The museum has gained great popularity not only among circus performers, but also among all fans circus art. The huge exhibition features:
- performance attributes
- costumes, photographs
- posters
- items that tell the story of the most famous circus acts
Story
Founder exposition became nobleman V. Ya. Andreev. He opened V August 8, 1928 in the circus building located on Fontanka, first in the world - Circus Museum and stages. Materials concerning circus performances, gathered so that young artists could learn from the experience of previous generations.
Architecture
The circus building in which the museum is located was designed in 1877 architect V. Quesnel. It was the first stationary stone circus in Russia. The building had a huge dome, built using unusual technology. For the first time, a mesh-ribbed base was used to build a semicircular structure. Thanks to her, it was possible to abandon the support columns in the building. Therefore, the interior of the circus turned out to be light and spacious.
The dome of the St. Petersburg Circus is one of the outstanding architectural monuments
Tickets
Ticket price from 100 rubles per person.
Telephone
Excursions
A guide is required order in advance. On performance days, a sightseeing tour called “The Colors of the Manege” is held. The museum collections are open for classes from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., except holidays and weekends. The exhibition is located on the 3rd floor, which you will have to climb on your own two feet, since there is no elevator in the building.
Where is
Address
Embankment of the river Fontanka, building 3 A
Metro
Gostiny Dvor, Mayakovskaya
How to get there
You can get to the museum from the metro by getting off at Gostiny Dvor station - the journey takes only 15 minutes.
From Mayakovskaya metro station you can walk in half an hour.
Minibuses No. “K289” and “K107” go to the circus, which stop at the corner of the street. Klenova and st. Engineering.
If you travel by car, please note that parking in front of the circus prohibited.
You can park your car for free on the street. Inzhenernaya, as well as in paid parking lots on the street. Mokhovaya and st. Belinsky
The Museum of Circus Art, located at the St. Petersburg Circus, was opened over eight decades ago and was at that time the first museum in the world whose exhibitions covered the history of circus art. IN different years museum collections have been repeatedly provided for thematic exhibitions not only in Russia, but also abroad. Currently, the Museum of Circus Art offers visitors several excursion programs on the premises of the circus and periodic exhibitions in the exhibition halls of the museum.
History of the museum
The history of the Museum of Circus Art began in 1928, when on the basis of the Leningrad Circus the first institution in world museum practice was opened - the Museum of Circus and Variety, which collected, systematized and studied material related to the history of circus art. The initiative to create the museum belonged to V. Ya. Andreev, who taught stage movement in theater school and already had experience in founding the Theater Museum. The museum collection was based on materials related to the circus and stage, which were collected personally by V. Ya. Andreev and the circus figure, director E. P. Gershuni.
Thanks to the materials of the Museum of Circus Art, the research on the history of the circus, which is presented in the book “Circus. (Origin. Development. Prospects.)", written in 1931 by the historian and theorist of circus art E.M. Kuznetsov. Almost from the first months of its existence, the museum organized exhibitions dedicated to various genres of circus art (juggling, clowning, equestrian circus, etc.), which were located directly in the foyer of the Leningrad Circus building. The very first exhibitions of the museum, organized in 1928, were exhibitions entitled: “Predators in the Circus” and “Animal Training”. Since 1975, the Museum of Circus Art has been located in premises on the second floor of the building, which is now called the Great St. Petersburg State Circus on the Fontanka.
This building, created in 1877 according to the design of the architect V. Quesnel, is unique for a number of reasons: firstly, it became the first stone stationary circus in Russia. Secondly, the dome of this circus was the largest among European circuses of that era. Thirdly, during the construction of the dome, ribbed mesh structures were used for the first time, which made it possible to abandon the columns supporting the dome, which were traditionally used in such buildings. This architectural innovation made the circus interiors light and airy and remarkably enhanced the effect of open space. Subsequently, the dome of the St. Petersburg Circus was included in the list of outstanding monuments of science and technology.
Nowadays, the main collections of the Museum of Circus Art are located in two rooms, the interior of which was worked on by the artist M. Gorelik in 1989. The museum's holdings include about 90 thousand different exhibits of Russian and foreign origin, which are distributed among the following collections: library, photo library, video library, poster department, costume and props department, circus program department, newspaper clippings and handwritten material department, plastic forms department, etc. Huge Support in the formation of the museum's funds over the years was provided by circus performers, who donated personal belongings, posters, programs, photographs and other materials to the collection. Specialists who study the art of circus often work with the collections of the Museum of Circus Art and use materials from the collections when writing books or dissertations on the history and theory of circus art.
In different years of the museum’s activity, its collections were used to organize third-party exhibitions in various cities of the country, as well as in Germany (1972), Czechoslovakia (1976), Belgium (1996), Finland (2002, 2004-06). IN exhibition hall museum for last decade extensive exhibitions were organized on several topics: “Circus through the eyes of children”, “To the 100th anniversary of the clown Karandash (artist M. Rumyantsev)”, “Circus about time and about oneself” (125th anniversary of the St. Petersburg Circus), “Artists circus during the war years”, etc. One of the latest exhibitions of the museum (2012) is called “The Magic Circle of the Manege” and is dedicated to two significant events: the 185th anniversary of the circus building on the banks of the Fontanka and the 135th anniversary of the Bolshoi state circus, which existed before the revolution under the name Ciniselli Circus.
Excursions in the museum
Special excursions, which include (in addition to a story about the exhibition) interactive sessions with a guide, are extremely popular among museum visitors. During the classes, visitors are given the opportunity to learn in detail about some circus professions and even try their hand as an acrobat, juggler or tightrope walker. Such excursions are conducted by appointment on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays for a group of excursionists of no more than 15 people. The excursion lasts about an hour and a half, during which visitors are shown the behind-the-scenes part of the circus, have an interactive lesson, and also review the exhibition on a chosen topic. For foreign visitors, it is advisable to have your own translator.
The world's first museum of circus art was opened in 1928 at the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) circus. The decision to create this kind of museum belonged to the teacher of stage movement at the theater school, one of the founders of the Leningrad Theater Museum - Vasily Yakovlevich Andreev. He served as an officer in tsarist army, then worked as a fencing teacher, and he also acted as the first director of the museum. At first the museum was called the Museum of Circus and Variety and had a narrow focus, and then it turned into a museum of circus art and acquired a wide range of activities.
Initially, the museum funds were replenished with materials about the circus and stage from the personal collections of Andreev and E.P. Gershuni – director, circus performer, critic.
The purpose of creating the museum was to collect information to study, systematize and analyze the historical side of the circus. Thus, in 1930, museum materials were significantly enriched by the first fundamental research on the history of circus - the book “Circus: origin, development, prospects.” She was born in 1931. Its author was Evgeniy Mikhailovich Kuznetsov, a theorist of circus art and a major Soviet historian.
Museum funds were and are being created to a large extent thanks to circus artists who donate posters, photographs, programs, costumes and other circus items and materials to the museum. Now the museum has approximately 90,000 exhibits. The museum collection consists of several collections that contain Russian and foreign material: library, video library, photo library; departments of circus programs, posters, handwritten materials, newspaper clippings, plastic forms, props and costumes.
Nowadays, the bulk of the museum collections are located in two adjacent rooms, which are specially equipped with display cases and cabinets for storing material. The existing furnishings of the rooms were designed in 1989 by the artist M. Gorelik. They work here museum staff, specialists who study issues related to circus art often come here, and artists who are interested in information about their genre come here. The principle of cataloging material allows you to quickly satisfy the needs of visitors. Fund-based of this museum many books on the theory and history of circus art were created, theses and dissertations.
Spectators of the Leningrad Circus could already from the first year of the museum’s existence attend exhibitions displayed in the foyer of the first floor. In 1928, here you could see the “Predators in the Circus” exhibition, which was replaced by the “Animal Training” exhibition. Subsequent exhibitions also talked about individual genres circus arts: about clowning, juggling, equestrian circus. In 1975, the circus directorate allocated a room on the second floor of the building, with an area of about 180 m², for organizing periodic exhibitions.
Behind Lately visitors to the exhibition hall could visit exhibitions dedicated to various topics: “To the 100th anniversary of Pencil”, “The Artist and the Circus”, “Circus about time and about itself”, “Circus performers during the Second World War”, “Circus through the eyes of children”. Special excursions are also organized here, which include, in addition to a story on the topic of the exhibition, an interactive lesson with visitors. On the occasion of the 130th anniversary of the founding of the St. Petersburg Circus, the exhibition “The Many Faces of Circus” was organized in the newly created exhibition hall.
The museum organizes and conducts not only its own exhibitions, but also provides information for exhibitions in our country and abroad (Germany 1972, Czechoslovakia 1976, Belgium 1996, Finland 2002, 2004-2006).
The history of almost every circus museum begins with private collection. The circus collection is not created for the purpose of investing capital, it develops due to various reasons, for example, among artists - as a reflection creative individuality, as a statement of the dynastic foundations of art.
There are also those for whom it arises under the influence of childhood or unforgettable impressions from a performance, act, or artist. Only after careful study are chaotically collected heterogeneous objects lined up in a friendly row.
A collector is both a scientist who systematizes the material he has found, and a madman who goes through hardships in order to own a piece of history he likes, and a critic who spends his entire life reconsidering his attitude towards his “brainchild.” But he is always a creator who can never complete his quest, which brings him such pleasure, and a philosopher who understands the tragedy of this quest. By scrupulously selecting and placing objects removed from reality into his collection, the collector creates a certain model that can characterize him as creative personality. Thus, objects gain the ability to “speak” not only about the owner, but also about circus art, its place in cultural life, about the attitude of the state, artists, and society as a whole towards him.
The artist's collection includes clippings with reviews from periodicals, photographs, props and costumes of past performances, the embodiment of a circus image in graphic or applied arts. The collection of a professional associated with the circus includes materials necessary for creative exploration or scientific research. An amateur's collection consists of priority direction selection of items (books, badges, postcards, figurines) is determined by the circus theme, symbolism, and may include elements of other spectacles. Being the basis of the future museum, it determines the thematic collection and processing of material, subsequently loses its integrity, since it is more often dispersed among various funds, and loses the individuality of its collector.
In most cases, a personal collection debuts at an exhibition. The theatrical collection of Ivan Fedorovich Gorbunov - writer, actor, creator of the "Artistic Foyer" at the Alexandrinsky Theater - was accepted by both the public and the acting environment. Along with other private collections and archives of the Directorate of the Imperial Theaters, it became the basis of the theater museum in Petrograd in 1918. “Don’t speak with melancholy - they don’t exist, but with gratitude - they were” - these lines of V. A. Zhukovsky, written by I. F. Gorbunov in the album of Alexei Aleksandrovich Bakhrushin, the creator of the first theater museum in Russia (Moscow), I would like to address to the creator the world's first Museum of Circus Art.
Vasily Yakovlevich Andreev (1874–1942) - officer and personal nobleman, fencing teacher at the Drama Courses at the St. Petersburg Imperial theater school. His name is forever inscribed in the history of two museums in St. Petersburg: the Theater Museum and the Museum of Circus Art.
V. Ya. Andreev took an active part in the creation of the State Theater Museum and was appointed senior academic curator of drama. Many believed that the museum should always be located where theatrical relics were created, and that the main source of material for it should be private collections. “One must think that lovers and friends of the theater, as well as its historians, will share the point of view that private collectors, keeping under cover what should be the public domain, with full confidence State Theaters will make their precious contributions to the established Museum,” V. Ya. Andreev wrote then. His call was heard, and the museum began to develop rapidly.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, theater, stage movement and circus were in close contact. The idea of creating a circus and variety museum originated with V. Ya. Andreev back in 1924, and in the spring of 1928 he was invited by the Institute of Art History to take part in the exhibition “The Art of Movement” (the first in Leningrad). Here for the first time he publicly demonstrated specially and systematically selected material on the circus and stage, modern and ancient. Since the exhibition aroused interest, he was asked to organize an exhibition on the genres of these types of art. Seeing the genuine attention to the exhibits, the deputy director of the Leningrad Circus for artistic affairs, Evgeny Pavlovich Gershuni, made a report to a higher organization about the founding of a special museum.
Fragment of the diary of V. Ya. Andreev. In his diary, V. Ya. Andreev writes: “Today, August 8, 1928, is the first day of life of the newly created, first in the world, Museum of Circus and Variety. For three years I have been working on its foundation and only today, thanks to the energy and perseverance of E.P. Gershuni in front of the Central Administration of State Circuses, my dream is beginning to come true.” And on August 9, just like V. Ya. Andreev, E. P. Gershuni donated his own collection to the museum.
E. M. Kuznetsov, a theater expert, historian of circus art and author of works on this topic, who also donated curious objects to the museum, called the museum a wonderful idea that “will instill understanding, love and a real appreciation of circus art and disseminate them widely.” The museum's materials are still in demand by directors, artists, and art historians, but first of all they are a source for research on the history and theory of circus art. From the first days, the museum summarized material on the world history of circus, creating a base for future generations of circus performers. V. Ya. Andreev especially emphasized that “for the first time in history, production approached the work of artists not from a narrowly commercial side, looked at them not as comedians, idle funnymen<…>but as serious workers...” “All our, as well as foreign, circuses know the name of V. Ya. Andreev and willingly send their exhibits to the museum,” wrote film artist and director B. P. Tamarin. In one of the letters addressed to the museum by the director of the largest German circus, Hans Sarrazani, it is said: “To some extent it is reassuring that there is at least one place that systematically collects documents related to my enterprise. The materials stored in your museum will undoubtedly acquire historical significance over time...”
The combination of a museum and a circus turned out to be very successful, since studying this art requires constant contact with it. “Give me a huge, impressive room, but separate from the circus,” wrote V. Ya. Andreev, “and my entire museum will immediately turn into a cemetery.” In it in free time Artists visited, were interested in materials not only in their specialty, but also in other genres, used the growing library, turned to museum employees for advice, shared with them their memories, which were carefully recorded. Since its creation, the museum has been an organizing center where an artist could restore an old performance or improve it, or create a new one. M. N. Rumyantsev (the clown Pencil) wrote: “The artists, especially the young ones, spent hours in the museum and loved to delve into its collections. And, undoubtedly, the study of many museum materials by our artistic circus youth provided invaluable assistance in creative work.”
The most important thing for the founder of the museum was “not only the collection of relevant materials, but most importantly - the study of them, cultural work around the performance and the education of young people based on the collected materials and research on them.”<...>generations of circus and pop artists." The museum staff cherishes this legacy of his to this day. From 1935 to 1938, the museum was headed by Evgeniy Mikhailovich Kuznetsov - historian, theorist, critic of circus and pop art, then for about a year - A. A. Dorokhov, newspaper correspondent. Before the Great Patriotic War The museum was headed by Olga Georgievna Alekseeva. She acquired her work skills as a librarian and then as a researcher at the State Russian Museum. Since 1933, O. G. Alekseeva processed collections at the Youth Theater Museum. Arriving at the Museum of Circus and Variety during the reign of V. Ya. Andreev, she systematized the incoming materials by genre and size, thereby laying the foundations for storing the funds. After the war (since 1946), Alexander Zakharovich Levin, a graduate of the theater studies department of the Leningrad State theater institute. O. G. Alekseeva returned to her position research fellow. In 1962, on her recommendation, Natalia Georgievna Kuznetsova, a student of the Faculty of Theater Studies, came and headed the museum from 1983 to 2008.
Since the time of V. Ya. Andreev, the museum has been a creative laboratory and at the same time maintains the warmth of a home for artists, where they are always welcome. Feeling like family, they generously gift him with materials reflecting their creativity. The disinterested transfer and understanding of the peculiarities of museum and exhibition work does not repel collectors. The museum's collection is growing. Today it numbers over one hundred thousand storage units.
Hundreds personal archives and scripts, thousands of books, photographs and sketches, tens of thousands of donors. Each of them not only brought an object to the museum, he left a piece of his soul in it. You pick up a photograph, look at a face from the past, and then look at reverse side and, reading the name of the donor, you mentally thank him for not regretting, finding the time and bringing this relic to the museum, behind which there is a history - both personal and national.
Quite recently, after renovation and restoration work, the Ciniselli Circus opened, and the museum is looking forward to returning from the circus hotel to its home. There is a lot of work ahead to allocate funds, create a new extensive exhibition, brilliantly telling about circus genres, fraught with mysteries and unexpected discoveries. Costumes, paintings, graphics, props of artists and animals will fill one of the floors of the renovated building to the delight of the St. Petersburg audience. The richness and originality of the presentation of material, the colorfulness of the exposition will complement the celebration taking place in the arena.
Vasily Yakovlevich Andreev managed to create a museum that has become family for many generations of artists, giving them the confidence that the memory of their work will be preserved, no matter how many years pass. In just a few months, 88 long, interesting, eventful years have passed, but the museum is still ready to continue to serve His Majesty the Circus! Dear collectors, thank you for preserving the circus heritage with us! Dear researchers, thank you for studying what has been accumulated over decades! Dear friends, beloved workers of the arena, thank you for being here! We may be sentimental and optimistic about life, but even after 100 years we still want to hear addressed to the museum: “My dear friend! You have been through so much over the years!!! I met so many great artists within my walls! He shared his mysteries and secrets with so many!!! I wish you not to give up!!! Do you have faithful friends and guardians who will never hurt you!!! Prosperity, necessity and unforgettableness!!! My dear friend!!!»
À PROPOS
“A strange creature is a man! All spiritual and material objects surrounding him are imprinted on his soul and on his mind, and the soul and mind, in turn, are imprinted on everything surrounding him.” (Petersburg Notes, 1833)
Ekaterina Yurievna Shaina - head of the collection and exhibition department of the Circus Ciniselli ("Museum of Circus Art"), museum expert, candidate of cultural studies, art critic, member of St. Petersburg Agricultural Union
In the film “Tiger Tamer,” the role of aspiring trainer Lena Vorontsova in 1954 was played by a talented theater artist Soviet army Lyudmila Kasatkina. However, she categorically refused to film with tigers. Lyudmila's understudy in dangerous scenes was Margarita Nazarova, actress,
already had experience of such work in the film “Dangerous Paths”. To prepare the final episode, when Lena Vorontsova performs in the arena with a group of trained tigers, experienced specialists were needed. The predators were trained by Margarita’s husband, director Konstantin Konstantinovsky, and the experienced Boris Eder advised. In the film he also got the role of the old trainer Telegin. Boris Afanasyevich Eder trained various animals for half a century - tigers, lions, white and brown bears, even zebras and ostriches. But now, for the first time in his life, he had to prepare animals not for himself, but to accustom them to Margarita. For this he used new uniform training, jokingly calling it the “conflict method.” Eder and Konstantinovsky treated the tigers harshly, shooting with blank cartridges, shouting and threatening with pitchforks. Margarita behaved completely differently. She calmed the animals, spoke kindly to them, stroked them, combed their whiskers and, of course, fed them herself. Some time passed, and the tigers began to be afraid of male trainers. But they got used to Margarita, seeing in her a friend and protector. After the triumphant success of "Tiger Tamer", becoming a famous trainer, in 1961 Margarita Nazarova starred in leading role in the film "Striped Flight".
All photographs are from the funds of the Great St. Petersburg State Circus (“Museum of Circus Art”).