Films about the School of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna to be screened in the Presidential Library

On March 15, 2019 at 2 p.m. the Presidential Library and the School of Folk Art of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna invite everyone to take part in the Cinema Club meeting dedicated to the anniversary of the famous school.

November 13 (26), 1911 is considered to be the date, when the institution was founded. On that day Empress Alexandra Feodorovna presented an icon of the Protection of Mother of God embroidered with beads to teachers as a blessing. The School of Folk Art was an institution of the Imperial Women's Patriotic Society.

A building, which was intended to house the school (architects I. F. Bespalov and N. Ye. Lancere) was constructed in 1915 in the very heart of the capital, at Griboyedov Canal Embankment, 2a. The Church of the Protection of Mother of God, which occupied one and a half floors, became the center of the institution. Downstairs there was the richest school museum.

Contemporaries called the School "a monastery of arts", "a village in the capital", "Tsarina’s chambers." Girls from 29 governorates of Russia studied there. The school became a brand new educational institution aimed at re-establishing lost links between the glorious past and the present of folk art, between the capital of the Russian state and the remotest villages.

The institution had been closed for 70 years until the autumn of 1992, when it was reopened through the efforts of the Foundation for the Revival of Traditional Culture (in memory of Princess M. K. Tenisheva).

The Cinema Club meeting of the Presidential Library is co-organised by the Lennauchfilm Film Studio, the St. Petersburg Documentary Film Studio, the Russian Institute of Art History and the Youth Center of the Cinematographers’ Union of the Russian Federation.

The Cinema Club meeting will be held in the Multimedia Hall of the Presidential Library at Senate Square, 3.

For further information, please call (812) 305-16-35, +7 921 594-16-13 or send an e-mail to smolina@prlib.ru, Yelena Smolina.

Accreditation of media representatives is available until 3 p. m March 14, 2019.

Please forward applications for accreditation following the attached form with the note “Media Accreditation” to bazanov@prlib.ru, Denis Bazanov, press office of the Presidential Library, tel. (812) 305-16-21, ext. 781; mob. +7 985 861 34 70.

It is necessary to specify the full name, name of the media, date and place of birth, passport data (series, number, place of registration), the list of carry-on equipment, contact numbers.

Please note that the admission to the Presidential Library is carried out only by prior request and upon showing a passport: participants and guests use entrance No.1, media representatives - entrance No. 2.