The Museum of Animation in Moscow is the first international animation museum in the territory of the Russian Federation that was opened in 2006 on the basis of the Soyuzmultfilm movie studio. The collection of its exhibits is directly related to the history of the development of this art in our country and abroad. The main exposition is currently located in the Izmailovsky Kremlin, also the museum owns the pavilion "House of Culture" at VDNH. The founder of this unique cultural institution is the animator Leonid Shvartsman, who now holds the post of Honorary Director for his services. Directly runs the museum Larisa Evgenievna Vyborg.
How it all began…
The Animation Museum in Moscow officially opened in September 2006. It was then that the first exposition appeared, which was dedicated to the history of the development of animation in the 20th century.
At first, he didn’t have his own permanent premises at all, so for a long time he functioned in the form of a traveling exhibition located in the lobby of the Natalia Ilyinichna Sats Musical Theater, which was located on Vernadsky Avenue.
At this exhibition of the Animation Museum in Moscow, most of the exhibits were somehow connected with Soyuzmultfilm, and especially with its activities in the 60-80s. Viewers could see the filming equipment that was then used, dolls, sketches, sets, personal items of popular animators.
In 2008, the exposition of the Moscow Museum of Animation moved to the territory of VDNH in the pavilion "House of Culture".
History of World Animation
Since 2007, the active development of this cultural institution begins, and a search for new exhibits is ongoing.
An important moment in the history of the Moscow Museum of Animation at ENEA takes place in 2010, when it becomes an official partner of the Nicelodeon television channel for children and teenagers. It was precisely this that allowed him to enter the international level, to create the World Animation Hall, which talks about how this branch of art developed abroad.
By 2011, the collection of the animation museum in Moscow was replenished with more than a hundred unique exhibits, among which were the works of famous domestic animators - Inessa Kovalevskaya, Galina Melko, Galina Shakitskaya, and other employees of Soyuzmultfilm.
Reconstruction
In 2015, the museum premises at VDNH were closed for reconstruction. In parallel, employees of Soyuzmultfilm applied for financing to VTB Bank with a request to allocate funds for the creation of a new museum. They also asked for help in preserving the collection from the Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.
There was even an idea to transfer to Soyuzmultfilm a part of the territory of the Dreamworks amusement park in the Nagatinsky floodplain, the construction of which is still ongoing.
While reconstruction is ongoing at VDNH, the Moscow Museum of Animation has opened its doors to the Izmailovsky Kremlin. Here is an exposition that tells about the history of domestic and foreign animation.
Museum founder
Today, hundreds and thousands of schoolchildren and their parents who wish to visit this amazing place have photos from the Moscow Museum of Animation. For this, they should be grateful to the founder of the institution, the domestic artist-animator, people's artist of the Russian Federation Leonid Aronovich Shvartsman.
He was born in Minsk in 1920 in the family of an accountant and a housewife. In 1941, he graduated from the Institute of Sculpture, Painting and Architecture in Leningrad, after which he was drafted into the army. During the Great Patriotic War he worked in Chelyabinsk at a tank factory.
At the film studio "Soyuzmultfilm" was in 1948. Three years after that, he graduated from VGIK with a degree in cartoon production. In the same year, he began full-fledged professional activity in collaboration with Alexander Vinokurov. He worked independently since 1963, in 1975 he became a director.
As a production designer, Schwartzman took part in creating a visual image of Cheburashka for the animated film by Roman Kachanov “Gene Crocodile” in 1968.
As a production designer, he took part in the creation of such Soviet cartoons as "The Scarlet Flower", "Golden Antelope", "Paint Thieves", "Uncle Styopa - a policeman", "Mitten", "Aurora", "38 Parrots", “A kitten named Woof”, “Hedgehog plus a turtle”, as well as a series of films about Cheburashka - “Shapoklyak”, “Cheburashka goes to school”.
Starting to work as a director, he shot the fifth episode of the animated film “Kitten named Woof”, as well as the paintings “Monkeys. Caution, monkeys!”, “Like monkeys dined”, “Monkeys and robbers”, “Trusting dragon”, “Monkeys, go!”, "Monkeys in the opera", "Monkeys. Ambulance."
His last work was published in 1997. Now the animator is 98 years old, he remains the honorary director of the animation museum.
How to get there
The address of the Museum of Animation in Moscow is Izmailovskoye Shosse, house 73g. It is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Also, excursion groups are ready to accept on all holidays.
Knowing where the animation museum in Moscow is located, you can easily reach it by public transport. It is located in close proximity to the Partizanskaya metro station.
If you visit the exposition on your own without an excursion, a ticket will cost 150 rubles. For large families and students, a discount of 50% is provided, and admission for veterans of all wars, pensioners and children under the age of five is free.
In reviews of the animation museum in Moscow, most visitors are still advised to take excursions in order to find out comprehensive information about the exhibits presented at the exhibitions. The cost of an adult ticket as part of a group will be 250 rubles, and a child ticket - 500. If you fall into one of the preferential categories, you will have to pay 250 and 300 rubles for a ticket to the animation museum in Moscow, respectively.
Tours
To visit this museum was even more interesting and exciting, various excursions are regularly arranged here. First of all for schoolchildren, preschool children and students.
Excursions in the animation museum in Moscow have been conducted for more than ten years. It all starts with a short 10-minute documentary film about how animated art originated. For many, it will be a discovery that the first cartoons appeared much earlier than the cinema, even before the existence of cameras and film.
After this, the most fascinating and interesting part of the event awaits you - under the guidance of a specialist, each of the participants in the excursion will be able to start filming the cartoon in his own script. This will be a real production: someone will be trusted to cut characters, someone to draw a background or write names for captions. The whole process will be available for observation on 5-meter screens. The shoots themselves take place according to a combined technology, which includes shifting, drawing and creating volume. Regardless of the size of the group, each child will be able to independently work on a mult-machine. Then you will see your own premiere work in mounted form.
At the end of the program, each child receives a disk with a computer program that helps to construct comics and cartoons. This is licensed software specifically designed for the museum. Having received advice on the use of the interface, each student will be able to independently produce their own cartoons, voice them with his own voice.
At the end of the tour, all participants will see a museum exhibition, the opportunity to take photographs. The leader of the group is handed a DVD with a cartoon created by the guys and a memorable diploma from the museum. The size of the group can be from 15 to 50 people.
An economic option is provided in which the tour takes place in exactly the same scenario, only participants do not receive a disk with a specialized computer program.
The museum arranges on-site show programs for children and teenagers with filming of cartoons. The program will present novelties of domestic animation. In the second part - independent shooting under the direction of the director, viewing the finished project.
Exposition
There is something to see in this museum. Today, it has collected about nine thousand exhibits. About two and a half thousand are located in the Izmailovsky Kremlin.
In the hall of Russian history, visitors can see a collection of objects that are related to the work of the Soyuzmultfilm movie studio. After all, it was she who gave life to this institution.
One of the central exhibits is the personal desktop of the artist Svetozara Rusakova, who created the legendary Wolf and Hare from the animated film “Well, wait a minute!”.
World Animation Hall
In the hall dedicated to foreign animators, you will find exhibits associated with the legendary foreign studios - The Walt Disney Company, Nickelodeon Animation, Kitty Films, Warner Bros. Picture. Soyuzmultfilm cooperates with all of them.
The main stand tells about the general partner of the museum - Nickelodeon TV channel. Here, children will be able to get acquainted with exhibits related to the most popular cartoons of their production - SpongeBob SquarePants, Dasha-traveler, Avatar: The Last Airbender.
How to animate the image?
In the hall of the history of animation, visitors learn that scientists worked on the problem of "revitalizing" images many centuries ago. The first inventions that became ancient prototypes of modern equipment for the production of cartoons appeared back in modern times.
It was a magic lantern, zootrop, praxinoscope. Here you can also see footage of the very first cartoon that appeared in the world. This is an animated picture "Poor Pierrot", released in 1892 by the inventor from France Emile Reynaud.
Modernity
In the so-called Corridor of Modern History, information is collected about the current domestic animation studios. This hall was founded with the help of the company "Animakkrod", which produces the animated series "Masha and the Bear."
You can also see collections from the Christmas Films companies, Shar School Studios, Styer, Yuri Norshtein and Harry Bardin Studios.
In the museum itself, workshops and celebrations are regularly held, an animation workshop and a cinema hall work.
Impressions of visitors
In reviews of the Moscow Museum of Animation, guests emphasize that this is an excellent and informative entertainment for the whole class. It is worth emphasizing that the exposition itself is small, so traveling here on your own does not make much sense. It is better to take an excursion, imbued with the features of this profession, try to create a cartoon yourself. In this case, you will really be interested and fascinating.
Some guests note that the master class seemed a little delayed, but you can fully get an idea of what a difficult and painstaking work it is, especially before when the cartoons were created not on computers, but painted by hand.
Trying to create their own cartoon, the children are always delighted.
