The State Hermitage Youth Education Center or from those in the Leningrad region. Which thematic section they decide to join depends exclusively on their particular inclinations and interests. All activities at the Youth Center begin on October 1 – the day on which Russia celebrates “student day” in the Hermitage Theatre. The "Present Art" program includes masterclasses and exhibitions of renowned artists, meetings with curators of international art projects, lectures about current issues in contemporary art, discussions and seminars. These programs invite the participation of representatives from specific departments of Russian universities (St. Petersburg State University, Herzen University, I. Repin St.Petersburg State Academy Institute of painting,
Egyptian Collection of the Hermitage Museum Alexei Norov from Theban Necropolis of the Eleventh dynasty of Egypt in the 1830s, was moved from the Imperial Academy of Arts to the Hermitage. Some items were purchased for the museum from antiquities traders in Egypt and collections of Russian merchants or received as gifts. In 1862 the collection expanded significantly, as the Castiglione collection, which was purchased by the Imperial Academy of Sciences from Carlo Ottavio Castiglione in Milan in 1826 and consisted of more than 900 items, core of the Egyptian museum of the Kunstkamera, was transferred to the Hermitage. However, there were no Egyptologists in Russia