Exhibition Hall, Concert Hall
After a major renovation at the end of 2012, a building on the territory of the former holiday home was opened, which received the name “City of Masters.” With its opening, the museum gained another exhibition hall, workshops, and art studios. But most importantly, it gained a large hall where concerts, performances, balls, and conferences can be held.
One of the first events that took place in this hall was the play “Night Before Christmas,” staged by the chief director of the Kaluga Drama Theater, Alexander Borisovich Pletnev. The play was performed by the museum staff. It was staged in exactly one week and was performed brilliantly.
This successful experiment marked the beginning of a new museum project — “Theater for All.” One of the highlights of this project is the autumn conference “Do You Love Theater As Much As We Do?” Here, we talk about the love for theater. Moreover, the Polenovo Theater has a rich history that began in 1913 when the artist’s children staged the play “The Scarlet Flower” at the Strakhovskaya School.
A bit later, a concert by students of the Tula College of Arts named after A. S. Dargomyzhsky took place in the “City of Masters.”
We were also visited by schoolchildren from the city of Plavsk in the Tula region. The children brought a Christmas play as a gift to the museum.
Another wonderful gift was a play by the Tula Academic Drama Theater. On our stage, we saw Richard Baer’s tragicomedy “Mixed Feelings,” featuring People’s Artist of Russia Boris Zavolokin and Honored Artist of Russia Olga Krasikova in the lead roles. The play was a huge success.
In the “City of Masters,” artists who come to us for plein air painting and students from art universities work. We welcome guests not only from Russia but also from other countries.
One of the workshops will be dedicated to ceramic artists, as E. D. and V. D. Polenov were engaged in this type of art, and we want to continue this tradition. Ceramic lessons will be conducted by professional artists.