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| Established | 30 September 2010 |
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| Location | 2, 29th line of Vasilyevsky Island Saint Petersburg 199106 Russia |
| Website | erarta.com |
Erarta is the largest private museum of contemporary art in Russia, located in Saint Petersburg.[1]
The name of Erarta Museum is derived from uniting two words, "Era" and "Arta", whose combination can be translated from Russian as "the era of art".[2]
The museum has been recognised as one of the "5 Cultural Gems" in Saint-Petersburg by National Geographic.[3]
Erarta is housed in a five-storey building constructed in 1951 for the district committee of the Communist Party and later occupied by the Synthetic Rubber Research Institute.[4] Two sculptures installed at the entrance to the museum, Era and Arta, were commissioned by Erarta and created by sculptor Dmitry Zhukov.[5]
Erarta Museum collection contains over 2,800 works, dating from the 1950s to the present and ranging from realism to abstraction and primitivism, by more than 300 artists from all across Russia.[6] In addition to paintings, it includes drawings, prints, sculptures, installations, and video art.[7]
On 30 June 2015, the collection of Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art became digitally available via the Google Arts & Culture Project.[8]
Erarta Museum officially opened its doors to the public in September 2010.[9]
The museum stages exhibitions, publishes art catalogues, organises guided tours and educational programmes, and promotes a number of signature projects.[10]
From 2013 to 2017 Erarta Museum organised Erarta Motion Pictures, the world's only festival of short films about painting.[11]
In 2013–2015, Erarta hosted the CROSS ART International Festival of Synthesis of Arts. The festival was open to all applicants willing to participate, as long as their projects featured a mixture of several art forms.[12]
Erarta features several cinema halls. One of them (on floor 3) is screening Art-Animation – short animated films inspired by and developing the storyline of some paintings from the museum's collection.[13] The second one is showing The Adventures of BB Square cartoon series (2014).[14]
Russia in Erarta project is aimed at promoting contemporary Russian art and establishing a cultural dialogue between Saint Petersburg and other Russian cities. The museum's curatorial team frequently travels to other parts of the country, taking the highlights of Erarta's permanent collection on travelling exhibitions and bringing back to St. Petersburg outstanding artworks from Samara, Perm, Novosibirsk, Izhevsk, Ufa, Krasnodar, Vladivostok and other cities. In turn, Erarta showcased its collection in Krasnodar, Omsk, Surgut, Khanty-Mansiysk, Kazan, Saratov, Lipetsk, Kirov, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Veliky Novgorod, and other cities across Russia.[15]
U-spaces are immersive installations created in collaboration with various artists, each with its particular theme and mood. During a 15-minute session, each U-Space provides a unique emotional and mental experience to a group of up to 5 visitors.[16]
YOUnits on floor 3 of Erarta Museum are 50 small cubicles that can be rented for creative self-expression. YOUnits can display any media or genre: design, photography, painting, sculpture, installation or collage art.[17]
In 2019 Erarta Museum presented The Valley of Colours, a book for the whole family written by Erarta's founder Marina Varvarina and illustrated by the artist Nikolai Kopeikin.[18]
Every year, Erarta stages around 40 temporary exhibitions of paintings, sculptures, photographs, fashion, design, and video art.[19] The museum showcases up-and-coming talents from Russia and abroad and established stars of the global art scene.[20]
Erarta Restaurant located on floor 1 of Erarta Museum features two rooms with a total seating capacity of 100 guests showcasing works by contemporary Russian artists.[39] This à la carte establishment is particularly well known for its desserts rated as the best in St. Petersburg by both TripAdvisor[40] and Time Out.[41] Erarta Restaurants also creates desserts inspired by certain major exhibitions held at the museum.[42]
Erarta Home Stores on floor 1 of the museum's Exhibitions Wing offer signature souvenirs, books, interior décor items, prints, and original artworks.[43] They are also available through the Erarta Shop Online Store.[44]
