WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th July, 2020) The Museum of Russian History in Jordanville, New York, is reopening on Tuesday after being closed due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and will feature masterpieces preserved by Russian emigrants, the institution's Executive Director Michael Perekrestov told Sputnik.
"We are exited about opening the doors to our guests, whom we have missed very much since the middle of March, when we had to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic," Perekrestov said.
Perekrestov noted that the central part of the state of New York, where the museum is located, is in Phase 4 of the state's reopening, which includes opening cultural institutions and museums to the public.
The museum, located on the premises of the Russian Holy Trinity monastery, has put in place various procedures to continue protecting the safety and health of staff and visitors, including mandating wearing masks, maintaining social distancing as well as enhancing cleaning protocols and limiting the number of visitors at a time.
Visitors may now view the exhibition "Revealing the Divine: Treasures of Russian Sacred Art," which features artifacts, ecclesiastical objects from the 17th century until present day, including icons, vestments, books, devotion items from Imperial Russia, the Soviet period and art created by Russian emigres.
"We are happy to present objects of art not only from our own collection, but also from 12 private collections from the Northeast," Perekrestov said. "Many of these items have never been exhibited before, even those that were in our collection. Some were not in a condition to be exhibited and had to be restored before being displayed."
Perekrestov said the museum staff transitioned all public programming to an online format during the novel coronavirus pandemic, and attracted the attention of people from all over the world.
"We have launched something called the Second Saturday online lecture series. The first lecture had more than 100 registrants form the United States, Canada, Russia, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Namibia, New Zealand and other countries," Perekrestov said. "We are very happy that we were able to reach this audience because, I think, without pandemic we would be focusing more on local tourism and having events on-site here in person. The pandemic has forced us to look at different ways to share our collection present virtually."
The Russian History Museum officially opened in 1984, but some exhibits in the Holy Trinity monastery were organized in the 1960s and were mostly oriented to the Russian émigré community and individuals who visited the convent as pilgrims.
"Now we are opened to everyone who is interested. We are making more efforts to reach out more diverse and broad audience," Perekrestov said.
