from another world, but perhaps in this case only such a person can save the situation. The result will be judged.
If in Moscow tectonic rearrangements have already taken place, then in St. Petersburg they are just approaching. Here the museum world froze in anticipation. First of all, they are waiting for the arrival of Alla Manilova, who has not yet commented on her appointment as director of the Russian Museum. Vladimir Gusev has almost vacated the director's office, which he has held since 1988. He will remain the president of the State Russian Museum, but he will move from his familiar place, as it is customary - the director's office here, as in Pushkin, is historical and sacred. Employees with a sigh now recall that Gusev is almost the only head of the museum, elected by the team by voting. Now this will not happen. They say that Alla Manilova did a good job to get herself a director's chair in Russian. Why not hurry to take it?
“We were waiting at the beginning of March, but Manilova has not yet appeared, they say she has a contract with the Ministry of Culture until June. But this is more talk, we don’t know for sure. We put things in order, ”Marina Pokhvalinskaya, director of the Marble Palace, told MK.
