Natalia Polenova


Natalia Polenova is a Russian museum expert and the director of the State Memorial of History, Art and Natural Museum Reserve - Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov since 2011. She is an expert on Russian painting from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a specialist of French culture and a member of the International Council of Museums. In 2018, she was awarded the title of Honoured Functionary of Culture of the Russian Federation in Tula.

Family

Polenova is married to the Russian poet Yuri Kublanovsky and is mother of two children.

Studies

Polenova studied at the Faculty of Sociology at the Lomonosov Moscow State University. She graduated in 1998 with a specialization in Public Relations. In addition to this, she took a course at the Gelos Auction House, an association specializing in antiquities, entitled “Certification, identification and restoration”. Subsequently she studied with the auction house Christie's on “European Art Market and History of the French Art” ; earned a Master in Museology at the Louvre School and then wrote a thesis on “Biblical representations in the work of Vasily Polenov”. She continued her academic expertise at INSEAD with the “Team Management” course.

Career

In 2011, she was appointed as the director of the State Memorial of History Art and Nature Museum-Reserve VD Polenov, replacing Gromolin Natalia, her mother. She dedicated her work to the preservation of the family's heritage, collections and spirit while taking care of the estate's particular atmosphere. =Polenova emphasized the importance of scientific works, the preservation of the creative traditions and the promotion of Russian Art worldwide.
She called herself a “curator and a cultural promoter”, always trying to match “innovation and tradition, modernity and the pre-revolutionary culture”. Her main goal is to transform the House Museum into “a powerful cultural and educational center, catching up with European institutions”.
In 2012, under the direction of Polenova, the program of international creative residences in Polenovo was launched under the name A-I-R. In 2013, the museum signed a cooperation agreement with the George Watts Gallery.
In 2015, a partnership was settled with the mayor's office of the town of Veules-les-Roses   resulting in the opening in July 2015 of a Square named after Vasily Polenov in this town.
In 2016,, she was the curator of the Week of Francophonie in Polenovo.

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