Erarta


Erarta is the largest private museum of contemporary art in Russia, located in Saint Petersburg.
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”.
The museum has been recognised as one of the “5 Cultural Gems” in Saint-Petersburg by National Geographic.

Museum building

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.
Two sculptures installed at the entrance to the museum, Era and Arta, were commissioned by Erarta and created by sculptor Dmitry Zhukov.

Museum collection

Erarta Museum collection contains over 2,800 works, dating from 1950s to the present and ranging from realism to abstraction and primitivism, by more than 300 artists from all across Russia. In addition to paintings, it includes drawings, prints, sculptures, installations, and video art.
On 30 June 2015, the collection of Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art became digitally available via the Google Arts & Culture Project.

History and activities

Erarta Museum officially opened its doors to the public in September 2010.
The museum stages exhibitions, publishes art catalogues, organises guided tours and educational programmes, and promotes a number of signature projects.
From 2013 to 2017 Erarta Museum organised Erarta Motion Pictures, the world’s only festival of short films about painting.
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.
From 2013 through 2018 the museum was home to the Erarta Stage project, a concert venue for trending musical projects, public talks, and theatre shows.
Erarta features several cinema halls. One of them is screening Art-Animation – short animated films inspired by and developing the storyline of some paintings from the museum’s collection. The second one is showing The Adventures of BB Square cartoon series.

Unique projects

Russia in Erarta

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.

U-space

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.

YOUnits

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.

The Valley of Colours

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. The plot is an entertaining tale of fantastic adventures of colours, which eventually led to the creation of a rich palette from the three primary colours. Despite being a fictional story, the book contains extensive facts about the life and customs of people of different countries that are entwined with elements of psychological aspects of colour perception.

Exhibitions

Every year, Erarta stages around 40 temporary exhibitions of paintings, sculptures, photographs, fashion, design, and video art. The museum showcases up-and-coming talents from Russia and abroad and established stars of the global art scene.
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. This à la carte establishment is particularly well known for its desserts rated as the best in St. Petersburg by both TripAdvisor and Time Out. Erarta Restaurants also creates desserts inspired by certain major exhibitions held at the museum.

Erarta Home Stores

Erarta Home Stores on floor 1 of the museum’s Exhibitons Wing offer signature souvenirs, books, interior décor items, prints, and original artworks. They are also available through the Erarta Shop Online Store.