59 Polyustrovsky Prospect,
St. Petersburg, 195197, Russia
Tel: +7 (812) 541-91-13
E-mail: art.education@mail.ru
The modern Smolny Institute was organized at the initiative of the Russian Academy of Education as the standard-bearer of the best educational and instructional traditions of the classical Smolny Institute, which is poised to celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2014. Today, it is the site of professional training across 24 specializations.
Occupying a special place within the structure of the institute is the School of Art, whose students, under the guidance of reknowned masters, receive advanced training in artistic and graphic design, painting and sculpture, decorative-applied art, and artistic/musical/theatrical instruction. The use of modern information technologies allows for the formation of a professional, virtual-education environment that supports both classroom and independent student work within a distance-education framework. Theoretical and practical lessons take place not just in the school’s specialized classrooms and studios – but also at the city’s leading museums and the numerous platforms and centers of the Russian Academy of Arts.
The school boasts its own exhibition hall and decorative porcelain museum. The museum’s exposition includes specimens of products manufactured by the private Kornilov Brothers’ factory; the best works of students, executed under the guidance of professors – Distinguished Artist of Russia L.S. Solodkov; Associate Member of the Academy of Arts S.S. Shakhmardanov and school instructors T.R. Kopylova, T.L. Solodkova, and I.I. Ovsyannikov, as well as the works of N.S. Krayukhin, recognized as the best young St. Petersburg sculptor of 2012.
Works by experienced masters – as well as by school students – are displayed at exhibitions and festivals at different levels, the most prominent of which include the “Imperial Gardens of Russia” festival at the Mikhailovsky Garden of the Russian Museum.