UNN Museum's project supported by Potanin Foundation

The Potanin Foundation has supported the project of the Lobachevsky University Museum "Metal Dictatorship. "Touching History". The project will mark a new stage in the transformation of the university museum and turning it into a relevant and attractive platform for dialogue between the university and the urban community.

The competition aims to support projects that promote the involvement of Russian museums in solving socially important tasks, make them more open to experimentation and keep their public activity programme up-to-date. A total of 348 applications from 71 regions of Russia were submitted, with 19 initiatives winning, including that of the UNN Museum.

As part of the project, a workshop exhibition will be set up for schoolchildren and students to explore archaeological, geological, historical and technical collections. The tools of experimental archaeology and linguistics, archaeometallurgy, spectroscopy and digital technology will be used extensively to reinterpret and explore the heritage. The figurative language of contemporary art will bring together science and contemporary art makers to visualise cutting-edge scientific research and thereby use the language of culture to present university science to the widest possible audience. This will include the study of nanomaterials, organometallic compounds, microstructure physics, etc.

"Our workshop exhibition is a great place for interaction, where we plan to use different levels of interactivity: the simplest ones are designed for analysis and comparison, the more complex ones are master classes for teaching, and research workshops are intended for the most interested audience. Augmented reality is another form of interactivity, thanks to which young researchers will have a new experience of learning about metal artifacts," commented Natalia Kuznetsova, director of the UNN Museum.

The project's main audience consists of students, future researchers. With their participation, a "touching history" of metal will be created and performed by means of interactive tours, master classes, experiments, and lectures. The exhibition will be a real workshop for young people to realise their creative and professional potential.