Date: 19.06.2017
On 22 April, the Russian State Art Library (RSAL) hosted the library’s major event of the year—Library Night—under the motto “New Understanding.” Seeing the new in the well-known, taking a fresh look at the forgotten, and reading anew—these ideas were the focus of Library Night.
According to tradition, RSAL’s Library Night opened with a concert performed by students of musical universities. Guests of the library were able to participate in traditional Library Night excursions about the historical old building where the library and its literary treasures are preserved.
The interactive programme “Forgotten Things,” dedicated to antique household appliances and items from the 19th-beginning of the 20th century, was a great success. No less interesting was the chance to view the books and periodicals on the theme “Being Well Dressed Is Never Boring! Fashion at the Turn of the 20th Century,” where Russian and foreign fashion periodicals and books dedicated to fashion from 1870 to 1920 from the RSAL collection were shown. The performances by young artists of the Comic One-Act Plays by Anton Chekhov and the literary-musical programme Reading Paustovsky were sold out.
Collector Nazim Mustafayev conducted a personal tour of his exhibition, “The Secrets of Red Shoes,” with rare models of footwear from his collection reflecting fashion trends from the 18th century to the present day.
There was also the successful quiz with prizes “Find It in an Old Newspaper,” where RSAL specialists introduced guests to the computerised archive of newspaper articles in the library’s collection.
In closing Library Night, RSAL Director Ada Kolganova gave a public lecture, “Understood and Appropriated. Literature as an Interpretation of Someone Else’s Work” dedicated to the fascinating, but poorly explored genre of continuation literature, the “continuation of life” of classic stories by other authors.
