The State Hermitage Youth Education Center sculpture and architecture, Saint Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design). This educational program includes meetings with curators of exhibitions, conferences and masterclasses conducted by artists. Recent programs for the exhibitions: On February 1, 2013 The Youth Center launched a new and unique program, "Museum and small museologist", thanks to the initiative of St. Petersburg State University’s Philosophy Department and approved by Director of The Hermitage. This program is directed to students 9 to 11 years old and strives to show them how a contemporary art museum works and what its employees do. During the academic year, the students
Hermitage Museum 1884 in Paris, Alexander III of Russia acquired the collection of Alexander Basilewski, featuring European medieval and Renaissance artifacts. In 1885, the Arsenal collection of arms and armour, founded by Alexander I of Russia, was transferred from the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo to the Hermitage. In 1914, Leonardo's "Benois Madonna" was added to the collection. Immediately after the Revolution of 1917 the Imperial Hermitage and Winter Palace, former Imperial residence, were proclaimed state museums and eventually merged. The range of the Hermitage's exhibits was further expanded when private art collections from several palaces of the Russian Tsars and numerous